74 
No. 54. 
Casuarina lepidophloia, F.v.M. 
The Belah. 
(Natural Order CASUARINACE^E.) 
% 
Botanical description.— Natural Order Casuarinacece, Mirbel. 
Flowers. —Dioecious or monoecous, diclinous (unisexual), b »th sexes sessile and solitary in the 
axils of whorled bracts, the bracts of each whorl united into a toothed sheath enclosing the 
base of the whorl of flowers. 
»S 'laminate, Mowers. In cylindrical terminal spikes ; each stamen solitary, surrounded by two 
perianth leaves consisting of concave or hood-shaped segments, breaking off at their narrow- 
base as they are forced off by the development of the stamen, below which are tw-o persistent 
bracteoles placed l ight and left. The anther with 2 large distinct cells, placed back to 
back; they open laterally, the stamen is exserted, and the filament folded in the bud. 
Pistillate Flowers. —In globular or ovid tufts, or dense spikes terminating short lateral branches, 
naked, but each having two persistent bracteoles as in the staminate ones. Styles with two 
branches, thread-like, usually red, the stigmas pointed. The ovary 1- (rarely 2-) celled, 
with 1-2 ascending ovules. 
Fruit. — A seed-like compressed nut, smooth and shining, and produced at the apex into a 
membranous wdng; the enlarged and thickened w r oody bracts and bracteoles forming a 
compact cone, closing over the unripe nuts and opening (as valves) v-hen ripe. The opaque 
nerve, often seen running through the wing, is the remains of the style. 
Seeds. —Solitary, erect; exalbuminous ; with spiral vessels in their outward walls. (“Full of 
matted spiral vessels.”—Hooker.) Leafless trees or shrubs with verticillate deciduous 
branchlets. 
Leaves. —Replaced by small verticillate teetb united by the margin into sheathing joints. 
The most complete set of drawings of Casuarina known to me form Plate xcvi, 
C. svberosa, of Hooker’s “ Flora of Tasmania.” 
The characters and range of the genus are the same as in the Order. 
In Casuarina * Juglans (the Walnut), and the Order Corylacese (or Cupuliferse, the British Oak 
Order) the pollen tube does not enter by means of the micropyle, but passing down the ovary wall, and 
through the placenta, enters at the chalazal end of the ovule. Such a mode of entrance is distinguished as 
chalazogamic from the ordinary or porogamic method.— (A. B. Rendle.) 
When Treub discovered the chalazogamic fertilisation of this Order, he 
proposed to remove it from its place near the Betulacese (a sub-order of the 
Corylacese) where it was formerly placed. It was a later discovery that Juglans 
and the Corylacese are also chalazogamic. 
Treub., M. “ Sur lea Casuarin^es et leur place dans le syst6me nature!.”— Ann. Jard. Bot. Builenzorg, x, 145 (1891). 
