CONIFERS. 



267 



American Abies-speciea (A. balsamea and Fraseri). The officinal Turpentine 

 is mainly obtained from Pinus pinaster (South of France), P. tada, australis, 

 utrobus (Weymouth Pine) and other North American species; more recently 

 also from P. silvestris (Scotch Fir), maritlma, laricio, Picea excelsa, and others ; 

 Venetian Turpentine, from Larch (S. Eur.) Amber is resin from a Tertiary 

 plant (Pityoxijlon succiniferum), closely related to the Pine, which grew especially 

 in the countries round the South-East coast of the Baltic. Pinus pinea (the 

 Pine, S. Eur.) has edible seeds and also P. cembra (in Cen. Eur. and Siberia). 



Order 3. Taxodiaceae. The vegetative leaves and cone-scales 

 are arranged spirally. The ovules (2-9) 

 are situated either at the base of the 

 ovuliferous scales, in which case they 

 are erect ; or at their centre, when they 

 are generally more or less inverted. The 

 ovuliferous scale is more or less united 

 with the cover-scale, and projects be- 

 yond the surface of the cone-scale, like a 

 comb (Fig. 269). The vascular bundles, 

 which extend into the cover-scale, have 

 the usual leaf-arrangement, viz. the 

 wood placed above the bast ; while those 

 bundles which enter the ovuliferous 

 scale have this arrangement of the 

 bundles reversed. 



FIG. 239. Crypiomeria ja 

 pontca. Portion of longitudinal 

 section through, female flower, 

 d cover-scale'; / ovuliferous 

 scale ; ou ovules ; fv and fv' 

 vascular bundles; the xylem is 

 indicated by a wavy line, and 

 the phloem by a straight line. 



Taxodium distichum (the North American " Swamp Cypress ") has annual 

 dwarf -branches, with distichous leaves, and cone-like " pneumathodia." In the 

 Tertiary period it was very common in the Polar regions. Sequoia (Welling- 

 t<mia) gigantea is the famous Californian Giant-Fir, or Mammoth-Tree, which 

 attains a height of 300 feet, a diameter of 36 feet, and is said to live for 1,500 

 years. Cryptomeria japonica (Japan, China) has the least adnate ovuliferous 

 scales ; Gli/pto^trobus (China) ; Arthrotaxis (Tasmania) ; Sciadopitys verticillata 

 (the only species in Japan) has, like Pinus, scale-like leaves on the long-branches, 

 of which those which are situated at the apex of the annual shoots suppoit 

 " double needles," i e. dwarf-branches similar to the two-leaved dwarf-branches 

 in Pinus, but without bud-scales, and with the two leaves fused together at the 

 edges into one needle, which turns its upper surface away from the long-branch. 



Order 4. Cupressaceae (Cypresses). The leaves are opposite 

 or verticillate, sometimes acicular, but most frequently scale-like 

 (Fig. 270). In the species with scale-like leaves, the seedlings 

 often commence with acicular leaves (Fig. 272), and branches 

 are sometimes found on the older plants which revert to this 

 form, seeming to indicate that the acicular leaf was the ori- 



