226 



PINACEiE. 



[Gymnogens. 



Order LXXIV. PINACEiE.— Conifers. 



Coniferae, Juss. Ge7i. 411. (1789) ; Brown in King's Voyage, Appendix, (1825) ; RicJi. Momgr. (1826). 

 — Al)ietinae et Cupressinae, Rich. I. c. (1826) ; Bartl. Orel. Nat. 94 ct 95. (1830) ; Endl. Gen. Ixxvi. 

 and Ixxvii. ; Meisncr, p. 352.— Cunuingliamiacese, Siebold, Fl. Jap. tt. 101, 102.— Conaceae, Lindl. 

 AV^/.iVo. 232. (1835). 



Diagnosis. — Gymnogens with a repeatedly branched contiwaous stem, simple aceroi 



and females in cones. 



These are noble trees or evergreen shrubs, \A\h a branched tmnk abounding 

 Wood >vith the Hgneous 

 tissue marked with circu- 

 lar disks. Leaves linear, 

 acerose or lanceolate, en- 

 tire at the margins ; some- 

 times fascicled in conse- 

 quence of the non-develop- 

 ment of the branch to which 

 they belong ; when fasci- 

 cled, the primordial leaf to 

 which they are then axil- 

 lary is membranous, and 

 enwraps them Uke a sheath. 

 Flowers $ ^ , naked. $ 

 monandrous or monadel- 

 phous ; each floret consist- 

 ing of a single stamen, or 

 of a few vmited, collected 

 in a deciduous amentum, 

 about a common rachis ; 

 anthers 2-lobed or many- 

 lobed, bursting longitudi- 

 nally ; often tei'minated by 

 a crest, which is an uncon- 

 verted portion of the scale 

 out of which each stamen 

 is formed ; $ in cones. 

 Ovary spread open, and 

 having the appearance of a 

 flat scale destitute of style 

 or stigma, and arising from 

 the axil of a membranous 

 bract. 0%nile naked ; in 

 pairs or several, on the face 

 of the oA^ary, inverted, and 

 consisting of 1 or 2 mem- 

 branes open at the apex, 

 together with a nucleus. 

 Fmit consisting of a cone Fig. CLIV, 



Fiff CLV. 



Fig. CLIV.— Pinus sylvestris. 



Fig. CLV— 1 side view of an antlier ; 2. carpellary scale and pair of inverted ovules- 3 inside of 

 ripe scale and seeds ; 4. section of the seed, minus the wing at its base. '"'"'^" '^^^^ ' *^- '"^^"^^ ^f 



