LESSON XXXIII 



GYMNOSPERMS 



THE commonest Gymnosperms are the evergreen cone- 

 bearing trees such as pines, spruces, larches, cypresses, and 

 yews. They all have a primary axis or trunk from which 

 branches arise in a monopodial manner, i.e., the oldest are 

 near the proximal, the youngest near the distal end. The 

 branches give off, in successive seasons, branches of a higher 

 order, so that the older or lower branches are always them- 

 selves more or less extensively ramified, and the whole plant 

 tends to assume a conical form, the base of the cone being 

 formed by the oldest secondary axes springing from the 

 base of the trunk, the apex by the distal end of the primary 

 axis. 



The branches are all axillary, each arising from the axil 

 of a leaf, and, like the main stem, ending distally in a 

 terminal bud. The foliage-leaves differ greatly in the various 

 genera of Gymnosperms : in the pines they are long, needle- 

 like structures, borne in pairs on short axillary branches or 

 dwarf-shoots. 



In correspondence with the size attained by the aerial 

 portion of the plant, the root attains far greater relative 

 dimensions than in any case we have previously studied. 



