Araucaria.'] LXXVI. CONIFERS. 503 



pentine (resin) is generally secreted in large, branching, intercellular ducts 

 lined by thin-walled cells, either in the bark, or in the wood; vertical 

 in the mass of wood-cells, and horizontal in the medullary rays. The 

 annual rings are, as a rule, distinctly marked by a belt of thick-walled 

 wood-cells in the outer (autumn) wood, and a belt of larger wood-cells 

 with. thin walls in the inner (spring) Wood of the succeeding year. In 

 many coniferous woods the inner belt of each annual ring is soft, and 

 the outer belt compact and hard. Leaves alternate, rigid, scale-like, 

 subulate, acicular or linear, rarely with a broad blade ; without stipules. 

 Flowers monoicous or dioicous, without perianth. Male flowers in 

 deciduous catkins. Female flowers solitary, capitate, or in spikes (cones), 

 consisting of one or several ovules adnate to, or surrounded by carpel- 

 lary scales. Albumen fleshy and oily (in -Araucaria farinaceous) ; coty- 

 ledons generally more than two, whorled. Eoyle 111. 348.* 



According to Parlatore, in DC. Prodr. xvi. ii., this Order comprises 216 

 species. Those of North- West India belong to the following tribes : 



Abietineai (Pinece, Parlatore). Fruit a cone, with numerous imbricate, 

 carpellary, generally woody scales, each bearing at its base two seeds 

 (developed from inverted ovules) and inserted in the axil of a bract, 

 the bract often dry and not apparent when the fruit is ripe Pinus, 

 Gedrus, Abies, Larix. 



Cupressinem. Fruit with few carpellary scales, varying in shape and 

 substance, sometimes fleshy, each bearing at its base, or on the stalk 

 when the scales are peltate, 1 or numerous seeds (developed from 

 erect ovules). No bracts Cujwessus, Juniperus, Callitris, Biota. 



Taxinece (a distinct Order of many botanists). Fruit 1-seeded (1 erect 

 ovule), supported by a few imbricate scales (in Taxus surrounded 

 by a fleshy cup-shaped disc) Taxus, Podocarpus. 



There are two other tribes Araueariece and Taxodiece to which the 

 following remarkable trees belong : Araucaria Bidwilli, Hook., the 

 Bunya Bunya of the aborigines of North-East Australia in 27 S.L. A 

 tall tree with a straight stem and numerous tiers of short rigid whorled 

 branches. The cones, which are said to ripen every third or fourth year 

 only, are nearly as large as a man's head, and contain numerous large far- 

 inaceous seeds, which are an important article of food of the inhabitants. 

 The cones of Araucaria consist of numerous imbricate carpellary scales, 

 each scale with only 1 seed at the base. 



The seeds of A. imbricata, Pavon, are also eaten. This tree grows on 

 the higher mountains of Chili (36-48 S.L.), is hardy, though it is occa- 



* Kegarding the Coniferous trees of the N.W. Himalaya, the following papers in 

 the Journ. Agric. and Hortic. Society of India contain much valuable information : 

 Madden, Observations on some of the Pines and other Coniferous Trees of the Northern 

 Himalaya, and on Himalayan Coniferse, vols. iv. and vii., 1845, 1850 ; Cleghorn, 

 Notes upon the Pines of the N.W. Himalaya, vol. xiv., 1866. Of official reports, the 

 report on the Deodar forests of Bussahir, by D. Brandis, J. L. Stewart, and Capt. E. 

 Wood, Calcutta, 1865, contains most information on the growth and natural history 

 of the Himalayan Conifers. 



