110 TAXACEAE. [Podocarpus, 
Family VII. TAXACEAE. ooocAePactse 
Trees or shrubs, usually resinous, mostly evergreen, and always so in 
the New Zealand species. Leaves linear or scale-like, or in some exotic 
genera broad and fan-like; in Phyllocladus replaced by broad flattened 
branchlets which are toothed or lobed. Flowers usually dioecious ; perianth 
wanting in both sexes. Male flowers a small cone or catkin of stamens 
placed on a central axis, each stamen in the axil of a scale. Anther-cells 
usually two. Female flowers consisting of one or few ovules borne on the 
upper face of a scale, axillary or terminal, not associated into a cone. 
Fruit nut-like, often with an aril at the base, or the axis below the ovule 
with the scales upon it often becoming coloured and succulent when the 
fruit is ripe. 
A well-known family, comprising 10 genera and 100 species. It is more plentiful 
in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern, although the common yew (7'axus 
baccata) and a few other species are found therein. The three genera native to New 
Zealand have a wide geographical range, and contain several important timber-trees. 
Leaves small, linear and flat or scale-like. Peduncle of fruit, 
together with the bracts, usually fleshy and enlarged. Ovule 
reversed oF rs a a .. 1, PopocaRpus. 
Leaves usually dimorphic, of mature trees small and scale-like. 
Peduncle of fruit dry or fleshy. Ovule at first reversed but 
ultimately erect. Seed seated in a membranous or fleshy aril .. 2. DAcRYDIUM. 
Branchlets expanded into broad and flat coriaceous leaf-like 
cladodes. ‘True leaves reduced to minute scales. Ovule erect.. 3. PHYLLOCLADUS. 
W.1G07 
1. PODOCARPUS L’Herit. Ga Pang, Seve. = 
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate or opposite, scattered or imbricate 
or distichous, very diverse in size and shape. Flowers dioecious or rarely 
monoecious ; males solitary or in fascicles of 2-5, or laxly spicate along 
an elongated rhachis, usually stipitate, the stipes furnished with imbricate 
bracts. Staminal column elongate, cylindric; anthers sessile, densely 
spirally crowded; cells 2, parallel, dehiscing longitudinally ; connective 
usually prolonged into a short claw. Ferhale flowers solitary or occasion- 
ally geminate, very rarely spicate ; bracts or scales few, adnate with the 
rhachis into a swollen fleshy or succulent peduncle or “‘ receptacle ” ; ovuli- 
ferous scale springing from the receptacle, ovoid, fleshy, bearing a single 
reversed ovule. Seeds globose or ovoid, seated on the enlarged receptacle, 
drupaceous or nut-like. Cotyledons 2. 
About 60 species are known, scattered through the tropical and subtropical regions 
of the Old World, from Japan and China southwards to New Zealand and South Africa, 
also in most parts of South America ; > wanting in Europe, North America, North Africa, 
and western Asia. The New Zealand species are all endemic. 
A. Flowers axillary. 
* Male flowers solitary or 2-4 at the tip of a common peduncle. 
Tree 40-100 ft.; bark thick. Leaves $-lin., linear, rigid and 
coriaceous, pungent. Male flowers subsessile. Nut small, obtuse 1. P. totara. 
Tree 25-60 ft.; bark thin, papery. Leaves 3-1} in., linear, rigid 
and coriaceous, pungent. Male flowers evidently stalked. Nut 
acute .. _ As 3 4 bis .. 2. P. Halli. 
Erect shrub 3-10 ft.; branches slender. Leaves lax,#] in. long, 
narrow-linear, pungent, thin oye 2, +t ol 
Diffuse or prostrate shrub 2-8 ft. ; branches stout. Leaves close-set, 
4-2 in., linear-oblong, obtuse, thick and coriaceous ce .. 4 P. nivalis. 
3. P. acutifolius. 
