INTRODUCTION 9 



Torreya. 



Leaves linear with prickly points, midrib not showing on upper 

 side. Male flowers solitary. Seed sessile or subsessile, surrounded 

 by a thin fleshy aril ; olive-like, maturing in two seasons. 



Dacrydhun. 

 Leaves scale-like or linear. Male flowers spicate. Seed 

 partly inverted or ultimately erect with a short cup -like aril and 

 an inner, usually dry seed-coat investing the kernel. 



Taxus. 

 Leaves linear, in a two-ranked arrangement. Male flowers 

 in stalked, globose heads. Seed solitary, erect, borne in a 

 fleshy, cup-like scarlet aril, ripening in one season. 



Austrotaxus. 

 Tree, habit of Podocarpus. Male flowers in spikes. 



Phyllodadiis. 

 True leaves linear or scale-like, succeeded by cladodes or leaf- 

 like branches which perform the function of leaves and bear the 

 female flowers on their margins. 



Amentotaxus. 

 Leaves linear opposite. Male flowers in slender pendulous, 

 branched catkins. Ovule solitary, borne in the axil of a branchlet. 



Pherosiihcera. 

 Leaves scale-like, densely arranged in four or five rows. Male 

 flowers erect, egg-shaped or globular. Cones composed of 4-8 

 thin scales with no ovuliferous scale. 



II. PoDOCARPE^ (The Podocarpus Tribe). 



Seed inverted, outer coat dry, surrounded by a fleshy cup- 

 like aril or supported by a fleshy bract and stalk. 



Microcachrys. 

 Foliage scale like, overlapping. Seed small, inverted from the 

 top of the bract, surrounded at the base by a fleshy, scarlet aril. 



Podocarpus. 

 Leaves variable, stamens in tufted spikes, stalk bearing the 

 seeds, often swelling when ripe into a succulent, highly coloured 

 mass around or below the inverted seed. 



