SKETCH OF THE CONIFERS OF JAPAN. 



289 



irregularly placed (figs. 44) and 8 on the front disposed ia 

 pail's (fig. 45, 46). The male flower-bearing buds are numerous, 

 appearing out of the axillae of disjoiuted scales at the lower 

 part of the young branches, and clustered into a thick cylindrical 

 spike, 2 or 3 inches long (fig. 47). Tlie catkins themselves are 

 sessile, abbreviate, ovato-cylindrical (fig. 48). Stamens densely 

 imbricated, alternate ; filaments short, filiform, expanded 

 at the top into a suhorbicular process very finely crenulate, mem- 

 branouSj and from the base of ^Yhich descend the two loculi of the 



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V- 



i-i. 



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9 



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k 



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Fig, 45. 



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/ 



It 



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Fig. 4^, 



Fii?. 47, 



Fi^. 48, 



anther, which are elliptic, with a longitudinal slit opening behind. 

 Female catkins terminal, subverticiliate orsolitary, thickly covered 

 by membraneous scales acutely lanceolate, ovoid or subglobose. 

 of the size of a pea after fecundation ; scales nuraei'ous, densely 



alternately imbricated, very shortly stipitate, long, cuspidate; 

 hracts stipitate, the stalk linear, short, the lamina or plate 

 ohovately spathulate, obtuse, marginate, almost a third shorter 

 than the scale, at a later period disappearing. Cones (fig. -H 



