ILLUSTRATIONS. 117 



of very remarkable appearance, and some very striking exotic 

 species are occasionally seen in hothouses. One of them, At'is- 

 tolochia Gigas, has flowers of enormous size. 



A very peculiar group referred to this Monochlamydeous 

 series, is that of the Pinaceous or Coniferous plants, in which 

 there is no perianth, and what is more remarkable, the ovules 

 have no covering whatever, as they have in the case of other 

 Orders of plants. The Scotch Fir"^ is a familiar example. 

 This, as is well known, forms a large evergreen tree, which is 

 renowned for its valuable timber. The branches are clothed 

 with persistent leaves, which grow two together within little 

 membranaceous or scarious sheaths, and in this manner they 

 are thickly distributed over the branches ; they are stiff, dark- 

 green, awl-shaped or linear bodies, with a sharp point, and 

 are straight and directed forwards or towards the point of the 

 branch. The flowers grow in catkins, the two sexes separate. 

 Those containing the male flowers consist of closely imbricated 

 scales, on the inner face of which are two adnate anther-cells ; 

 the scales in this case are the connectives of the anthers, so 

 that the catkins are in reality formed simply of closely imbri- 

 cated anthers. In like manner the female catkins consist of 

 closely packed scales, having two ovules on the inner face of 

 each, these ovules having the open pore at their upper end, 

 technically called the foramen, turned downwards. The male 

 catkins fall away, but the female ones grow into the cone-like 

 fruit, from which the family has acquired the name of Conifers, 

 or Cone-bearers. This fruit, which is sessile, ovoid, conical, 

 and recurved, consists, when mature, of hard woody scales, 

 thickened upwards, and having a short thick point, which is 

 often turned backward in the lower scales. Each scale en- 

 closes two seeds, which have an oblique membranaceous wing. 



* Pinus sylvestris — Plate 19 C. 



