ON BAIERA m JEANPAT;LIA) BIDENS. Ten. Woods, 



("WITH :PLJ>^TES "V^ -A-OSTID "VI.) 



By JOHN SHIRLEY, B.Sc. 



(District Inspector of Schools.) 



[licnd before the Royal Societi/ of (jHrensIiimJ, Jnh/ 11, 1896.] 



Bound the shores of the Pacific Ocean, on its western side, are 

 found a number of species of coniferous trees, evidently 

 belonging to decaying and fast dwindling races, many of which 

 are endowed with peculiar characteristics. Such are the four 

 genera — Diselma, Microcachrys, Arthrotaxis, and Phneros- 

 pha?ra, now limited to Tasmania, where Arthrotaxis is 

 represented by three species, and the others by one each. 

 Another disappearing genus is Phyllocladus, whose real leaves 

 are reduced to small appressed scales, except in the seedling ; 

 and in which cladodia, or appressed branchlets, play the part 

 assumed in other plants by true leaves. The cladodia are 

 variously lobed and divided, and roughly resemble in shape the 

 lobe of a celery leaf ; and, on this account, the tree is called in 

 Tasmania the celery-topped pine. Species of Phyllocladus 

 also occur in New Zealand and Borneo. 0)i the eastern coast 

 of China is found, growing near sacred edifices, an ally of 

 Phyllocladus, known botanically by its Chinese name — 

 Ginkgo. It is not now found in its native state in any portion 

 of the globe ; but the piety of generations of religious Chinese 

 and Japanese has preserved uninjured those planted near 

 religious institutions in their respective countries. This tree, 

 called Ginkgo biloba, or the maiden-hair tree, receives its trivial 

 names from the fancied resemblance of its cladodia to fronds 

 of a gigantic maiden-hair fern ; and to a correspondence in 

 venation in the two organs. Its seeds are plum-like, and 

 arranged in pairs at the ends of axes that resemble cherry 



