210 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE 



Sub-family PODOCA11PACEJZ. 



This sub-family includes the living genera Podocarpus, Da- 

 crydium, Phyllocladm, etc., of which Podocarpns is by far the 

 largest genus, containing about 60 species. The whole family 

 is confined to the Southern Hemisphere, except some species of 

 Podocarpus, which penetrate to Japan. The plants vary con- 

 siderably in vegetative habit, some having fine, spirally arranged 

 leaves, and a general contour like some of the tall Taxodinea> 

 and Abietineae; others have broad and expanded leaves, in thin 

 respect being more like the Araucarineas, though some of tl. 

 forms do not grow much taller than large shrubs. The female 

 fructification varies in the different genera, and may be said 

 typically to consist of about two inverted ovules associated, but 

 borne singly on specialised scales or stalks, which may beromo 

 very brilliantly coloured and fleshy as the seeds ripen. Of a 

 possible pair of ovules frequently only one ripens, and may 

 appear externally like a solitary berry. 



Genus POBOCARPOXYLON, Gothan (emend.). 



\_*si Podocarpoxylon -f Pliyllocladoxylon, Gothan.] 

 [Abhandl. k. Preuss. Geol. Landesanst., vol. 44, l(H)f>, p. 59.] 



Diagnosis. Gymnospermic wood without resin-canals. Bor- 

 dered pits of tracheids round, generally isolated, and in one row : 

 if in two rows the pits form pairs and are not alternating or 

 hexagonally compressed. Kays uniseriate. Typically " abie- 

 tinean pitting" of the ray-cells absent. liadial walls of 

 medullary ray-cells pierced by single, very large pits, simple 

 or with borders, sometimes by two or more such. In the 

 autumn wood the " podocarpoid " pitting is commonly present. 

 Wood-parenchyma present in variable amounts, sometimes very 

 plentiful. 



The variability in the pitting in the ray-cells (which is the 

 only feature of separation between these fossil woods) is such 

 that the different species of Podocarpus and Phyllocladi.ts cannot 

 reliably be separated from eacb other, though the two woods 

 together form a distinctive group. I therefore unite Gothan's 

 two u genera" under the name of the first, which is the better 

 known and the first to be defined. The uncertainty* of their 



