32 A HANDBOOK OF CONIFERiE 



fleshy and bright red when ripe ; fertile scaled round, each with 

 an inverted seed surrounded by a scarlet aril. 



Microcachrys occurs on the summit of the Western Range and 

 Mount Lapeyrouse in Tasmania. It was in cultivation at Kew 

 prior to 1862 and was probably introduced about 1845. Trained 

 to a stake, it has grown 10 ft. high in the Temperate House at 

 Kew. 



Hooker, Lond. Journ. Bot. iv, 150 (1845); Bot. Mag. t. 5576 (1866). 



PHEROSPH^RA, Archer. 



Evergreen, moisture-loving shrubs, natives of Tasmania and 

 New South Wales, belonging to Taxacem and allied to Diselma, 

 Microcachrys, and Dacrydium. Branches short and stiff or long 

 and slender. Leaves scale-like, spirally arranged, often in four 

 or five rows, dense and overlapping. Male and female flowers on 

 different plants. Male flowers erect, egg-shaped or globular, 

 yo-h in. long, composed of 10-15 stamens. Cones about to in. 

 long, made up of about 4-8 thin scales, thickened at the base, 

 blunt-pointed at the apex. Ovuliferous scale none. Seeds 

 several in each cone, each seed at the base of a glume -like scale 

 equalling or sUghtly exceeding the length of the seed. Individual 

 seeds light brown or grejdsh, about the size of a clover seed. 



The Pherosphceras are found at alpine elevations usually on 

 the margins of lakes, streams, and waterfalls, where they are rare. 

 They are not known in cultivation and have no economic value. 



Pherosphaera Fitzgerald i, F. V. Mueller. 



A low many-branched shrub with long slender branchlets, 

 densely clothed with short, ohve-green leaves about ^V in. long, 

 keeled, the point incurved, the iimer surface white with stomatic 

 lines and the whole leaf clear of the branch above the point 

 of union. Distinguished from P. Hookeriana by its looser habit 

 and longer, pointed, and less closely arranged leaves. Found at 

 the base of most of the chief falls on the Blue Mountains, New 

 South Wales. 



Hooker, Ic. PI. xiv, 64, t. 1383 (1882). 



Pherosphaera Hookeriana, Archer. 



A closely branched erect shrub up to 5-7 ft. high, with stiff, 

 short branches, densely clothed with closely overlapping, scale- 

 like leaves which are scarcely oV in. long and broad, thick, 

 strongly keeled, curved and blunt at the apex. It is restricted 

 to high alpine regions in Tasmania and is easily distinguished 

 from P. Fitzgeraldi by its denser habit and smaller, thicker and 

 more closely arranged leaves. 



Hooker, Kew Journ. ii, 52 (1850). 



