Gymnogens.] PINACEiE. 227 



formed of the scale-shaped ovaries, become enlarged and hardened, and occasionally of 

 the bracts also, which are sometimes obliterated, and sometimes extend beyond the 

 scales in the form of a lobed appendage. Seed with a hard cinistaceous integument. 

 Embryo in the midst of fleshy oily albumen, with 2 or many opposite cotyledfms ; the 

 radicle next the apex of the seed, and having an organic connection with the albumen. 



With the exception of Orchids, there is perhaps no Natm'al Order the structiu'e of which 

 remauied so long and imiversally misimderstood as that of Conifers. This has arisen 

 from the anomalous nature of their organisation, and from the investigations of botanists 

 not having been conducted with that attention to logical precision which is now foimd to 

 be indispensable. It is not expedient to enter upon an inquiry into the ideas that bota- 

 nists have successively entertained upon the subject. Those who are desirous of inform- 

 ing themselves upon that point will find all they can desire in the Appendix to Captain 

 King's Voyage to Neio Holland, and in Richard's Mimoires sur les Coniferes et les Cf/ca- 

 dees. It may, however, be useful to advert briefly to the principal theories which have 

 met with advocates. These are, firstly, that the female flowers consist of a bilocular 

 ovary having a style in the foi'm of an external scale, an opmion held by Jussieu, Smith, 

 and Lambert ; secondly, that they have a minute cohering perianth, and an external 

 additional envelope called the cupule : this view was taken by Schubert, Mirbel, and 

 others ; thirdly, tlaat they have a monosepalous calyx cohei'uigmore or less with the ovary, 

 contracted and often tubular at the apex, with a lobed, or glandular, or minute entire 

 limb, an erect ovary, a single pendulous ovule, no style, and a minute sessile stigma : 

 tliis explanation is that of Richai'd, pubUshed in his Memoir upon the subject in 1826. 

 It appears, however, from the observations of Brown, that the female organ of Conifers 

 is a naked o\'ule, the integuments of which have been mistaken for floral envelopes, and 

 the apex of whose nucleus has been considered a stigma. About the accm'acy of this 

 \'iew there is at this time no difference of opinion. These female organs, or naked 

 ovules, originate from the larger scales of the cone towards theu' base, and occupy the 

 same relative place in Conifers and in Zamia, a genus of Cycads. Now, as there 

 cannot be any doubt of the perfect analogy that exists between the scales of the cone of 

 Zamia and the fniit-bearing leaves of Cycas, the former differing from the latter only 

 in each being reduced to 2 ovules, and to an undivided state ; so there can be no doubt 

 of the equally exact analogy between the scales of Conifers and Zamia, and therefore, 

 the former w^ould be called reduced leaves if the general character of the tribe was to 

 produce a highly developed fohage ; but as the fohage of Conifers is in a much more 

 contracted state than the scales of their cones, the latter must be understood to be the 

 leaves of Conifers in a more developed state than usual. That the scales of the cone 

 really are metamorphosed leaves, is apparent not only from this reasoning, but from the 

 following facts. They occupy the same position with respect to the bracts as the leaves 

 do to their membranous sheaths ; they sm-round the axis of growth as leaves do, and 

 usually terminate it ; but in some cases, as m the Larch, the axis sometimes elongates 

 beyond them, and leaves them collected round it in the middle. In Araucaria they have 

 absolutely the same structure as the ordinary leaves ; and finally, they sometimes 

 assume the common appearance of leaves, as is I'epresented in Richard's Memoir, tab. 

 1 2., in the case of a monstrous Abies. The scales of the cones of Conifers and cone- 

 bearing Cycads are therefore to these Orders, what carpellary leaves are to other 

 plants. Schleiden does not, however, admit the scales of the cone of Abieteae to be 

 expanded carpellary leaves. He regards them as no other than the axillary buds of 

 carpellary leaves ; they, he says, cannot be the latter, because folium in axilla folii is 

 ^^'ithout example in the whole vegetable world. — Ann. Sc. N. S. xii. 374. We would 

 ask this ingenious anatomist what the fruit of Salix is but folium in axilla folii ? 



With regard to the male flowers, it is obvious that in the Larch, the Cedar of Leba- 

 non, the Spmce, and the like, each anther is fonned of a partially converted scale, 

 analogous to the indm-ated carpellary scale of the females ; and therefore, each amentum 

 consists of a number of monandrous naked male flowers, collected about a common axis. 

 Some botanists, however, consider each male catkin as a single monadelphous male 

 flower, which is impossible. But in Araucaria, these cavities occupy one side only of an 

 ordinary flat scale. In this genus, and such others as agree with it in structiu-e, the an- 

 thers may be considered to consist of an uncei'tam niunber of lobes, and in tliis respect to 

 recede from the usual structure of the male organs of plants : in Conifers, the anthers of 

 which are normal, we have 2 ; m Juniperus, thehke number ; in Cunninghamia, but 3 ; 

 m Agathis, 14 ; and in Araucaria, from 12 to 20. Brown remarks, what is certamly very 

 remarkable, that in Cmminghamia the lobes of the anther agree in number, as well as 

 insertion and du-ection, with the ovules.— King's Appendix, 32. The same author has 

 noticed a very general tendency in some species of Pinus and Abies to produce several 

 embryos m a seed, {Uh Report of Brit. Assoc. 1 835,^9. 596 :) where also are some cm-ious 

 remarks upon the origin of the embryo in such plants. 



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