CHAPTER IV: THE CONIFERS 



The distinguishing feature of tiiis great tree group is the 

 cojie-bearing habit. The overlapping scales of the cone are at- 

 ta(hed to a central stem, and each scale bears one or more naked 

 ovjles when the time of flowering comes. Pollen from the 

 stiminate flowers falls on the exposed ovules, fertilising them, 

 ard thus seed is set. The fertile scales are favourably situated 

 ndar the middle of the cone. Here the best seeds are found. The 

 terminal scales crowd at both ends of the cone, and their seeds 

 usually fail utterly or are stunted in development. 



The coalescence of scales to form soft berries characterises the 

 jifiipers, but the cone-like flowers indicate that the modification 

 ill fruit is more apparent than real. The scale tips are there on 

 tie outside of the berry to indicate the close kinship of these trees 

 vith other conifers. 



The yews are not conifers, but are set in a family by them- 

 selves. A single ovule stands erect in the pistillate flower, and 

 becomes in fruit a i-seeded drupe, or soft berry. Two genera of 

 yews, with two species of trees in each, constitute the family in 

 tne United States. The conifers include thirteen genera and a 

 g^eat number of species, quite overshadowing the yews in im- 

 portance. Together the two families form the botanical grand 

 division of the Gymnosperms, resinous plants (mostly trees) 

 whose flowers have no true pistils, but bear their ovules naked 

 on a cone scale in the conifers without even a scale to lean 

 upon in the yews. 



The Ginkgo or Maidenhair Tree {Salisbiiria adiantifolia), 

 of Japan and China, is a tree whose botanical affinities seem to be 

 with the conifers on one side and the ferns on the other. The 

 leaves are fan-shaped, usually cleft with one deep suture to the 

 petiole. The venation is the strange character. Unbranched 

 veins extend in radiating lines to the upper border of the fan, just 

 as in the leaf of maidenhair fern. The texture is leathery, and the 

 leaves are fascicled on the ends of very short side twigs. Bright 

 yellow green in summer, they turn to gold, and fall in the autumn. 



17 



