COls^IPER^. 



97 



much esteemed by the Malay tribes, and there are the following quasi- 

 species and varieties of it, viz : — Alha, (the whitish-leaved and ashy- 

 grey-barked,) Macrophylla, (the large or long-leaved,) and Ovata, 

 (the ovate-leaved,) one and all of which are too tender for our 

 latitudes. 



DamMARA VitiENSIS : The Feejee Wax Pine. 



A kind of which I have seen nothing but the published accounts of 

 our botanical instructors ; and should it prove to be distinct, it will 

 likewise prove to be delicate ; as one and all of them are so in the 

 climate of Great Britain and Ireland. 



§ 3. RaXOPITYS : The Eacem-Flowered Wax Pine. 



Prom pa£o, a racem or cluster; and Trtruc, a pine tree; its male catkins 

 being produced in racems or clusters. 



This species and its varieties cannot be classed with any of the other 

 three Sections of the Wax Pines, inasmuch as, although closely related 

 to the Araucarias ; yet, in its floral organs, and in the formation 

 and disposition of its cones, scales, bracts, and seeds, it is distinct from 

 any of them. 



Flowers, male and female on the same plant, but generally on sepa- 

 rate branches ; male catkins numerous, in close clusters on the tips of 

 the branches : the females terminal, generally in vertical clusters 

 round the tips of the branches, but frequently found solitary or twos 

 together. 



Leaves, from one to two inches long ; alternate, lanceolate, accu- 

 minate, coriaceous, flat, and rigid ; of a bright yellowish-green colour, 

 and more or less glaucous and shining, more particularly on their 

 under surface. 



Cones, from one to two inches long, and nearly as broad ; persis- 

 tent, ovate or globular in form ; the scales or quasi-scales, bracts or 

 quasi-bracts, squamous or quasi squamous of this cone are a puzzle 

 which is still in posse amongst botanic savans, but in esse the cone 

 has scales like other cones, and under each of these scales will gene- 

 rally be found three ovate-elliptic seeds, with the wing appendage 

 ' surrounding the shell, and the kernel composed of two oblong lobes or 

 cotyledons. 



RaxOPITYS CunniNGHAMII: Cunningham's Eacem-Plowered 

 Pine. 



This Pine was introduced to us from China, about the beginning of 

 the present century. It attains heights of from twenty-flve to fifty 



H 



