220 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
by their cones. The former are of the typical needle, 
or rather bayonet shape, with two edges, and white 
streaks upon the lower surface. The cone stands erect, 
and though the bracts and scales fall off, the main stem, 
or axis, of the cone, keeps fixed upon the plant. These 
scales are quite thin, an important character to bear in 
mind. 
The Spruces are much like the Firs in general type, 
but the leaves are four-sided, and the cones hang down- 
ward as soon as the seed is fertilised. 
The Larch is very easy to detect, for the leaves only 
cling to the tree for a year, whereas the rest of the family 
are all evergreen. The cones stand up straight upon the 
boughs, like those of the Firs. 
Now the true Pines, of which, be it remembered, the 
so-called Scotch Fir is a typical representative, are marked 
by two features. The leaves are in groups, uniting, out- 
side the branch, in a scaly sheath, which falls with them 
to the ground. The Scotch Fir has only two leaves in 
each group, but the other members, rarely seen in England, 
run to three, four, or five in a group. The Weymouth 
Pine, for instance, has five. The cones give a very easy 
clue, for the scales, instead of being thin and smooth, 
show a sudden thickening at the tip of each, which gives 
the cone a somewhat spherical shape. 
This brief excursion over ground that we have passed 
before is all that we can spare for the conifers, and we 
must go on to pick out the trees that are included 
amongst those plants that keep their seeds enclosed in 
a case. So far as the Monocotyledons are concerned, this 
is not a heavy task, for in England they are like the 
famous snakes of Ireland—there are none. But this is, 
so to speak, a mere accident, for in tropical countries the 
