245 



The difference between the cylindrical simple stem of Cycadere and the branched 

 conical one of Conifera; arises from the terminal bud only of the former deve- 

 loping, its axillary ones all being uniformly latent, unless called into life by 

 some accidental circumstances, as in the case recorded in the Horticultural 

 Transactions, 6. 501. ; while in Conifers a constant tendency to a rapid evolu- 

 tion 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 Conifene are mi- 

 nute and undivided, while those of Cycadeae are very large and pinnated ; in 

 both they are simple, and in Coniferae there is a tendency to a higher develop- 

 ment in the scales of the cones, while in Cycadea; there is a corresponding con- 

 traction firstly in Cycas itself, and especially in Zamia, in which the contraction 

 takes place to exactly the same point as the evolution of Coniferae. 



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 Ma- 

 dagascar. Brown Congo, 464. 



Properties. The only remarkable quality in the order is the production 

 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, Juss. Gen. 411. (1789) ; Mirbel Elimcns, 2. 906. (1815) ; Brown in King's Voyage, 

 Appendix, (1825); Rich. Monogr. (1826) ; Dec. and Duby, 431. (1828); Lindl. Synops. 

 240. (1329). 



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

 trunk, and simple leaves with parallel veins. 

 Anomalies. 



Essential Character. — Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Staminiferous 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-lobcd, 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. Pistilliferous 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. Oxula naked ; in the cones in pairs on 

 the face of the ovarium, having an inverted position, and consisting- of 1 or 2 membranes 

 open at the apex, and of a nucleus ; in the solitary flower erect. Fruit consisting cither 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 bractea? also, which are sometimes obliterated, 

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

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

 site 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 in 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 arc then axil- 

 lary is membranous, and enwraps them like a sheath. 



Affinities. With the exception of Orchidea?, there is perhaps no natural 

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

 as Coniferae. This has arisen from the exceedingly anomalous nature of their 

 organization, and from the investigations of botanists not having been con- 

 ducted with that attention to logical precision which is now found to be abso- 



