300 



keeled. ^lale amentum terminal, rarely axillary, erect, narrow, solitary, about the 

 same diameter as the branchlets with their leaves. Female amentum globular, 

 solitary, terminal under 2 lines long. Seeds, two or three-winged, under i line 

 long. 



Remarks. 



This small Conifer was not noticed anywhere under 3,000 feet. It is fairh' 

 common in small gullies 'almost on the summit of Mount Read, near Williamsford, 

 Tasmania. It grows to a height of 5 or 6 feet, and is very straggly in habit, being 

 more or less entangled with other vegetation. (C. F. Laseron). 



III. LEAVES. 



Anatomy. 



These leaves are attached by a comparatively broad rhomboidal base to 

 the branchlet. and overlap each other in their phyllotaxy; consequently it was 

 found more advantageous to take a cross section through one whole group of 

 decussate leaves, and such a section is shown in Figure 216. 



As in C all it r is the adnate portions form one whole with the branchlet, 

 which is medullated in several bimdles, the whole surrounded by parenchymatous 

 cells which are succeeded by the spongy tissue of the mesoph\ll which forms 

 the bulk of the leaf substance in these parts. Here also is generally found an 

 oil cavity surrounded by strengthening and secretory cells and subtended by a 

 bundle. 



The dorsal surface has one row of epidermal cells superimposed upon 

 one, often two or three, hypodermal sclerenchymatous cells, but the palisade 

 parenchyma is not at all pronounced or well defined. 



The stomata are found on the lower dorsal and ventral surfaces, but 

 always protected by the free portion of the subtending imbricate leaf. 



The free portion of the leaf has epidermal and hypodermal cells only on 

 the dorsal side, and has no oil cell but often a bundle trace, the rest of the leaf 

 substance being composed of the usual two kinds of mesophyll, the inner surface 

 carrying the stomata in this case. 



The sections were of interest as they cut tluuugli lca\-es at various stages 

 of growth, and so brought out the detail in each case. 



Only a few transfusion cells were seen, and these were comparatively 

 large, being reticulate and not unlike sieve-plates ; they are coloured pale blue in 

 the section. ^Figure 216.) Most of tlie cells which make up Ihr leaf-tissue are 

 nucleated. 



