CASUARINA.] CASUARINACEM. 163 



when ripe. This tree is indigenous on the sandy sea-coasts of 

 Chittagong and Burma, also in the islands of the Indian Archi- 

 pelago and in N. Australia, where it is known as the " Beef wood 

 tree." It is cultivated largely all over India, and thrives well as far 

 north as Saharanpur and Ambala. The wood is of a reddish colour 

 and resembles in texture that of Cedrela Toona, but is very hard, 

 and difficult to work. It is chiefly used for fuel. The tree is very 

 useful in the reclamation of land near the sea and is much valued in 

 the Madras and Bombay Presidencies for planting on sand-dunes 

 along the coasts of Coromandel and N. Kanara. 



OIL CUPULIFERffi. 



Trees or sTirubs. Leaves simple, alternate, penni nerved, serrate 

 or entire, rarely lobed; stipules free, usually caducous. Flowers 

 minute, monoecious, males in erect or pendulous catkins or spikes, 

 rarely capitate ; females in spikes or heads or solitary, bracts some- 

 times forming an involucre. MALE flowers : Sepals 1-5, free con- 

 nate or obsolete. Stamens 2-20, on a hairy receptacle or adnate 

 to the base of the sepals. FEM. flowers : Sepals connate in a 

 perianth adnate to the ovary or none, 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 a nut included 

 within or in the axil of often greatly enlarged, sometimes involu- 

 crate bracts. Seed usually solitary by abortion, pendulous, albu- 

 men none ; cotyledons plano-convex, sometimes rugose or rumi- 

 nate, radicle superior. Species about 400, chiefly in N. temperate 

 regions. 



QUERCUS, linn. ; PI. Brit. Ind. v, 600. 



Trees or shrubs, deciduous or evergreen. Leaves alternate, 

 simple, penni nerved, stipules fugacious. Flowers small, monoecious ; 

 males in pendulous or erect spikes, bracts small ; females in erect 

 spikes, rarely androgynous, bracts involucrate. MALE flowers : 

 Perianth campanulate, 4-7-lobed or -partite. Stamens 6-12, fila- 

 ments slender ; anthers erect, ovate, the cells contiguous. Pistillode 

 hairy or none. FEM. flowers : Perianth adnate to the ovary and 

 enclosed within imbricate bracts ; limb very minute, lobed or 



