138 A HANDBOOK OF CONIFERiE 



Actinostrobus pyramidalis, Miquel. 



Callitris Actinostrobus, F. v. Mueller. 



A bush 4-8 ft. high, with erect, closely arranged branches 

 divided into fine sprays. Shoots without down. Leaves scale- 

 like, closely pressed at the base, free at the apex. Cones ovoid, 

 about I in. in diameter at the base and the same in height ; scales 

 6, triangular, pointed. 



Found at King George's Sound, Baxter to Swan River, and 

 Murchison River, often inhabiting salt, sandy plains. 



Baker and Smith, Pines of Austr., 291-298 (1910). 



AGATHIS, Salisbury. 

 Kauri Pines. 



Dammara, Rumphius. 



Tall, evergreen, resinous trees with massive, columnar trunks, 

 natives of New Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, Philippine 

 Islands, and the Malay Peninsula. Bark thick, scaly, resinous, 

 emitting a thick milky liquid when punctured which eventually 

 solidifies and forms an incrustation on the bark or collects in 

 masses beneath the trees. Branches horizontal, often in whorls 

 on young trees, irregular on older trees, deciduous and leaving 

 circular scars ^-f in. deep. Winter buds short, rounded, blunt, 

 with a few closely pressed scales. Leaves spirally arranged on the 

 main axis, opposite or alternate on lateral shoots ; persisting 

 many years, sometimes 15-20 years on the main stem ; rose- 

 coloured or reddish when young, dark green later, leathery, usually 

 broad and fiat with numerous fine parallel lines on the upper sur- 

 face, varying in size and shape not only on the same tree but often 

 on the same branch, narrowed at the base into a short, fiat stalk, 

 leaving after their fall rough, cushion-like scars as in Picea and 

 Larix. Male and female flowers usually on different trees. Male 

 flowers in stiff, dense, cylindrical, soHtary catkins from the leaf 

 axils. Female floivers in round or broadly oblong cones. Cones 

 globular or broadly oval, compact, symmetrical ; scales fan- 

 shaped, with a thickened margin overlapping a portion of the scales 

 immediately above, falling as soon as the seeds are ripe. Seed 

 solitary, with a well-developed wing on one side and a small 

 process which occasionally develops into a second wing on the 

 other. 



The genus is closely allied to Araucaria, but may be distin- 

 guished by the larger leaves and by the seed being free from the 

 scale, not combined as in Araucaria. About sixteen species have 

 been described, but some of these are so much alike that they 



