146 IPos t e I sia 



Vancouver Island, with notes concerning their 

 distribution in the forests of the southwestern 

 parts of the island. Brief descriptions are given 

 also of those conifers which from their general 

 range will proljably be found in the mountains 

 of the island. For a key for the recognition of 

 the genera from non-fruiting specimens see 

 page 205. 



FAMILY TAXACE^. 

 Trees or shrubs with dicccious or very rarely 

 monoecious llowcrs, the staminate often cone-like, 

 terminal or axillary, solitary or in few-flowered 

 clusters, composed of an axis bearing stamens, 

 witli or without sterile basal scales; pollen sacs 

 commonly two on each stamen, rarely three to 

 eight. Pistillate flowers usually solitary, axil- 

 lary, seldom cone-like, composed of a longer or 

 shorter axis, bearing one to many one- (or rarely 

 two-) ovuled carpels, sometimes with sterile 

 basal scales resembling the carpels, or the w'hole 

 flower reduced to a single ovule terminating a 

 short scale-bearing axis; ovules generally naked, 

 projecting, often much exceeding the carpels, 

 erect or more or less inverted. Seeds usually 



