Botany. 187 



Class 2. CONIFER/E. 

 N.O. 1. TAXACEM. 



1421. TAXUS baccata, L. (EW), 34. Woods and downs on the 



chalk ; common, but generally cultivated. 



N.O. 2. PIN ACE . 



1419. JUNIPERUS communis, L. 5, Shrub. Chalk downs ; common, 

 but generally cultivated. 



1422. PINUS sylvestris, L. (SCOTCH FIR). Cones pollinated in June, 



when the air is laden with pollen. It once covered large 

 tracts of land both in Great Britain and Ireland, but as a 

 native it has probably been extinct for ages, having been 

 displaced by other forest trees. It is extensively planted 

 for timber (deal) on sandy soils, but in the neighbourhood of 

 towns the cones do not ripen their seeds ; away from towns 

 where perfect seeds are produced, seedlings are very common. 

 NOTE. Cultivated Coniferae include : 



Araucaria, the Monkey Puzzle ; Pinus (P. sylvestris, L. with 

 dwarf shoots bearing 2 needle-leaves, P. taeda, L. bearing 3. and 

 P. strobus, L. the Weymouth Pine, 5) ; Cedrus, with evergreen needles 

 arranged in bunches on dwarf shoots and spirally on the long shoots 

 (C. atlantica, Man., from the Atlas Mts., C. deodora, Lond., the 

 Deodar of the Himalayas, and C. libani, Barrel., the Cedar of 

 Lebanon) ; Larix, the Larch, with needles as in Cedrus, but deciduous ; 

 Picea, with 4-angled or flat leaves on long shoots and pendulous 

 cones (P. excelsa, L., the Spruce-fir) ; Tsuga, as Picea, only with flat 

 linear leaves (T. canadensis, Carr., the Hemlock Spruce, and T. Doug- 

 lasii. Carr.. the Douglas Fir) : Abies, with flat linear leaves spirally 

 arranged on long shoots and erect cones (A. pectinata, DC., the 

 Silver-fir) ; Sequoia, with linear leaves and cones with seed-scales only, 

 each 5-seeded (S. gigantea, Lindl., the Wellingtonia, second only in 

 size to the Eucalyptus : some specimens are over 300 ft. high ; S. sem- 

 pervirens, Endl., the Redwood Tree) ; Cryptomeria, with dense short 

 upright subulate-leaves and cones with erect ovules and toothed 

 bract-scales (C. japonica, Don, the Japanese Cedar) ; Taxodium, the 

 Swamp Cypress, with deciduous leaves and erect ovules ; Thuja with 

 small cones having 4 seeding-scales, each 6-8 seeded (T. orientalis, 

 L., Arbor- vitae) ; Thujopsis. as Thuja, but seed-scales 4-5 seeded ; 

 Cypressus, the Cypress, with small, decussate adpressed leaves and 

 cones with peltate scales, each many-seeded ; Juniperus, with red 

 " berries " ( J. communis, L., with short flat leaves in whorls of 3, and 

 J. sabina, L. with adpressed leaves. The horticultural genus 

 Retinospora, seedlings of various sp. of Conifers (Thuja, Cypress, 

 Juniper), exhibit during the first year or two of their lives, instead of 

 the adult decussate adpressed type of leaf, the ordinary outstanding 

 needle form, and in their adult state branches sometimes revert to 

 this youth form ; if these seedlings or branches be now " culti- 

 vated," the youth or seedling type of leaf will be retained through 

 life. Most of these are found either at Greenwich Park or Avery Hill. 

 The following books on the Coniferce may be found useful : 



(1) Dr. A. B. Rendle's Classification of Flowering Plants, Vol. I., 1904 ; 



(2) The Kew Hand List of Coniferce, 1903 ; (3) Veitch's Manual of the 

 Coniferce, 1900 ; (4) Gordon's Pinetum, 1875. 



