352 cxYiT. gxetace;e. 



into a long, exscrted tube, Avith an oblique, expanded or lace- 

 rate mouth. Seed witli a hardened or a lieshy eoat ; embryo 

 antitropal, in the apex of flesliy albumen ; cotyledons 2, radicle 

 su])erior. — Ligneous ])lants, of very varied habit ; only 1 South 

 African, the most wonderful of ligneous plants. 



1. WELWITSCHIA, Hook. f. 



Polygamo-dicpcious ? Flowers in cones ; scales of the 

 cone quadritariously imbricate, most of them floriferous, 

 much enlarged in fruit. Flowers either hermaphrodite 

 or female. — Hermaphrodite flowers : Perianth 4-leaved, the 

 leaflets 2-seriate, the inner connate. Stamens 6, monadel- 

 phous ; anthers 3-celled. Integument of the ovule single, 

 ending in a stigma-like disk. — Female flowers : Perianth 

 bladdery, much-compressed, 2-winged. Stamens 0. Ovule 

 as in the hermaphrodite flower, but the styliform process 

 straight, with a simple, torn apex. Fruit dry, concealed 

 within the membranous scales of the female cone. — Abridged 

 from Hook.f. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxiy. pp. 1-48. t. 1-14. 



A. mirabills. Hook, f., is a most singular, ligneous, 2-leaved plant, gummy 

 at the crown; it grows in Damaraland, near Waalviscli Bay, and north- 

 wards to Cape Negro. Trunk vevj thick, top-shaped or globose, the greater 

 portion sunk in the soil, more or less compressed beneath the insertion of 

 tlie leaves, ci'oss-ridged and furrowed round the circumference, and above 

 the leaves dilated into 2 ample, depressed, rough, floriferous lobes corre- 

 sponding to the leaves, at base tapering into a long or short fusiform root, 

 branching near its lower extremity. Leaves 2 (the persistent cotyledons), 

 opposite, very long, linear-ligulate, obtuse, tliickly coriaceous, soon torn by 

 the winds and splitting into many longitudinal shreds. Floriferous lobes very 

 liard, wirier tlian tlie trunk, depressed in tlie middle, entire or multilobu- 

 late, on the top marked with concentric, pitted ridges. Cone-bearing 

 peduncles numerous, placed on the outer ridges, towards the circumference 

 of the lobes, forked, terete, tumid and 2-bracteate at the nodes. Fruit- 

 cones 2 inches long, scarlet, with persistent scales. ' 



Ordee CXVIII. CONIFERiE. 



Flowers unisexual : Males of 1 or several monadelphous 

 stamens in catkins ; anthers 2- or many-lobed, often crested : 

 Females of naked, atropous ovules, either solitary or in spikes 

 or in cones. Fruit either a naked seed or a cone. Seed with 

 a hard crustaceous coat. Embryo in the axis or apex of 

 floury or fleshy albumen ; cotyledons 2 or more. — Trees or 

 shrubs, abounding in resiu, with small, j^^'^^allel-veined, mostly 

 perennial leaves. The Pine, Yew, Cypress, etc. are examples. 



SuBOEDEE 1. Podocarpese. Ovules solitary or subsoli- 



