210G 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



Pollen of each flower borne in 5 cases, attached to the scale at its inner 

 face. — Female. Catkins 2 — 3 together, near the base of the spike of cat- 

 kins of male flowers, each consisting of a small number of flowers. Ovules 

 2 to an ovary. Strobile globose. Scales peltate, angled. Seed angled in 

 outline, and having angular projections on the surface; its integument very 

 thick. Cotyledons 6 — 7. — Leaves linear, disposed in 2 ranks. Annual. 



* * Seres dioecious^ or rarely moncecioiis. 

 ./uNi'PERUs L. Male. Catkins axillary or terminal. Pollen of each flower 

 in 3 — 6 cases, attached to the basal edge of the scale, and prominent from 

 it. — Female. Catkin axillary, resembling a bud ; consisting of 1 — 3 fleshy 

 ovaries ; bracteated at the base. Ovules I to an ovary. The ovaries 

 coalesce, and become a fleshy juicy strobile, resembling a berry. Seeds 

 1 — 3, each obscurely 3-cornered, and having 5 gland-bearing pits towards 

 the base. — Leaves opposite or ternate, narrow, rigid, and not rarely minute 

 and scale-shaped. 



Sect. I. ^bie'tin^. 



Is 



The ^bietinae, or the pine and fir tribe (arbres verts, Fr. ; nadelholz, Ger.) 

 are timber trees, as important in the construction of houses, and in civil 

 architecture generally, as the oak is in the construction of ships, and in all 

 kinds of naval architecture. The trees of this section of the ConiferEe are so 

 different in their external appearance, not only from the trees of all other 

 orders, but even from the section C'upressina;, that they might well form an 

 order of themselves. The Jbietinae are almost all trees of lofty stature, pyra- 

 midal in form, and regularly furnished with verticillate fi-ond-like branches, 

 from the base to the summit of the trunk. These branches, unlike those 

 of every other kind of tree, die off" as the tree grows old, without ever attaining 

 a timber-like size ; so that, in a physiological point of view, they may be con- 

 sidered as rather like immense leaves than branches ; and this circumstance, 

 as well as others, seems to connect the pines and firs with the palms. Almost 

 all the species are evergreen, and have linear needle-like leaves ; whence the 

 German names of nadelholz and tangelholz. The number of Jbietinae 

 described by Linnaeus amounted to no more than 12 species. Smith, in 1819, 

 in Rees's Cyclopcedia, described 35 species; and in Lambert's Genus P'lnus, 

 the last volume of which was published in 1837, 66 species are described. 

 Besides these, some others have been introduced, of which little is yet 

 known ; so that the number in British collections is considered to amount to 

 upwards of 70 species, exclusive of varieties. They are all natives of tempe- 

 rate regions, and chiefly of the northern hemisphere. On the poorest descrip- 

 tion of dry soil, a greater bulk of valuable timber will be produced in any given 

 time by a crop of /ibietinae adapted to it, than by a crop of any other natural 

 order of trees whatever. According to Delamarre, the proportion between the 

 timber produced by the common pines, and the common broad-leaved trees 

 of Europe, in a poor dry soil, in any given time, is as 10 to 1. 



Deseript'ion. In regard to general form, the Jbietinae, when full grown, 

 and beginning to decay, are partly trees with spiry tops, and partly round or 

 flat-headed trees. The genera ^'bies, Pfcea, and Larix form conical trees, of 

 the utmost regularity of figure, in every stage of their growth ; the different 

 species of Pinus and C'edrus, on the other hand, form regular cones when they 

 are young, and until they attain a certain age ; but their heads become round or 

 flattened as they grow old ; the branches near the bottom of the trunk drop oft^ 

 and those near the summit increase in thickness, and in lateral extension ; and 

 hence the grandeur of the heads of these trees, when favourably situated and 

 of great age. The genus C'edrus is remarkable for the horizontal direction 



