ATHROTAXIS 



Athrotaxis} Don, in Trans. Linn. Soc. xviii. 172, tt. 13, 14 (1839)5 Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PI. iii. 

 430 (1880); Masters, mjourn. Linn. Soc. (Boi.) xxx. 21 (1893). 



Evergreen trees belonging to the division Taxodinese of the order Coniferae. 

 Leaves persistent for several years, spirally arranged, homomorphic, crowded, 

 imbricate, spreading or closely appressed, adnate at the base, free at the apex ; 

 without scaly buds. 



Flowers monoecious, solitary at the apices of the branchlets. Staminate 

 flowers catkin-like, with crowded stamens spirally arranged on an axis ; each stamen 

 with a slender stalk and a sagittate connective, which bears two pollen sacs dehiscing 

 longitudinally. Ovuliferous flowers, of ten to twenty-five spirally arranged scales ; 

 each scale with an adnate fleshy disc, bearing three to six ovules. Cones 

 ripening in one year ; scales, ten to twenty-five, woody, spirally arranged, cuneate 

 and narrow at the base, horizontally spreading, dilated into a clavate or peltate 

 lamina, which bears on the back or at the apex a triangular cuspidate process.'' 

 Seeds, three to six, pendulous from the thickened part of the scale below the 

 apex ; oblong, compressed, with a transverse hilum and two lateral wings. 

 Cotyledons two, longer than the primary leaves.' 



Athrotaxis is closely related to Cryptomeria ; and Kent states that rooted 

 cuttings of Cryptomeria elegans are used as stocks for grafting scions taken from 

 the different species of Athrotaxis. 



Fossil remains found in various deposits in Europe have been identified, but 

 perhaps erroneously, with Athrotaxis. C. Reid ^ has lately shown that the remains 

 in the Bovey Tracey lignites belong to Sequoia Couttsice, Heer, and not to 

 Athrotaxis, as had been supposed by Starkie Gardner. 



This genus is confined in the living state to Tasmania, where there are 

 three species ^ distinguishable as follows : — 



1 Derived from dSpios. crowded, and rijis, arrangement. Endlicher, Gen. Suppl. i. 1372 (1841), and Syn. 

 Conif. 193 (1847), gives the erroneous spelling Arthrotaxis, which has been followed by several writers. 



2 This process is the extremity of the scale in the flowering stage, which has coalesced almost completely with the 

 ovuliferous disc, the latter having increased much in size during the ripening of the ovules into seed. 



3 Masters, injoum. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xxvii. 235, 237 (1890). 



< In Fhil. Trans, series B, vol. 201, p. 171, pi. 15, figs. 40, 41 (1910), where the distinctive characters of the epidermis 

 of the leaves of Sequoia and Athrotaxis are made plain. 



' Athrotaxis (?) tetragona, W. J. Hooker, Icon. Plant, t. 560 (1843) belongs to a distinct genus, and is Microcachrys 

 tetragona, J. D. Hooker, in London Joum. Bot. iv. 149 (1845). This is a low rambling shrub, also a native of Tasmania. 

 It is occasionally cultivated in conservatories. 



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