CL.ASS II. GYMNOSPERMS. 



Ovules not enclosed in an ovary, fertilized by the pollen without 

 the intervention of a pistil, and becoming truly naked seeds, the 

 carpel being represented by a flat open scale or entirely wanting. 

 Embryo with 2 opposite, or several whorled cotyledons. 



Order CXXXI. CONIFERJE.— Conifers. 



Trees or evergreen shrubs, with branching trunks, abounding in a resinous juice. 



Lvs. scattered or fascicled, linear or acerose (rarely lanceolate), parallel-veined, rigid, generally evergreen. 



Fls. monoecious or dioecious, destitute of calyx or corolla. 



Sterile, monandrous or monadelphous, collected iii a kind of loose ament. 



Anth. 2 or many-lobed, otlen tipped with a crest. Pollen large, usually compound. 



Fertile, in aments composed of open, scale-like carpels, or solitary and without a carpel. 



Ovary, style and stigma wanting. Ovules l, 2 or many, erect or inverted. 



Fr.—K strobile (cone), or a solitary seed. Integuments hard and crustaceous. 



Embryo in the axis of oily albumen. 



Genera 29, species 130, natives of all climates, but most abundant in the temperate zones, those of the 

 southern, however, very difl'erent from the pines, spruces, larches and cedars of the northern. 



Properties.— Few orders can be named, which are of more importance to mankind, whether in refer- 

 ence to their invaluable timber or their resinous secretions. Turpentine, tar, pitch and resin are the 

 product of the pines. Burgundy pitch is yielded by Finus sylvestris of Europe ; Venetian turpentine, 

 by the Larix ; oil of Savin by Juniperus Sabina of Europe, &c. 



FIG. 51.— 1. Branch of Thuja occidentalis, with iitrobile<). 2. A magnified bmnchlet with n cone of 

 stuminafe flowers. 3. A corpellary scale with the two winged seeds. 4. A vertical transverse section 

 of one of the Heeds, showing the embryo, &r. 5. The immature, erect ovules. 6. One o( the ovules, 

 enlarged, showing the micropyle at top. 7. Branch of Abie« Americana. 8, Scale, with the bract. 9. 

 Scale with immutuic ovules. 10. Scale with ripe 8cedn. II. A pair of leaves of Piini.^ rc^jnosa 12. 

 Aiithnr of I'inus sylvestris. 13. Scale of ih" cone, with the ovules turned downward.-*. U- Stamunte 

 scale of Cuprt-isus, with Dolleii. 15. Fertile kcmIc, with many erect ovule. 



