III.] 



CONIFERM, 



295 



the base of its upper side a pair of inverted ovules. As the 

 scales are closely imbricated, the ovules are concealed ; but 

 they may be easily found by breaking the flowering cone 

 across the middle, when some of them are sure to be 

 exposed. 



Some botanists are of opinion that the 

 scales to which the ovules are attached are 

 open carpellary leaves. In any case, the 

 ovules are naked, so that the pollen-grains' 

 fall directly upon the ovules. Hence the 

 term gyjnnospermous applied to the Family, 

 in contradistinction to angiosperjtioiis applied 

 to all other flowering plants in which the 

 ovules are fertilised through the medium of 

 the stigma of a carpellary leaf. In the fruit 

 the ovule-bearing scales are much enlarged, 

 and hard and woody in texture, each scale 

 bearing upon its upper surface a pair of 

 seeds which ultimately separate, each often 

 with a membranous wing derived from a "''"^^'^ ^^^^^• 

 superficial layer of the ovule-bearing scale. 



The scales, both of flower and fruit, are arranged upon 

 common axes in the form of a cone ; hence the name 

 Coniferae applied to the Pine Family. 



In Cypress {Cupressus sempervirens, an exotic species), 

 Yew {Taxus baccata\ and Juniper {^Jimiperics co7ninunis\ 

 this Type is slightly departed from, though all agree in the 

 naked ovules of the female flowers. 



In Cypress, the scale of the male catkins bear four anther- 

 cells, and the ovules are numerous and erect in the axils of 

 a small number of scales arranged in a head. These scales 

 become woody and peltate, constituting a modification of the 

 <:one called z.galbulus. 



