Chapter XIV. 



SHEOKE AND BEECH. 



A most fascinating tree is Sheoke; so also is Buloke. 

 Sombre in appearance and slow of growth, but full of 

 interest to the student. They were commonly called She- 

 oak and Bull-oak raspectively, but as these might lead one 

 to think them related to Oak we will fall in with the names 

 adopted by the Victorian authorities. They belong to the 

 genus Casuarina. This genus does not contain many 

 species. It is confined to Australia, the adjoining Pacific, 

 and the East Indies to East Africa. Botanically it is very 

 isolated. It is not immediately related to any other exist- 

 ing group, and it is not possible with our present know- 

 ledge to conjecture along what line of descent it has 

 arrived at its present state. Its structure is unique among 

 plants, except that something of a superficial resemblance 

 appears in the Horsetails of the Northern Hemisphere, 

 which are related to ferns, and are a survival of an ancient 

 type which flourished at the period when great beds of 

 coal were laid down. It is quite impossible that Casaurina 

 was in any way a descendant from Horsetail ; it is only 

 another instance of a similar form having been produced 

 independently. 



Sheoke is a small tree. Its ultimate branchlets are very 

 numerous, drooping, and green ; they perform the duties 

 of leaves, for those organs are reduced to little scales, use- 

 less for any other purpose than to protect the young 

 growing point. The branchlets arc slender and cylindrical, 

 and are divided into sections by circles of nine to twelve 

 little teeth-like leaves ; they are also grooved longitudin- 

 ally by as many grooves as there are leaves. Though- these 

 grooves appear only as faint lines, they sink for some 

 distance into the substance of the branchlet. There are 

 no stomata on the exposed surface; these organs are placed 

 on the walls of the grooves. It can thus be seen, from the 

 absence of effective leaves and the existence of stomata only 

 on very protected areas, that evaporation is reduced to a 

 minimum, a condition not at present necessary in Tas- 

 mania, yet Sheoke does very well. 



The flowering is very different from any form yet 

 examined. The stamens and pistils are not only produced 



