247 



two tribes. The difference between the cylindrical simple stem of Cycadeae 

 and the branched conical one of Coniferse arises from the terminal bud only 

 of the former developing, its axillary ones all being uniformly latent, unless 

 called into life by some accidental circumstance, as in the case recorded in 

 the Horticultural Transactions, 6. 501. ; while in Coniferae a constant 

 tendency to a rapid evolution of leaf-buds takes place in every axilla. With 

 regard to their foliage, on which the difference of their aspect chiefly depends, 

 I have already stated that the arrangement of their veins is the same ; but 

 the leaves of Conifers are minute and undivided, while those of Cycadeae are 

 very large and pinnated ; in both they are simple, and in Coniferge there 

 is a tendency to a higher development in the scales of the cones, while in 

 Cycadeee there is a corresponding contraction firstly in Cycas itself, and 

 especially in Zamia, in which the contraction takes place to exactly the same 

 point as the evolution of Coniferge. 



Geography. Natives of the tropics of America and Asia; not found 

 in equinoctial Africa, although they exist at the Cape of Good Hope and in 

 Madagascar. Brown Congo, 464. 



Properties. The only remarkable quality in the order is the produc- 

 tion of a kind of Sago, by the soft centre of Cycas circinalis. They all 

 abound in a mucilaginous nauseous juice. 



Examples. Cycas, Zamia. 



CCXXVIII. CONIFERS. The Fir Tribe. 



Conifers, J^iss. Gen. 411. (1789); Mirbel Eltmens, 2. 90C. (1815); Brown in King's 

 Voyage, Appendix, (1825); Rich. Monoqr. (1826); Dec. and Duby, 431. (1828) ; 

 Lindl. Synops. 240. (182fl.) 



Diagnosis. Naked-seeded, resinous, dicotyledonous trees, with a 

 branched trunk, and simple leaves with parallel veins. 

 Anomalies. 



EssEKTiAL Character — Ffozt'er* monoecious or dioecious. Males monandrous or 

 monadelphous ; each floret consisting of a single stamen, or of a few united, collected, in a 

 deciduous amentum, about a common rachis ; anthers 2-lohed 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. Females usually in cones, 

 .sometimes solitary. Ovarium, in the cones, spread open, and having the appearance of a 

 flat scale destitute of style or stigma, and arising from the axilla of a membranous bractea ; 

 in the solitary flower apparently wanting. Oimla naked ; in the cones in pairs on the 

 face of the ovarium, having an inverted position, and cojisisting of 1 or 2 membranes open 

 at the apex, and of a nucleus ; in the solitary flower erect. Fruit consisting either of a 

 solitary naked seed, or of a cone ; the latter, formed of the scale-shaped ovaria, become en- 

 larged and indurated, and occasionally of the bracteae also, which are sometimes obliterated, 

 and sometimes extend beyond the scales in the form of alobed appendage. Seeds with a hard 

 crustaceous integument. Embryo in the midst of fleshy oily albumen, with 2 or many op- 

 posite cotyledons ; the radicle next the apex of the seed, and having an organic connexion 



with the albumen Trees or shrubs, with a branched trunk abounding iu resin. Leaves 



linear, acerose or lanceolate, entire at the margins, or dilated and lobed, always having the 

 veins parallel with each other ; sometimes fascicled in consequence of the non-development 

 of the branch to which they belong ; when fascicled, the primordial leaf to which they are 

 then axillary is membranous, and enwraps them like a sheath. 



Affinities. With the exception of Orchideee, there is perhaps no 

 natural order the structure of which has been so long and so universally 

 misunderstood as Coniferse. This has arisen from the exceedingly anoma- 

 lous nature of their organisation, and from the investigations of botanists not 

 having been conducted with that attention to logical precision which is njaw 



