CONDORCONIFERS. 



129 



these leet consists of the metatarsal bones only. This 

 structure of foot enables the animal to spread out its 

 hind toes till they are as wide apart from each other 

 as those of a free-toed bird ; but whether the animal 

 uses the extensive resistance which it can obtain by 

 this means, in pushing through soft earth or through 

 tangled vegetables, has not been ascertained. The tail 

 is remarkable i'or having transverse folds of the skin, 

 corresponding to the different vertebrae, and in the 

 intervals, between those folds, there are long hairs 

 more thinly set than in any other part of the body. 

 The colouring of the fur upon the body is nearly the 

 same as that of the common mole, and it is glossy, and 

 difficult to be soiled or wetted while the animal is 

 alive ; but its texture is not so delicate as that of the 

 fur of the European mole. The whiskers do not 

 spread out to the sides as in most small animals, but 

 project forward. On the feet there is a large mem- 

 branous scale on the inner surface, and a few scattered 

 hairs on the outer. In its general form this animal 

 indicates more activity in motion, though probably 

 less strength in proportion than the mole ; but its 

 manners are so imperfectly known, that no very good 

 account of its economy can be obtained. It is not 

 large, being about four inches long in the body, and 

 with a tail about half that length. 



Condylura longicaudata. This species is still less 

 known than the former; it inhabits the northern 

 parts of America, but whether exactly the same kind 

 of places as the other is not said. It is without the 

 nasal crest; the tail is rather longer than half the 

 body ; the fore feet are similarly formed to those of 

 the moles, but the hind feet are long and slender. 

 The feet are scaly, thus indicating a digger in the 

 ground, an inhabitant of watery places, or both. 



The time of pairing, the period of gestation, the 

 number of young, the state in which they first appear, 

 the length of time that they are suckled, their age at 

 maturity, the length of their lives, and all of what may 

 be termed their domestic history, is entirely unknown ; 

 neither are we able to tell, with any certainty, what is 

 their principal function, or the importance of that 

 function in the general economy of nature. 

 CONDOR. See VULTURE. 

 CONIA (Blainville), Asemus (Ranz), a genus of 

 mollusc, separated from the family balanides in con- 

 sequence of a particular combination of the number 

 of pieces forming the tube. The shell is conical, de- 

 pressed, the coronary part formed of four pieces only, 

 more or less distinct, nearly equal, and usually striated 

 from the summit to the base, with or without distinct 

 areas. The support is flat, very thin, or altogether 

 membranous. The operculum articulated, pyramidal, 

 composed, as in the balani, of two pieces on each side, 

 moveable, or as it were soldered to each other. 



The genus has been subdivided into the species 

 whose valves are pectiniform, with the areas and the 

 divisions very distinctly marked. The second divi- 

 sion includes all those in which the valves are but 

 little or not at all distinct, and without any traces of 

 areas. The animal is precisely the same as that of 

 the balanus. 



CONIFERJE. The fir family. A natural order 

 of dicotyledonous plants, containing twenty or thirty 

 genera, and nearly two hundred known species. 



Considerable discrepancy of opinion existed for a 



long time among botanists in regard to the structure 



of the conifers; ; but the researches of Richard and 



Brown have dispelled all difficulty on the subject, 



NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



and have enabled us to comprehend fully the organi- 

 sation of this most interesting family. The order oc- 

 cupies a place intermediate between the cellular and 

 vascular plants. To the former it is connected by 

 means of Lycopodiaceae, with which it agrees in the 

 aspect of the stem and leaves, and in the nearly total 

 absence of spiral vessels ; while it is connected with the 

 latter through the intervention of the oak, willow, and 

 birch tribes, with which it agrees in having an amen- 

 taceous inflorescence. It bears a very strong affinity 

 to Cycadccc, resembling this family in the form of its 

 naked ovula, in its mode of inflorescence, in the ar- 

 rangement of the veins of the leaves, in the imperfect 

 formation of the spiral vessels, and in having the 

 vessels of the wood perforated by numerous holes. 



The name Coniferce is derived from the fruit, which 

 is in the form of a cone. The essential characters of 

 the order are : Flowers, monoecious or dioecious : 

 Sterile flowers, monandrous or monadelphous, each 

 floret consisting of a single stamen, or of a few united, 

 collected in a deciduous catkin about a common 

 rachis ; anthers two or many-lobed ; pollen large : Fer- 

 tile flowers, generally in cones, sometimes solitary ; 

 ovary in the cones spread open, and having the ap- 

 pearance of a flat scale destitute of style or stigma, 

 and arising from the axil of a membranous bractca ; 

 ovules naked, in the cones in pairs on the face of the 

 ovary, having an inverted position, in the solitary 

 flowers erect ; fruit consisting either of a solitary 

 naked seed or a cone ; seeds with a hard, crustaceous 

 covering ; embryo in the midst of a fleshy and oily 

 albumen, with two or many opposite cotyledons. 



The plants belonging to this order are resinous 

 trees or shrubs with branched trunks, and linear, rigid, 

 entire leaves, furnished with parallel veins, and some- 

 times sheathed at the base. They are found in va- 

 j rious and very different parts of the globe ; some in- 

 habiting the cold regions of the north, and others 

 growing in the hottest parts of the Indian Archi- 

 pelago. They abound in the temperate climates of 

 Europe, Asia, and America, and many species are 

 furnished by the Australian continent. 



The order has been divided into three sections : 

 I. AbictinecE, the pine tribe, including the genera 

 Abies, fir or spruce ; Pinus, pine ; Larix, larch ; Cedrus, 

 cedar ; Cumiinghamia, Dammara, Araucaria, &c. II. 

 Cupressincce, the cypress tribe, comprehending the 

 genera Cuprcssus, cypress, Junipcrus, juniper, Thuja, 

 &c. III. Taxincee, the yew tribe, including Taxus, 

 yew, Ephedra, Podocarpus, &c. 



All the species of this extensive family are raised 

 from seeds. The cones are gathered in winter and 

 exposed to the sun, or the gentle heat of a fire or kiln. 

 In this manner the scales are opened, and the seeds 

 easily taken out. The cones of the Scotch pine, the 

 common spruce and larch, require kiln heat ; while 

 those of the Weymouth pine, silver fir, and balm of 

 Gilead fir, give out their seeds easily without the aid 

 of artificial heat. So long as the cones are kept close 

 ! the seeds remain uninjured, and they ought not be 

 opened long before the seeds are sown, otherwise 

 germination is apt to be prevented. The seeds are 

 sown in the months of March and April, in soft 

 rich soil. They ought at first to be screened from 

 \ the sun and protected from birds. They require a 

 covering of earth, varying from one-fifth of an inch 

 to an inch and a half. For the spruce fir one inch 

 is required, for the silver fir, and balm of Gilead 

 fir, the depth of soil varies from one-half to three- 



