598 cxxxix. CASUARINE^E. (J. D. Hooker.) [Casuarinece. 



OKDEE CXXXIX. CASUARINEJE. 



Leafless trees or shrubs ; branchlets cylindric, grooved, jointed, inter- 

 nodes terminating in a short sheath of connate subulate scales (leaves). 

 Flowers unisexual ; males in terminal spikes formed of short superposed 

 toothed cups ; fern, in ovoid or globose heads, bracteate and 2-bracteolate. 

 MALE FL. Sepals 1 or 2, concave, circumsciss at the base. Stamen 1, in- 

 flexed in bud; anther large. FEM. FL. Ovary minute, 1 -celled; style 2-fid, 

 arms filiform, stigmatose to the base. Ovules 2, collateral, semianatropons. 

 Fruit an oblong or cylindric cone formed of the enlarged hardened bracts 

 and bracteoles, together forming 2-valved cavities enclosing the compressed 

 winged a.chenes ; wing terminal, tipped by the style. Albumen ; embryo 

 straight, cotyledons flat equal, radicle very short superior. Genus 1 ; 

 species about 23, Australian, a few Malayan and Pacific. 



CASUARXNA, Forst. 

 CHAEACTEB, OF THE OEDEK. 



C. equisetifolia, Forst. Char. Gen. 103, f . 53 ; branchlets filiform, 

 internodes in., sheaths with 6-8 appressed teeth, male spikes cylindric or 

 subclavate, fruit oblong or globose. Miguel in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 338 ; 

 Brand. For. FL 435 ; Kurz For. Fl. ii. 494 ; Gamble Man. Ind. Timb. 346 ; 

 Seddome Forester's Man. t. 226. C. muricata, Bostb. Fl. Ind. iii. 519 ; Wall. 

 Cat. 6815. 



On the east side of the BAT of BENGAL, from Chittagong southward, cultivated 

 elsewhere in India. DISTRIB. Malay Islands, Australia, Pacific. 



A very tiill dicvious ? leafless tree, branches drooping; branchlets deciduous, 

 cylindric or sub- G-8-rcnglcd. Male spikes about \ 'in. ; fern, peduncled. Fruit f in. 

 diam. with about 12 rows of puberulous achenes, hardened bracts puberulous, 

 obovate-oblong, mucronate. 



OnDEPx CXL. CUPULIFERJE. 



Trees or shrubs, monoecious or dioecious. Leaves alternate, penninerved ; 

 stipules free, caducous. Malefl. spicate ; sepals 1-5, free or connate or 0. 

 Stamens 2-20, on a hairy torus, or on the base of the sepals. Fem.fl. solitary 

 spicate or capitate ; perianth adnate to the ovary or 0, limb minute ; ovary 

 2-3, rarely 4-6-celled ; styles or style-arms as many as the cells ; ovules 1, 

 or 2-collateral, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit included within or in the axil 

 of often greatly enlarged bracts. Seed pendulous, albumen ; cotyledons 

 plano-convex sometimes rugose or ruminate, radicle superior. Genera 10 ; 

 species about 400, chiefly North temperate. 



Tribe I. Betuleae. Male spikes pendulous ; sepals 4 or fewer ; stamens 

 2-4. Fern, spikes catkin-like, pendulous or suberect.; perianth ; ovary 

 2-celled, 2-ovuled ; styles or style-arms 2. Nut small, compressed, in the 

 axils of the bracts. 



Scales of fern, spikes thin, deciduous 1. BETULA. 



Scales of feui. spike thick, persistent 2. ALNTTS. 



Tribe II. Quercineae. Male spilces deciduous or persistent ; perianth 

 4-10-lobed or parted. Fem.fl. 1-3 in an involucre of many bracts which 

 enlarge in fruit forming a cup at the base of or becoming confluent and 

 enclosing one or more nuts ; ovary 3-7-celled, cells 2-ovuled. 



