432 CONIFERS. (pine family.) 



mostly persistent leaves, and monoecious or dioecious amentaceous flowers. 

 Calyx and corolla none. Ovules orthotropous. Fruit a cone or drupe, 

 Embryo iu the axis of the albumen. Cotyledons 2 or more. 



Synopsis. 



SUBORDER I. ABIETTNFLE. Fertile flowers consisting of numer- 

 ous bracted imbricated carpellary scales, bearing two collateral inverted 

 <>\ ales at their base, and forming a cone in fruit. Buds scaly. 



1. PIXUS. Leaves 2 - 5 in a cluster, mostly elongated, sheathed at the base. • 



2. ABIES. Leaves single, short, destitute of a sheath. 



Suborder LT. CUPRESSINEiE. Fertile flowers consisting of few 

 bractless mostly peltate carpellary scales, bearing one or several erect 

 ovules at their base, becoming fleshy or indurated, and forming in fruit a 

 drupe or cone. Buds naked. 



3. JUXIPERUS. Fruit a drupe. Leaves minute, imbricated. 



4. CUPRESSUS. Fruit a globular cone, with peltate scales. Leaves imbricated, persistent. 



5. TAXODIUM. Fruit a globular cone, with peltate scales. Leaves spreading, on slender 



deciduous branchlets. 



6. THUJA. Fruit an oblong cone, with imbricated oblong scales. Leaves minute, imbri- 



cated on the flattened branches, persistent. 



Suborder III. TAXINEiE. Fertile flower solitary, without a car- 

 pellary scale. Fruit a drupe. Buds scaly. 



7. TAXES. Drupe surrounded by a fleshy cup. Albumen homogeneous. 



8. TORREYA. Drupe naked. Albumen ruminated. 



1. PINUS, Tourn. Pine. 



Flowers monoecious. Sterile aments spiked or clustered. Stamens numer- 

 ous on the axis, with very short filaments: anthers with a scale-like connective-, 

 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Fertile aments terminal, single or clustered. Car- 

 pellary scales in the axils of deciduous bracts, each hearing two collateral in- 

 verted ovules at the base, indurated in fruit, and forming a cone; the apex 

 commonlj thickened, angular, and spiny. Seeds nut like, lodged in an excava- 

 tion at the base of the scale, and furnished with a thin deciduous wing. Embryo 

 in die axis of oily albumen. Cotyledons 3 - 12, linear. — Trees. Leaves ever- 

 . needle-shaped, ~i - ■> in a cluster, their liases enclosed in a thin scarious 



-heath. 



• / avea two in each sheath. 

 1. P. pungons, Midix (T w.i.i, M..i s i \i\ I'ini j.) Leaves from a short 

 sheath, crowded, shorl and rigid . cones large, commonlj 8-4 in a whorl, ovate, 



. the thick BCaleS pointed at the apex, and armed with a very stout spine, 

 which on the upper scales IS inCUTVed, im the lower ones recurved — Mountains, 



rarely wesl of the Blue Ridge, Georgia to Efforts Carolina, and northward. — A 



