DICOTYLEDONS CONIFERS DIAGRAM 16. 201 



plants. Their leaves are hard, slender, with parallel fibres, like 

 the leaves of monocotyledons ; and they do not fall off annually ; 

 in other words, the trees of this family are all evergreens, with two 

 or three exceptions, as the salisburia and larch, which have 

 deciduous leaves. 



The name of the family is derived from the fruit, which is 

 cone-shaped, and is commonly called pine-cones. The flowers are 

 inconspicuous, as in the Cupuliferse ; the sexes are separate, the 

 male flowers form clusters, and the female flowers are likewise 

 often arranged in clusters. The latter increase and become 

 pine-cones ; their scales thicken, and inside each we find a fruit 

 furnished with a membrane like a wing. The male clusters are 

 often crowded together, and yield an abundant pollen which 

 forms a yellow dust. If we gather a branch of fir in spring, 

 which is thus loaded with clusters, we shake off much of this 

 dust, which the wind carries to a great distance. Jf the pollen 

 of a pine forest is carried away by a gust of wind, it forms a 

 real cloud when it descends upon the country at a distance. As 

 this pollen is yellow, and burns easily, it has sometimes been 

 mistaken for sulphur. 



Plants of the family Coniferse nearly always grow on moun- 

 tains, or in dry countries, even on the sands of the sea-shore. 

 Their timber is specially adapted for ship-building, and they 

 also yield resin, tar, and pitch. Fir trees are sometimes planted 

 on sand-dunes near the sea, that their roots may hold the sand 

 together and prevent its spreading further inland, and making 

 the neighbouring country sterile. 



The Pinaster is a cultivated plant in England. On the Con- 

 tinent it grows either on mountains or by the sea-side ; its 

 leaves are long, and inserted in pairs into a common sheath. 

 The scales of the cone are thick. The pinaster is cultivated 

 abroad for the sake of the* resin which it yields while living, and 

 the planks which it makes when felled. It is not used until it 

 is of about twenty or thirty years' growth, and then the collectors 

 of resin make an incision through the bark about a foot long, 



