CHAP. CXIIT. coni'fer^. 2103 



We have dwelt at greater length on the trees of New Zealand, than we should otherwise have done 

 with half-hardy species ; because, from the climate, and the elevation at which some of them are 

 found, we are inclined to hope that they may prove half-hardy in the climate of London, and nearly, 

 if not quite, hardy in the warmest parts of Devonshire. The singularity of the appearance of phyl- 

 locladus, and its obvious alliance to salisburia, would render it a most desirable introduction, either 

 for the green-house or the conservative wall, and possibly it may prove as hardy as salisburia. 



CHAP. CXIII. 



of the hardy and half-hardy ligneous plants of the order 

 coni'ferjE, or pina'cejE. 



Identification. Lindl. Nat. Syst. of Bot., p. 313. ; Richard Mt^m.Conif , in part. 



Synonymes. Conifera; Rich. Mem. Cunif. The Conifers, till lately, included the order Taxacea?, 



already given p. 2065., which has been separated from it by Dr. Lindley. Con^cefe Lindl. Key, 232. 

 Affinities. The Taxacese have been separated from this order on the one hand, while, on the other, 



the Cycadkceae are considered as approaching very near it. 



General Characters of the Order. All ligneous. Flowers unisexual ; those 

 of the two sexes in distinct catkins, that are situated upon one plant in most 

 of the species, and upon two plants in the rest. — Male. Catkin longer than 

 broad. Each flower a scale or body, bearing pollen contained within either 

 2 cells formed within the scale or body, or 3 or more 1-celled cases; in 

 Araucdria iuas., i\\ 2-celled cases, exterior to, but united with, the scale or 

 body : a part of the scale or body is free, above the cells or cases containing 

 the pollen. — Female. Catkin more or less conical, cylindrical, or round, in 

 figure ; composed of many, several, or few flowers, each, in most species, sub- 

 tended by a bractea. The catkin, in the state of fruit, is rendered a strobile of 

 much the same figure. Each flower is constituted of 1 — 3 ovules, borne from 

 an ovary that resembles a scale, and is in some instances connate with the 

 bractea that subtends it. Ovules regarded as receiving impregnation from 

 direct contact of the pollen with the foramen of the ovule. Bracteas imbri- 

 cated. Carpels, which are the ovaries in an enlarged and ripened state, im- 

 bricated. Seed having in many species a membranous wing. Embryo included 

 within a fleshy oily albumen, and having from 2 to many opposite cotyledons, 

 and the radicle being next the tip of the seed, and having an organic connexion 

 with the albumen. Brown has noticed a very general tendency in some 

 species of Pinus and ^'bies to produce several embryos in a seed. — Trees, 

 almost all evergreen, the wood abounding in resin. Leaves needle-shaped, 

 scale-like, or lanceolate ; in some species disposed in groups, with a mem- 

 branous sheath about the base of the group, at least in most of these ; in 

 some in rows, in some oppositely in pairs, decussate in direction ; imbricately 

 in several. {Lindl. Nat. Syst. of Bot. ; T. Nees ab Esenbeck Gen. PI. Fl. 

 Germ. Illustr. ; Richard Mem. sur les Coniferes ; Wats. Bendr. Brit. ; and 

 observation.) 



The Coniferae were first studied scientifically by Tournefort. In his In- 

 i'/i/M;io«<?5, &c., published in 1717-19, this botanist established the following 

 nine genera; viz., J'bies, Pinus, Larix, TTiiija, Cupressus, Cedrus, Junlperus, 

 Taxu°s, and JS'phedra. Linnaeus, in his Genera Plantarwn, published in 1737, 

 only admitted seven of Tournefort's genera, uniting iarix to J'bies, and 

 Cedrus to Junlperus. Adanson, in 1763, in his Families des Plantes, adopted 

 Tournefort's genera, with the exception of Cedrus, which, with Linnjeus, he 

 united to Juniperus ; and he added to the Coniferas the genera Casuarina 

 Rumph., and .Equisetum L. A. L. De Jussieu, in 1789, in his Genera Planta- 

 rum, formed the family of Coniferae of the seven genera adopted by Linnaeus, 

 placing there the Casuarina of Rumphius, and adding the genus Araucdria. 

 Lamarck (Encyc. Meth., ii. p. 32., published in 1790), under the article Co- 

 nifers, adopted the genera of Linnaeus and Jussieu, with the exception of 

 y/TOMcam, which he describes, in another pai't of his work, under the name of 

 Dombeya. GiErtner, in 1791 {Be Fruct. et Sem. Plant.), united in one 



