GENERAL REVIEW 



OF 



THE CONIFERS 



CONIFER/E, or Cone-bearing, is the name given to a Natural Order 

 of Plants consisting of trees and shrubs, chiefly evergreen, of almost 

 cosmopolitan distribution, and distinguished from every other Order 

 of Plants by certain characters or properties, by the presence of 

 any of which the coniferous plants may generally be recognised. 

 The most noteworthy of these characters are to be found in the 

 minute structure of their wood or stems, the resinous nature of 

 their secretions, the form and structure of their leaves, the extreme 

 simplicity of their flowers, and their fruit. The foliage and fruit, 

 together with the physical aspect of the plant or tree, or its general 

 appearance as presented to the eye, are the most easily observed ; 

 they are, therefore, except by the Botanist, almost the only characters 

 by which Horticulturists and others -recognise coniferous plants. 



The fruit of nearly all the species included in the Fir and Pine 

 tribe (Abietinese) which greatly resembles a cone in shape, doubtless 

 suggested the name Coniferse as a suitable designation for the Order, 

 and this name has been generally accepted ever since it was applied 

 by Linnaeus to the group of Gymnospennous plants known to him.* 

 The most prominent exception is Lindley, who, in conformity with the 

 rule almost universally observed in designating the Natural Orders the 

 selecting of one of the contained genera as a type around which the 

 others may be grouped -adopted the name PINACE.E (excluding the 

 Taxads) in his excellent work, "The Vegetable Kingdom.''! It may, 

 however, be observed, that if the name Coniferse as applied to the 

 Order on account of the form of the fruit borne by a large number 

 of the most important species belonging to it is not a sufficiently 

 comprehensive one to be applicable to the whole, the mode of growth 

 of a far greater number of species, especially in their young state, is 

 strictly that of a cone in outline. 



Many authors include in the Coniferse the group of trees and 

 .shrubs known as Taxads, of which the Yew is the type, assigning 



* Philosophia Botanica, p. 28 (1751). t Edition III. p. 226 (1853). 



