GYMNOSPERMS OR "NAKED SEED" TREES. 

 TREATED AS A CLASS. 



Also called the needle-leaved trees, evergreens, 

 softwoods and conifers. 



Size. Include largest of all forms of life. The Sequoia, most 

 massive of all trees, is exceeded in height only by the Eucalyptus of 

 Australia. Others, as the Douglas fir, sugar pine, Sitka spruce, western 

 red cedar, etc., of the Pacific forest, and the white pine of the Atlantic, 

 are larger than the largest Angiosperms of America. Sizes range down 

 to the shrubby juniper and eastern yew. 



Growth. Rate no more rapid but more persistent, as a whole, than 

 the angiosperms, e.g. white pine, Douglas fir. As to life, the Sequoias 

 are the oldest forms of all life, with ages of 3000 to 4000 years. 



Root System. Shallower than angiosperms. Ranges from deep 

 rooted pines to shallow rooted spruces. 



Bole. Normally undivided. Taper ranges from conical cedars to 

 cylindrical white pines. 



Crown. Monopodial, non-spreading. Pines, especially the white, 

 have a tendency to spreading habit. Evergreen, except larches and 

 bald cypress of U.S. 



Tolerance. Very tolerant, except pines and larches. 



Wood. The "softwoods". Relatively light, soft, straight-grained, 

 and easily worked; ranging from the hard, heavy, strong Douglas fir 

 (and southern hard pines) to the soft, light, and weaker white pine, 

 spruce and balsam. Durability greater than the angiosperms; ranging 

 from cedars and cypresses, most durable of all woods, to the perishable 

 firs. 



Reproduction. 1. By seed' the rule. Mostly prolific; seeds 

 mature in one season, except pines which require two and sometines 

 three seasons. Seeds winged and wind dispersed. 2. By coppice the 

 exception. Red wood, shortleaf pine, and pitch pine are known to 

 sprout, but only in the first (and possibly the second) is this of silvi- 

 cultural importance. 



Range. Tropics to Arctic Circle timber line, and sea-level to 

 mountain timber line. Chiefly in the Temperate Zone. Optimum on 

 the moist and humid Pacific slopes of North America. 



Climate. Indicated by range. 



Soil. Inhabit poorer soils and are more xerophytic than the 

 angiosperms; range from the rather fastidious white pine and hemlock 

 to the plebeian junipers and jack pine. 



Association. Far more gregarious than the angiosperms in 

 America. 



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