210 CONIFERS. 



50. CONIFERS. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Stameniferous flow- 

 ers monandrous or monadelphous, arranged as an amen- 

 tum. Anthers two or more lobed, with a dehiscence 

 outwards ; often crested. Pistiliferous flowers in cones 

 or solitary. Ovarium open, existing as a membrana- 

 ceous scale, from the base of which and internally in the 

 cones, arises an expanded placenta, having at its base 

 two ovules which are inverted; in a solitary flower 

 the placenta is not expanded, and the ovules are erect ; 

 the membranes of the ovules remain open at the top. 

 Fruit, a cone formed by the expanded and indurated 

 placentae, and often by the ovarial leaf as well ; or a sin- 

 gle nut enveloped by a succulent covering. Seeds with 

 a hard crustaceous testa ; embryo in the midst of 

 fleshy oily albumen, with two or many cotyledons ; 

 radicles next the apex of the seed, and organically con- 

 nected with the albumen. 



Trees or shrubs, with linear, acerose, or lanceolate 

 leaves, sometimes fascicled. The woody tissue marked 

 with circular depressions. 



Geographical Relations. To be found from Hudson's 

 Bay to Van Diemen's Land, but the chief part of the 

 family is to be looked for in the temperate latitudes. 



Properties. Abound in resinous turpentine juices, 

 and afford valuable timber. To some of the lower ani- 

 mals the leaves, etc., of the Yew are poisonous, and it 

 is said the succulent fruit is so to man, some supposing 

 the noxious power to be in the seed itself, others in the 

 succulent covering. As far as my own practical expe- 

 rience goes, the succulent part is not only innocuous, but 



