Podocarpus.] cxxixa. TAXACEiB (Stapf). 339 



or all barren, and supporting a solitary ternunal ovule ; ovulf usually 

 more or less exceeding its scale, sometimes long-exserted. rarely 

 quite enclosed in the cone. Mature cones usually little altered or 

 the axis or also the scales becoming more or less fleshy. Seeds usually 

 exserted ; testa coriaceous to woody, with or without an outer covering 

 [epinialium). which is either free or more or less fused with the testa 

 and varies from membranous to leathery or fleshy. — Shrubs or 

 trees ; leaves usually spirally arranged, (juacjuaversal or dorsi- 

 ventrally disposed in one plane, scale-like or linear to lanceolate, 

 rarely ovate, always evergreen. 



Genera 10, with over 100 species, mostly in the tropics and the huuthcrn 

 tcini)eratc zone ; few in the northern tcm[K;rate zone. 



1. PODOCARPUS, L'Herit. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 434. 



Ditecious, very rarely monoecious. Male cones usually axillary, 

 variously arranged, bracteate at the base, sessile or peduncled ; 

 scales numerous, spirally arranged, imbricate, with usually broad, 

 triangular to ovate-rotundate, rarely lanceolate blades and 2 rela- 

 tively large dorsal pollen-sacs near the base. Pollen with 2 vesicular 

 appendages. Female cones terminal or axillary, usually reduced to 

 a few sterile lower scales, which are more or less fused with each 

 other and the axis — -the whole plexus becoming ultinuitelv fleshv 

 {receptacle) — and 1 or 2 terminal fertile scales, rarely spike-like with 

 few to numerous usually distant fertile scales ; scales spirally arranged 

 or opposite in decussate pairs, the lower often with a foliaeeous 

 blade, the upper squamiform ; ovules solitary, adnate to the face of 

 the fertile scale and usually much exceeding it. inverted, and enclosed 

 in a false aril (epiinatiunt) arising from the face of the scale and 

 adnate to the single integument. Seeds deciduous together with the 

 modified (receptacle) or unmodified remainder of the cone or 

 falling from the scales of its persistent axis ; testa and false aril 

 (rarely also the fertile scale) forming a coriaceous or externally 

 fleshy and internally woody shell. Embryo axile : cotyledons 2. 

 Shrubs or trees, often of great height. Leaves squamiform or linear 

 or lanceolate to ovate, usually spirally arranged. l)ut placed dorsi- 

 ventrally. rarely opposite. Male cones solitary oi clustered or dis- 

 posed in compound inflorescences, rarely apical. Seeds and recep- 

 tacles where present greenish or brown or sometimes vividly coloured 

 the former always conspicuously exposed. 



About (50 sjK'cies, mostly in the mountain foiv^ts of the lro)'ics, a Uw in the 

 temj)erate regions of the southern hcjnisphere and in Japan. 



Receptacle well develo|K'd, tieshy, obconical to ^.uh- 



globose, linally bright red \. P. mdaujwntu. 



