304 BOTANY OF THE LIVING PLANT 



attachment of the mature tree, which is often shallow-rooted. Some 

 of them, as in the Scots Pine, are mycorhizic, the roots being invested 

 by a fungal felt, which acts as an intermediary between the root and 



FIG. 246. 



Branch-end of Pinus Laricio, var. Austriaca, bearing laterally two shoots of un- 

 limited growth, and a cone replacing a third one. Each is covered by numerous 

 " foliage spurs " bearing two " needles." At the base of the figure these are fully 

 developed ; above they are half-grown, the shoot having been cut in spring. Two 

 young female cones (j) at the distal end, are at the period of pollination. (After 

 Groom.) 



the soil (p. 195). But as seedlings can be raised in pure cultures with- 

 out the fungus, its presence, however advantageous, is not necessary. 

 The external characters of the Coniferae thus briefly sketched 

 stamp the appearance of most of them. The general plan of their 

 Plant-Body or sporophyte is the same as that seen in Angiosperms. 



