2060

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

branches are downy. Leaves alternate, oblong,linear; cut on each side into rounded and numerouslobes, like those of the ceterach; and sprinkled withshining dots, like those of the gales. The male cat-kins are oblong and sessile; female catkins sessile,solitary, lateral, and bristly, with numerous filaments.According to Pursh, the whole plant, when rubbed,has a resinous scent. A native of North America,from New England to Virginia, in sandy, stony, orslaty woods. It was introduced in 1714, by theDuchess of Beaufort. The shrub is very hardy, butit requires peat earth and a shady situation. It maybe propagated by layers, suckers, or seeds. The firstand second methods are the most common, as goodseeds can rarely be procured. Plants, in the Lon-don nurseries, are from B. to Is. 6 d. each; at Boll-wyller, 3francs; and at New York, 37£ cents.

CHAP. CX.

OF THE HALF-HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER

casuara'ceae.

This remarkable family consists of branchy trees, the branches of whichare in all cases, when fully grown, “ long, drooping, green, and wiry, withvery small scale-like sheaths, in the room of leaves. The flowers are unisexual,and disposed in verticillate spikes; they have neither calyx nor corolla, aremonandrous, and their ovaries are lenticular, with a solitary erect ovule. Thefruit consists of hardened bracts, enclosing the small caryopses, or nut-likeseeds, which are winged.” ( Lindl . in Penny Cyc .) Natives of Asia, Australia,and Polynesia. This order was formerly considered to belong to Coniferm;but is now placed by botanists next to AZyricaceae. The timber of some ofthe species forms the beef-wood of the New South Wales colonists, and isof excellent quality. In British gardens, the plants are more hardy than mostof the Australian trees ; and, in warm situations in Devonshire, or shelteredby evergreens in other parts of the south of England, would probably attaina timber-like size without any care or trouble whatever.

Casuarina equisetifblia Ait. Hort. Kew., iii. p. 320., Willd. Sp. PL, iv. p. 190.,Bot. Cab.,t. 607., and omfg. 1972.; C. littbrea Humph. Ami)., iii. t. 57.; SwampOak, Austral .; Filao a Feuilles de Prele, Fr. Monoecious. Branchlets weak,round. Scales of the strobiles unarmed, villous; sheaths of the male 7-parted,ciliated. A lofty tree, with a large trunk, and numerous branches. Thesebranches are long, slender, wand-like, cylindrical, weak, and drooping, bearinga great resemblance to those of the common horsetail. Six or seven scales,or teeth, on each branch, serve instead of leaves. The catkins are uprightand terminal; the scales of the cones are downy; and those of the male cat-kins are ciliated. In Australia, it flowers in October and November. It is anative of the East Indies, New Holland, and the South Sea Islands; fromwhich last country it was introduced in 1766, by Admiral Byron. Fromthe cone-like shape of its fruit, it was at first supposed to belong to the Co-niferae, and was called the Tinian pine. It stands out in the climate ofLondon; and there is a tree in the garden of Wm. Bromley, Esq., 11 ft. high,of which our Jig. 1972. is a portrait, taken in 1834. In the Transactions of theHorticultural Society for 1818 is an account, accompanied by a figure of theentire tree, of a species of Casuarina then growing in the gardens of Bel-vedere, near Weimar, communicated by His Royal Highness Charles Augus-