270 



THE K LOWER. 



genus dnetiim, shrubs or trees, with nearly the aspect of 

 Angiosperms, having broad and pinnately-veined leaves : \Vel- 

 witschia of tropical AY. Africa, remarkable for its persistent 

 cotyledons which form the only foliage of a wood}' and long- 

 eiiiluring plant, and for its stem or trunk which broadens with- 

 out lengthening, except in its flower-stalks : also Kphcdra, of 

 much branched shrubs, mainly of warm-temperate regions, leafless 

 or nearly so, one species of which inhabits Europe and two the 

 southern borders of the 1'nited States. 



50G. The flowers in all Gyninospeniis are diclinous, either 

 dioecious or monoecious ; except that those of the si range < ineta- 

 ceous genus \Yel\vitsehia are structurally polygamous, the male 

 flowers having a well-formed but sterile gymecium. 



507. In Conifera', the largest and most important tvpe, are 

 embraced all the familiar (iymnospcrms of temperate regions, 

 Pines, Firs, Cedars, Cypresses, which 

 bear their flowers in catkin-like clusiei-s 

 and their fruit in cones, and also the 

 Yews and allied trees which do not'' 

 produce cones. Perianth being want- 

 ing and the sexes wholly separate, the floral type 

 is so degraded that it becomes doubtful whether 

 cadi cluster of anthers, or of ovnlil'erous scales 

 or ovules, constitutes a blossom or an inflores- 

 cence. Certain botanists look upon a whole 

 catkin, and others upon a male catkin only, of 

 a Pine or Fir as forming one llower. It is here 

 assumed that each stamen 

 of the one and each ovu- 

 liferous scale of the other 

 answers to a flower of the 

 simplest sort. ' The anthers 

 are extrorse, the cells or 

 pollen-sacs b<>longing to the outer or lower side of a scale or a 



1 It will lie seen that, for the female (lowers, tins follows of course from 

 generally accepted view ; and, where tin's is conceded, analogy may extend it 

 to the male catkins also: yet in such cases, where all thephylla of an indefinite 

 simple axis are stamens, spirally arranged on it, the difference hetween 



inflorescence and male Bower completely vanishes. 



Kit!. r>~>-\. Female llower .it' a Yew. an ovule surrounded l>y its liracts. 555. Longi- 

 tudinal nnil moiv enlarged section of a female tlower of Yew ami of the upper part of 

 the si 101 it it. terminates : I lie thick coat of the ovule open at t hi' top, the nucleus within, 

 anil th<! beginning of the disk outside of the coat, are seen in section. After Stras- 

 trarger. 



Fit;. 556. Young fruit (berry-like cup surrounding the seed) of Yew. 557. Longi- 

 tudinal section of :i mat ure fruit of the same. After I >ccaisnc. 



657 



