244 TAXACE^ 



alone a fairly conspicuous guide to differentiation. 

 The P. Chilina appears to be the one more habitually 

 grown with us than the others. While the length 

 of its leaf is 2 in. to 2| in., the length of the Nubigena, 

 which grows in a few favoured places, is only from 

 I to 2 in. in length, and the Macrophylla with his more 

 sickle-shaped leaves, as by his name he ought, out- 

 tops the two by an average measurement of something 

 between 3 and 4 in. 



The P. Totara and Alpinus ai^ both comparatively 

 short-leaved. Not only does the P. Chilina differ 

 in length from the P. Macrophylla, but in the presence 

 of stomata — stomata inconspicuous it may be, but 

 stomata for all that, and of which the P. Macro- 

 phylla is destitute. 



The P. Chilina (sometimes wrongly called P. Andina, 

 an obsolete synonym for the Prumnopitys) has leaves, 

 the under-side of which are of a yellowish colour. 

 The stomata are hardly visible to the naked eye, but 

 under microscopic persuasion become as clear as sun 

 at noonday. To amateur apprehension this under- 

 surface seems to consist of a yellowish midrib, wdth 

 two rather greener marginal bands, and between 

 them some sixteen to twenty rows of minute-looking 

 stomatic bands set out in wide rows. A specimen 

 before me also presents without microscopic aid one 

 half-baked-looking attempt at a growth of its most 

 curious-looking fruit. The impression left with me 

 is that of a long stalk growing out from the stem 

 and terminating in a green fruit, of a dolichocephalous 

 (longer than broad) shape, and to complete the 

 picture, propped up with an arrangement that 

 suggests a high collar on an unnaturally large-sized 

 neck. This is that swollen peduncle or stalk so 

 much vaunted, and what botanists term the fleshy 

 receptacle. 



The P. Nubigena has a few south-westerly haunts 



