310 PINE FAMILY. 



2. ABIES. Leaves persistent, linear or short needle-shaped, borne directly on the 



shoots of the season, over which they are thickly and uniformly scattered. 

 Sterile catkins in the axils of the leaves of the preceding year. Fertile cat- 

 kins solitary, maturing in the autumn of the same year; their scales thin and 

 even, never prickle-bearing. 



3. LARIX. Leaves aU deciduous in autumn, soft, short needle-shaped, in spring, 



developed very many in a dense cluster from axillary buds of the previous 

 summer (Lessons, p. 71, fig. 139), those on shoots of the season similar but 

 scattered. Cones as in Abies, the scales persistent. 



4. CEDRUS. Leaves as in Larix, but rigid and persistent. Cones globular, 



large, of verj' broad thin scales, which at length fall away from the axis. 



11. CYPRESS FAMILY. These have both kinds of flowers 

 in short often globular catkins of few scales ; the fertile making a 

 globular or ovate small cone, which is often fleshy when young, 

 sometimes imitating a berry. Tlie branches appear and the shoots 

 grow on without the intervention of any scaly buds. Leaves often 

 opposite or whorled, sometimes scale-like and adnate to the branch. 



§ 1. Scales of the globular cone with a pointed bract behind each wedge-shaped scale, 

 party cohering with its back. 



6. CRYPTOMERIA. Cone terminating a leafy branch, the recurved tip of the 

 bract and awl-shaped lobes of the top of the scales projecting. 



§ 2. Scales of the fruit simple, no brad behind (hem. 

 * Fruit a sort of cone, dry and hard when inature : flowers monmciotis, rarely diacioiis. 

 •t- Leaves thin and delicate, flat, deciduous. 



6. TAXODIUM. Two kinds of flowers on the same branches ; the sterile catkin 



spike-panicled, of few stamens; the fertile in small clusters. Cone globular, 

 finnly closed tiU mature, of several very thick-topped and angular shield- 

 shaped scales, a pair of erect 3-angled seeds on their stalk, 

 •t- •*- Leaves evergreen, linear and awl-shaped, alternate, free, destitute of glands. 



7. SEQUOIA. Catkins globular, the scales of the fertile ones bearing several 



ovules. Cone woody; the shield-shaped scales closed without overlapping, 



and bearing 3-5 flat wing-margined seeds hanging from the upper part of 



their stalk-like base. 



^- ^- H- Leaves evergreen, opposite, awl-shaped and scale-shaped (the former on the 



more vigorous lengthening shoots, the latter closely imbricated and decussate on 



the succeeding branchlets), commonly ivith a resinous gland on the back. Seeds 



and ovules erect : cotyledons only 2 or 3. 



8. CUPRESSUS. Cones spherical; the shield-shaped scales closing by their 



well-fitted margins, not overlapping, separating at maturity, each scale bear- 

 ing two or usually several ovules and winged or wing-margined seeds, its 

 broad summit with a central boss or short point. 



9. THU.JA. Cones oblong or globular, the scales not shield-shaped but concave 



and fixed by their base, overlapping in pairs, pointed if at all from or near 

 their summit, spreading open at maturity, each bearing a single pair of 

 ovules and seeds, or rarely more. 



* * Fruit berry-like : flowers commonly dioecious. 



10. JUNIPERUS. Catkins very small, lateral; the fertile of 3-6 fleshy scales 



growing together, and ripening into a sort of globular beny, containing 1-3 

 bony seeds. Leaves evergreen, opposite or whorled. 



m. YEW FAMILY. Distinguished by having the fertile 

 catkin, if it may be so called, reduced to a single terminal flower, 

 consisting of an ovule only, surrounded by some bracts, ripening 

 into a nut-like or drupe-like seed : cotyledons only 2. There is 

 nothing answering to the scales of a pine-cone. Leaf-buds scaly as 

 in the true Pine Family. Flowers mostly dioecious, axillary. 



11. TAXUS. Leaves linear, appearing more or less 2-ranked, green both sides. 



Both kinds of catkins, if such they may be called, are small axillary buds 



