Postelsia 147 
naked, drupaceous or with a hard testa sur- 
rounded by a more or less free, cup-like, fleshy 
aril. 
A family comprising about ten genera and 
one hundred species, mostly inhabitants of the 
southern hemisphere, and of southeastern Asia 
and the adjacent islands. Besides the following, 
only the closely allied genus, Torreya, occurs in 
extra-tropical North America. 
Roxus Linneus, Sp.okl. 1040,1752. 
Flowers dicecious, the staminate solitary, 
axillary, short-stalked, with basal scales; stamens 
six to fourteen, peltate, each with six to eight 
coherent pollen sacs. Pistillate flower in the 
axil of the uppermost scale of a short scale- 
bearing, axillary branchlet, solitary, consisting 
of an axis bearing three pairs of decussate in- 
wolucrate scales, and a single terminal, erect, 
naked ovule sessile upon an annular accrescent 
disc which in fruit becomes a fleshy cup-shaped 
aril nearly inclosing the woody seed. 
Evergreen trees or shrubs with spirally in- 
serted short-petioled, flat, linear leaves, which by 
the twisting of the petioles come to he distich- 
