156 



of Java j it is also more or less plentiful in Eastern Bengal. It is 

 much, influenced in its stature and dimensions, as well as in the size, 

 colour, or texture, of its leaves, fruit, and bark, by the soils and alti- 

 tudes in or upon which it may produce them. Its leaves are from 

 three to seven inches long, and from one to two inches broad. Its 

 fruit is globular, generally singly, yet frequently in bunches, particu- 

 larly on the branchlets or tips of the branches. It is also found in a 

 slightly altered form, named Agathi folia, or Blumii, in catalogues or 

 collections ; but in whatever form it may be foimd it is much too 

 tender for an ordinary English winter. 



§ 2. StAGHYCARPUS : The Spike-Eruited Podocarpus. 



From the Greek aa^vQ^ saxus, an ear of corn," and mpTroc, Mrpos, 



fruit their floral organs being borne upon more or less elongated foot- 

 stalks. But this, be it remembered, like many other botanical enact- 

 ments, expresses only comparative, not absolute difference. 



Flowers, male and female, generally on separate plants, exception- 

 ally on the same plant ; generally in spikes, exceptionally solitary ; on 

 more or less elongated footstalks. 



• Leaves, linear, lanceolate, oblong, foliate, ovate, awl-shaped, or 

 needle-shaped ; alternate, opposite, scattered, or in whorls ; and one- 

 nerved. Of various sizes, ranging from one-eighth of an inch to eight 

 inches in length, and from one-sixteenth of an inch to one inch in 

 breadth. Generally light or dark green, in some species yello^vish or 

 brownish-green. 



Fruit, drupaceous or plum-like, of various sizes, some as small as 

 peas, some as large as plums ; inverted, scaled, adnate and adhering ; 

 in form globular, cylindrical, obtuse, ovate, or oblong; solitary, in 

 twos, threes, or more in a cluster ; dark purple, light red, yellow, or 

 green in colour ; some powdery, some shining, some glaucous, others 

 non-glaucous. 



In this section of the Podocarpus I include what botanists have been 

 pleased to define as twelve genera, and of these genera about forty 

 species, and of these species about as many varieties j and the 

 synonyms by which this group is enumerated in botanical literature, 

 and found in herbariums and collections, I do not here attempt to 

 reckon up ; suffice it to state, that the following enumeration includes 

 each and all of the specific or distinct species of this section of the S.D. 

 PodocarpecB, all the others being, in my opinion, but quasi-species or 

 varieties ; the effects produced by, and inseparable from, the natural 



