258 CONIFER E. [Pintts. 



Ord. 72. CONIFERS. Juss. Fir Family. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Sterile Fl. monandrous 

 or monadelphous ; each floret consisting of a single stamen, or 

 of a few united, collected in a deciduous catkin about a 

 common rachis. Anthers 2- or many-lobed, bursting out- 

 wardly ; often terminated by a crest, which is an unconverted 

 portion of the scale out of which each stamen is formed : pollen 

 large, usually compound. — Fertile Fl. generally in cones, 

 sometimes solitary. Ovary in the cones, spread open, and 

 having the appearance of a flat scale destitute of style or 

 stigma, and arising from the axil of a membranous bractea ; in 

 the solitary flower apparently wanting. Ovules naked ; in the 

 cones in pairs on the face of the ovary, having an inverted po- 

 sition, and consisting of one or two membranes open at the 

 apex, and of a nucleus, in the solitary flower erect. Fruit con- 

 sisting either of a solitary naked seed, or of a cone ; the latter, 

 formed of the scale-shaped ovaries, become enlarged and indu- 

 rated, and occasionally of the bracteas also, which are sometimes 

 obliterated, and sometimes extend beyond the scales in the form 

 ofalobed appendage. Seeds with a hard crustaceous integu- 

 ment. Embryo in the midst of a fleshy and oily albumen, with 

 two or many opposite cotyledons : the radicle next the apex of 

 the seed, and having an organic connexion with the albumen. 

 — Resinous trees or shrubs. Leaves linear, acerose or lanceolate, 

 rigid, entire at the margins or dilated and lobed, always with 

 parallel veins, sometimes Jascicled and sheathing at the base. 



1. Pinus. Linn. Fir. 



Barren fl. in crowded, racemose catkins; the scales peltate, 

 bearing two 1-celled, sessile anthers. Perianth none. Fer- 

 tile fl. in an ovate catkin ; its scales closely imbricated, 2- 

 flowered. Perianth none. Pericarp 1-seeded, terminated by 

 a. long winged appendage, and covered with the imbricated 

 scales, forming a cone (strobilus). — Name; pin or pen, means 

 a crag or stony mountain, still so called in Wales : (as Ben 

 in Scotland): where the pine delights to grow, "moored in 

 the rifted rock." Hooker. 



Monozcia. Monadelphia. 



1. P. sylvestris, Linn. Scotch Fir. Leaves in pairs, rigid; 

 cones conico-ovate, acute, young ones stalked, recurved, as long 

 as the leaves, generally in pairs ; crest of the anthers very 



