270 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



world. The group of the cone-bearers to which 

 the hemlock, cedar, pine, spruce, and fir, as well as 

 the arbor-vitae and the larch, belong, were the first- 

 born of flowering-plants. They are the link, con- 

 necting ferns and their allies with the kindred of 

 the lily and of the rose. 



All native cone-bearers belong to one botanic 

 group, the Pine family, and this divides itself into 

 two very unequal branches, the true pine connec- 

 tion (Pinaceae) and the yews (Taxaceae). 



All our wild evergreens, except the yews, are 

 numbered among the pinacere, and so are the larch 

 and the " bald "-cypress of the Southern States, 

 which are not evergreen. The Taxaceae are repre- 

 sented in this country by a couple of small garden- 

 shrubs, by the European yew, and the gingko or 

 " maiden-hair tree" of cultivated grounds, and by 

 the wild yew or ground-hemlock which straggles 

 over barren northern hillsides. 



The sprouting yew, like the baby-bean or maple, 

 appears above ground with two seed-leaves and so 

 do the seedling juniper, cedar, and arbor-vitae. 

 But the pine, spruce, fir, and hemlock begin at 

 once to show some characteristics which prove their 

 pedigree, and distinguish them from the kin of the 

 lily or of the rose. 



