2. CONIFERJE. [1. PiNUS. 



spinous teeth at broad base of acumen. Ovules 4-6. Seeds about 

 1 -5" long, ovoid. 



Along the high banks of ravmes in the Sameshwar Hills, Champaran ! FL 

 Nov.-Dec. 



Petiole laterally spinescent. The pith and other soft tissues are full of starch, 

 and yield a sago. 



4. C. revoluta, Thunb. 



A cultivated species about 6 ft. high with leaves 2-6 ft. long. 

 Petiole thick, quadrangular. Leaflets narrow under -2" wide with 

 their margins revolute. Carpophylls 4-9" long, blade somewhat 

 obovate, laciniate into villous segments nearly to centre, stalk longer 

 than blade with 4-6 ovules. 



In gardens only. Xative of China and south-eastern Asia. 



Male cones 1 ft. long, sporophylls about 1" truncate and umbonate, covered with 

 pollen sacs to the base. Carpophylls densely tomentose l'5-2'5" broad, the blade 

 somewhat obovate-oblong each ending in a short sharp spine. Seed 1" bj'^ "7". 



FAM. 2. CONIFERS. 



Trees or shrubs, wood of tracheides with bordered pits, without 

 true vessels (no pores), resin-canals frequent. Leaves rigid, linear or 

 subulate rarely with broad blade, solitar}^ or fascicled in membranous 

 sheaths. Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Males catkin-like, deci- 

 duous, of many 1-more-celled anthers (scales of the so-called catkins). 

 Fem. of 1 or more sessile naked orthotropous or anatropous 

 ovules seated on or at the base of sporophylls which are usually 

 arranged in more or less perfect cones (and are then called cone- 

 scales), rarely ovule solitary and sometimes terminal, cone scales 

 where present either spiral or decussate in the cone, sometimes with 

 subsidiary placental scales which outgrow the cone-scale proper (see 

 Pinus). Fruit of the more or less accrescent cones, rarely a solitary 

 seed with its fleshy coats. Seeds often winged, with thick or thin 

 testa. Embryo axile. Cotyledons 2 or more, albumen copious. 



There are so few Coniferae in our area that I have treated them as a single family. 

 They are more properly an Order or even a Class. 



A. Fem. cone with numerous spirally arranged scales. Ovules 2, 



inverted : — 

 L. acicular in membranous sheaths . . . . .1. Pinus. 



B. Fem. cone with 6-12 decussate scales. Ovules 2-many on each 



scale, erect :— 

 L. small scale-like imbricate : — 

 Cones usually oblong, scales usually thin oblong. Seeds 2 to 



each scale ......... 2. Thuja. 



Cones globose, scales usually thick clavate. Seeds more than 



2 to each scale, winged ....... 3. Cuvresma. 



1. PINUS. 



Richly monopodially branched trees with simple acicular leaves^ 

 one or more on abbreviated shoots in the axils of membranous scale- 

 leaves, when more than one appearing clustered. Male flowers 

 ("catkins") clustered at the base of leafy shoots of the same year, 

 each surrounded at the base bj^ an involucre of 3-6 scale-like bracts 

 and composed of numerous sessile anthers, imbricate in many rows- 



1229 



