v.] TABULAR REVIEW. 49 



Each ovuliferous flower consists of a number of very 

 small rounded fleshy scales collected in a dense ellip- 

 soidal shortly-peduncled recurved spike, either solitary, or 

 two or three together at the ends of the branches. Each 

 of these fleshy scales is subtended by a minute bract, so 

 small in Scotch Fir as to be concealed between the 

 closely imbricating scales which they subtend. Upon the 

 upper face of each scale right and left at the base, is a 

 pair of inverted ovules, their minutely bidentate mouths 

 reaching quite to the base of the scale (Fig. 39. ) After 

 the staminate flowers have shed their pollen they fall 

 away, leaving a naked space on the stem, immediately 

 below the newly unfolding leafy axis. 



The short ovuliferous flower after fertilisation ultimately 

 enlarges into the cone or " Fir-apple," the ovule-bearing 

 scales becoming hard and woody, bearing a pair of 

 winged seeds upon their inner face. The seeds are 

 albuminous, and the embryo is provided with from four 

 to seven narrow cotyledons. 



Reviewing the floral structure of the Scotch Fir, it will 

 suffice here to note the absence of a perianth in the 

 diclinous flowers, and the absence of any closed carpel 

 around the ovules upon the stigma of which the pollen- 

 grains may fall and develop their tubes. 



A more detailed account of the peculiarities of Scotch 

 Fir and its allies is given at p. 244. 



ii. All flowering plants are either 



ANGIOSPERMS With their ovules enclosed in the ovary of a pistil, and 

 fertilised by pollen-tubes through the medium of a stigma'; 



DICOTYLEDONS, or MONOCOTYLEDONS, 



Embryo. 



Leaves . 

 Perianth. 

 Wood . , 



With 2 cotyledons, the radicle 

 itself usually elongating . 



Net-veined 



Parts in 4*3 or s's .... 



In a continuous ring . . . 



With i cotyledon, the radicle 

 usually remaining undeveloped. 



Straight-veined. 



Parts in 3*5. 



In isolated bundles. 



Or GY.MNOSPERMS With their ovules open, and fertilised by direct contact 

 of the pollen. 



12. Upon characters afforded by the flower, of subor- 

 dinate importance (because less constant) to those which 

 distinguish Dicotyledons from Monocotyledons, botanists 

 O.B. E 



