116 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
The monkey-puzzle probably hardly needs one, except 
under its technical name of Araucaria; but, being an alien 
in this land, it is not very often fertilised. Its cones are 
large and spherical, of about the size of a cricket ball, 
and form very conspicuous objects, when they do occur, 
at the extremities of the candelabra-like branches. 
The Coniferous trees found in England may be divided 
into five great groups: (1) the true Firs, including the 
Spruces; (2) the Larches; (3) the Cedars; (4) the Pines; 
(5) the Cypress and the Juniper. 
The Firs and Spruces may be distinguished at once 
from the Pines by the cone, which is composed of 
uniformly thin scales, whereas the Pine cones have much- 
thickened tips to the scales. Another clue to identifica- 
tion is given by the arrangement of the leaves, which, in 
our present class, are found to be produced singly, direct 
from the branches, whereas the Pines have their leaves 
in groups of two or more, the base being enclosed in a 
little scaly cup. Firs and Spruces may be distinguished 
from one another again by the cones and leaves. In the 
Firs the leaves are flat, and have white streaks on the 
under side. In the Spruces the leaves are prismatic, 
with four angles. True fir cones do not drop off entire, 
but shed their scales one by one and stand erect upon 
the tree. The spruce cones hang down when fertilised, 
and the whole cone comes away in one piece when the 
seed has been shed. The best-known English sample 
of the true fir is the “Silver Fir,” the bark of which, in 
youth, is smooth and silvery grey, though it becomes 
rough and discoloured with age. The magnificent Norway 
Spruce, with its long and sweeping lower branches, and, 
in favourable localities, its towering stem, is a fine type 
of the family. To the Norway spruce we are indebted 
for most of our scaffold poles and pit props. 
