Camarina.] oxxv. casuarine.t: (Wright). 315 



Order CXXV. CASUARINEiE. 



(By C. H. Wright.) 



Flowers unisexual, bracteate and 2-brac'teolale. Male flower : 

 Perianth-segments 1-2, concave or ciicullate, circumscissile at tlie 

 base. Stamen 1 ; filament indexed in l)ud ; antlier ratlier lar«re, 

 cells distinct, dehiscing longitudinally. Fenude flower : Perianth 

 0. Ovary minute, 1 -celled ; style with long linear branches 

 stigmatose throughout their length ; ovules 2, collateral, semi- 

 anatropous, micropyle superior. Fruit formed of nutlets arranged 

 in ovoid or cylindric strobiles : bracts and bracteoles enlarged, 

 united and often woody ; nuts laterally compressed, smooth, winged 

 at the apex, dehiscing by 2 valves. Seed solitary by al)ortion, 

 laterally affixed ; testa membranous ; albumen ; embryo straiglit, 

 cotyledons complanate, radicle short, superior.— Trees or shrubs; 

 branches and branchlets leafless, rigid, erect or pendulous, many 

 deciduous, cylindric and verticillate or tetragonal and scattered, 

 articulated at the nodes. Scales 4 to many at each node, small, 

 appressed, sometimes connate into a short sheath, midribs decurrent 

 and forming angles on the stem. Male spikes simple or compound, 

 usually terminal on deciduous branches, cylindric or tetragonal ; 

 female spikes globose or ovoid, terminal or lateral on ])ersist(Mit 

 branches. 



Genus 1 ; .spocie.s about 50, cliiefly in Australia and New Caledonia, a few in 

 the Malay Archi|x.'lago, Pacitic Islands and Mascarene Islands. 



1. CASUARINA, Linn.; Renth. el Hook. f. r,en. PI. iii. 102. 

 Characters as for the Order. 



1. C. equisetifolia, Linn. Amcen. Acad. iv. 143. A tall tree with 

 brown smooth much cracked bark. Branches horizontal, drooping 

 at their apices ; branchlets filiform, resembling a slender Equisituin, 

 6-8-ribbed, the ribs of one internode alternate with those of the ne.xi. 

 ashy-grey ; scales verticillate, i lin. long, narrowly lanceolate, brown 

 in the upper part. Male spikes numerous, slender, 1-1 J in. long; 

 bracteoles oblong, obtuse, scarious, \ lin. long. Perianth-segments 

 about as long as the bracteoles, concave, obtuse, scarious. Filament 

 nearly 1 lin. long : anther-lobes shortly elliptic, pointed at the 

 base. Female spikes on short lateral liranches, sul)globose. about 

 6 lin. in diam. in fruit, valves pubescent on the back, strongly ril)bcd 

 round the edge. — Forst. Char. den. 103, fig. 52 ; Miq. in DC. iVodr. 

 xvi. ii. 338, and Rev. Crit. Casuar. 43, t. 5 ; Seem. Fl. \'it. 203 ; 



