POPULAR FLORA. 



201 



89. PITTE FAMILY. Order CONIFER.E 



The only familiar family of Gymnospermous plants (218, 

 250), consisting of trees or shrubs, with resinous juice, mostly 

 awl-shaped or needle-shaped leaves, and monoecious or dioecious 

 flowers of a A-ery simple sort, and collected in catkins, except in 

 Yew. In that the fertile flower is single at the end of the 

 branch. No calyx nor corolla, and no proper pistil... Ovules 

 and seeds naked. Sterile flowers of a few stamens or anthers, 

 fixed to a scale. Cotyledons often more than one pair, some- 

 times as many as 9 or 12, in a whorl. — For illustrations, see 

 Fig. 49, 50, 134, 196, 197, 224 to 226, and 498, 499. — This 

 family comprises some of our most important timber-trees, and 

 the principal evergreen forest-trees of Northern climates. It 498. Feni'e flowers, or young cone, 



- , ^^ T 1 1 r •^' °f Arbor Vitae, entarjed. 499. Inside 



consists 01 three well-marked subiamilies : — view of one of the scales n„i\ us pair 



of naked ovnies, nmre magnified. 



I. PINE Subfamily. Fertile flowers many in a catkin, which in fruit becomes a strobile or cone 

 (2.50); tlie scales of which are open pistils (each in the axil of a bract), with a pair of ovules or seeds 

 borne on the base of each. Seeds scaling off with a wing. Cones ovate or oblong. Leaf-buds scaly. 

 Flowers monoecious. 



Leaves 2 to 5 in a cluster, from the axil of a thin scale, evergreen, needle-shaped. Cone 



with thick or sometimes thin scales, (Pinus) Pine. 



Leaves many in a cluster (Fig. 134) on side spurs, and also scattered along the shoots of 



the season, needle-shaped, falling in autumn. Cone with thin scales, {Larix) Larch. 



Leaves all scattered along the shoots, evergreen, linear or needle-shaped. Cone with thin 



scales, (Abies) FiK. 



IL CYPRESS Subfamily. Fertile flowers few, in a rounded catkin, formed of scales which are 

 generally thickened at the top, and without any bracts, bearing one or more ovules at the bottom. 

 Leaves scale-like or awl-shaped. Leaf-buds without any scales. 

 Flowers monoecious. Cone dry, opening at maturity. 



Leaves deciduous and delicate, linear, 2-rauked. Cone round and woody, each shield- 

 shaped scale 2-seeded, ( Taxbdium) Bald-Cypress. 

 Leaves evergreen, small, scale-like and awl-shaped (of two shapes). 



Cone woody and round; the scales shield-shaped, ( Cupressus) Cypress.* 



Cone of a few oblong and nearly flat loose scales (Fig. 498), ( Thuja) Arbor-vit.e.* 



Flowers dioecious, or sometimes monoecious. Fruit composed of a few closed scales, 



which become pulpy and form a sort of false berry, (Juniperus) Juniper. 



in. YEW Subfamily. Buds scaly: leaves linear. Fertile flower single at the end of a branch, 

 ripening into a nut-like seed. This is enclosed in an open and at length pulpy, berry-like red cup, in 

 our only genus, viz. ( Tuxus) Yew. 



* Our only Cupressus is C. thyoides, the White Cedar, rather common South. The Arbok-vit.b, 

 Thuja occidenialis, so common North, and cultivated for evergreen hedges, is also called White Cedar. 

 Our liED Cedar is a Juniper. 



