746 CONIFERS. (PINE FAMILY.) 



Order CIU. OI^ETACEiE, Blum. (Gnetum Family). 

 Shriibs 0)' trees, with amentaceous, monm oioiis or dim- 

 cious flowers, subtended hj slieaths or hracts, Staminate 

 flowers ; involuoel lifid, enclosing^ 1 stamen or several with 

 ^filaments connate in a column, loith %^rcelled anthers open- 

 ing ly a i^m^e at ajyex. Pistillate flowers : ovary solitary 

 or twin, surrounded ly a double or trijple involucre, ^the 

 outer with a narroio o])en mouth, the inner exserted in a 

 tuhde. Outer coating of seed^ leathery or fleshy. Embryo 

 in axis of fleshy albumen, antitrojyous, with 2 cotijledons. 



EPHEDRA, L. Ephedra. 



Flowers usually dioecious. Staminate aments ovate, bracts im- 

 bricated in 4 rows. Involucre of pistillate flowers of 2-3, fleshy, bifid 

 slieaths, or 4-5, membranous, imbricated scales — Shrubs, often climb- 

 ing, leafless, or with small, oj)posite, linear leaves, the nodes with short 

 sheaths. 



* Nutlets surrounded hy a fleshy involucre, forming a false drui^e. 



t Leafless. SheatJis of involucre glabivus. 



1. E. campylopoda, C. A. Mey, 5 Asperulous, climbing; 

 branches long, distorted; twigs whorled, often retrorse. Staminate 

 aments sessile, clustered, with 5-6 anthers, sessile on a long exserted 

 column ; 2^^stillate aments 3-6 in a cluster, 2-flowered on a reflexed or 

 recurved peduncle as long as orlonger tlian flowers ; sheaths 3-3, the lower 

 short, truncate, the upper long, enclosing tlie nutlets; tubule short, 

 straight — Late summer and autumn — Hedges; common, even east 

 of Jordan. 



1 1 Leafy, especially young Iranclies, Sheaths of involucre ciliate. 



2. E. Alte. C.A.M. 5 ■^^^^ Asperulous, climbing; branches long, 

 tortuous; iwigs whorled. Leaves short-linear, opposite. Staminate aments 

 sessile or short-peduncled, few-flowered, crowded at ends and nodes 

 of branches, wdth 3-4 anthers sessile on a long - exserted column ; 

 jnstillate aments 1-3 in a cluster, short-j)edic€lled, 1-2-flowered; sheaths 3, 

 the lower cup-shaped, the upper shorter tlian nutlet ; tubule straight — 

 Spring — Syrian Desert, Moab, Jericho, Jaffa, and southward. 



* -^- Sheaths of fruiting invohicre memlranoiis, not fleshy. Leafless. 



3. E. alata, Dec. 5 '^ddm. Scabrous or puberulent, not climb- 

 ing, rigid, pale. Aments sessile, crowded at ends and nodes of 

 branches; the staminate, with 3-5, stijntate anthers on a somewhat 

 exserted column ; the j^istHlate 2-flowered, lutescent in fruit ; leaves of 

 involucre 4-5, loosely imhricated, and 7iearly equal in length, as long as 

 ovate, acuminate, 3-angled nutlets — Spring — Et-Tih, and southward. 



Order CIV. CONIFERS, Juss. (Pine Family). 

 Ti'ces or shridjs, with resinous juice, aiol-shajKd, needle- 

 shaped, or scaly, entire leaves, monaicious {ii'arely dioecious) 

 flowers usually in cafkins or strobiles, thefloioers destitute of 



