384 Imperial Institute of France. 



the organs of reproduction in these vegetables, they are not 

 agreed as to the characters of" their female flower; or rather, 

 most of them at^ree that the stigma of the pine, the fir- 

 tree, the cedar, and the Sarch-tree, is still to be found. 

 We mav therefore sav that these trees are in this respect 

 species of crvplogama. Messrs. Mirbel and Schubert go 

 stiil further : they, assert that the female flower of the yew, 

 the juniper, the cypress, &c. is no better known, and that, 

 without exception, all the genera of the family of the coni- 

 ferag have a connnon character, which has hitherto deceived 

 observers, and which consists in the existence of a cupule, 

 nf)t like that of the flower of the oak, which covers the 

 basis only of the ovary, but much more hollow, concealing 

 eniirelv ihe ovary, and closed like a spout at its orifice, 

 'i he female flower contained in this envelope has escaped 

 observation. In the arbor vitse, the yew, the juniper, the 

 cypress, &c. the cupule is folded back, and by an error 

 accounted for by the extreme sniallness of the organs, from 

 time immemorial the orifice of this cupulus has been taken 

 for the stiffma. In the cedar, the larch, the pine, and 

 fir-trees, the cupule is reversed, and the orifice is scarcely 

 discernible. It is only of late years that it has been ob- 

 served in England by Mr. Salisbury, and in France by 

 Messrs. Foiteau, Mirbel, and Schubert. These botanists 

 have not hesitated to consider it as the stigma ; which was 

 natural, since it has been agreed to place the stigma Of 

 the vew, the arbor vitae, the cypress, &c. at the orifice 

 of the cupule. But ulterior researches have undeceived 

 Messrs. Mirbel and Schubert. By iTieans of a delicate 

 anatomical inquiry, ihcy have ascertained that what is ge- 

 nerally taken for the female fiower in the coniferae is no- 

 thing else than ihe cupule; the form of which closely imi- 

 tates ihat of a pistil, and which contains in its cavity the 

 true floucr^ which is provided with a membranous calyx 

 adhering to the ovarv, and with a stigma sessile in all the 

 genera except in ihe ephedra. 



It maybe easily conceived that this structure, so diflTerent 

 from what had been hitherto imagined, brings with it great 

 chanues in the descrtption of the characters of the family 

 and of the genera. 



According to M. Mirbel, the female flower of the plants 

 of the family <*f the cvcas has an organization analogous to 

 that of the con if era? ; which supports the opinion of M. 

 Richard, wiio places these two families beside each other 

 among the dicotyledons: butM. Mirbel thinks, that while 

 the characters of vciretation will serve as a basis to the two 



great 



