PODOCARPS 243 



the Cephalotaxus, followed example and provided 

 a mystery birth, in the shape of a similarly constituted 

 sport, which goes by the full name of Cephalotaxus 

 Pedunculata var. Fastigiata. 



PODOCARPS 



I want to get back, I want to get back, 

 To the place where I was born. 



^ Soldier's Song, Michigan. 



These homesick lines seem a refrain suited to the 

 presence of Podocarps in England, and the distant 

 homes they pine for are variously situate, in Aus- 

 tralia, Asia, and S. America. Their leaves in the 

 abstract may bear a resemblance to the Cephalotaxi, 

 but the disposition of them does not. While those 

 of the Cephalotaxi are pectinately arranged (except 

 the fastigiate form) on the lateral branches, those 

 of the Podocarpi arise at various angles from the 

 stems and are variable in their shape and attachment. 

 While the Cephalotaxi present to our view^ the neat, 

 combed effect of a well-dressed and parted head of 

 hair, the Podocarpi, to pursue the metaphor, might 

 pardonably be said to follow after the fashion of 

 that state of lock disarray, so often noticeable in 

 the head-gear affected by professors of music and 

 poetry. 



In St. Matthew's Gospel we read the words that 

 " a tree is known by its fruit." It is the fruit of the 

 Podocarps, or rather the stalk of the fruit, that has 

 distinguished them from other trees in the estimation 

 of savants, and that is responsible for their holding an 

 isolated position in the tribal table of the tree-world. 



As has been remarked, they are not the sort of 

 trees or bushes constantly met with, but if they were 

 chanced on, the differences in their length of leaf is 

 17 



