CONIFERyJ-:. 



Order CIII. CONIFERS. 



Ill 



Resinous and mostly evergreen trees or slirubs, with usually awl- or needle-shaped 

 or scale-like mostly rigid leaves, and monoecious or rarely dioecious achlamydeous 

 flowers ; male flowers reduced to the stamens only, which are indefinite in number 

 and often numerous, the filaments upon a central axis, with the anther-cells (2 or 

 more) cither adnate to the back of the connective or suspondi^d from the under side 

 of its scale-like or peltate summit, the cells dehiscing variously ; fertile amcnts con- 

 sisting of f(!w or many scales, becoming a dry coiio in fruit or fleshy and berrydiko 

 (in Juniperus) ; ovules naked, 2 or more, at or on the base of each scale, aduate or 

 free, erect or inverted ; seeds naked or winged, with chartaceous or crustaceous or 

 sometimes bony testa. Embryo straight, axile in fleshy oily albumen ; cotyledons 

 2, or often several in a whorl. 



A large and most important order, cosmopolitan, but found most abundantly in the temperate 

 and cooler portions of the northern hemisphere ; valuable above all others for its timber and for 

 its resinous proihuts (the Abictincw especially), and very extensively planteil for shade and orna- 

 ment. The following tribes and genera are represented in California, the chief remaining tribe 

 yira near tree largely replacing them in the southern hemisphere. The morphology of the Howers 

 in this order has been the subject of much controversy, and some points are still by no means set- 

 tled. It is now generally admitted, however, that the staminate inflorescence is to be considered 

 as a single polyandrous flower, rather than as an anient, and that view is here adopted, though it 

 is found convenient to occasionally make use of the ordinary terminology in the descriptions. The 

 distinction of bracts and carpellary scales in the female aments, which is so evident in the Abie- 

 (incce, is obscure in the preceding tribes, the two organs being consolidated into one body in the 

 Taxodinece, while in the Ciiprcftsinra; the presence of anything corresponding to a carpellary scale 

 may be considered as questionable, the e.visting "scale" answering pretty evidently to the "bract " 

 of the Abietincoa. 



Tkibe I. CUPRESSINEyE. Scales of the fertile anient few, decussately opposite, apparently 

 simple, becoming a small cone or connate into a drupe-like gnlbiihis. Ovules 2 to several 

 in their axils, orthotropous and erect. Cotyledons 2, very ritrely more. Anther-cells 2 to 

 8, introise on the lower part of the face of the more or less peltate connective-scale : pollen- 

 grains simiile. Leaves decussately opposite or ternate, often dimoriihous, usually scale- 

 like and mostly adnate, the earlier free and subulate : leaf-buds not .scaly. 



♦ Flowers dioecious : fruit drupedike with bony ovate seeds : leaves opposite or in threes ; foliao'e 



never 2-ranked. 



1. Juniperus. Ovules in pairs or solitary at the base of the fleshy (4 to 6, or 3 to 9) scales. 



Seeds 1 to 5 or more. Berry globose, reddish, or blue or blackish, ripening the second 

 year. 



* ♦ Flowers nioncecious : fruit a cone : leaves opposite. 



+- Cone subglobose, of spreading peltate or wedge-shaped scales : seeds 1 or more to each scale, 



angled or narrowly winged. 



2. Cupressus. Seeds several to each thickened woody peltate scale, maturing the second year. 



Foliage never 2-ranked. 



3. Chamaecyparia. Seeds 1 or 2 to each thin scale, maturing the first year. Leaves and 



branches more or less 2-ranked. 

 -1- 4- Cone oblong, of imbricated or valvate oblong scales : seeds 2 to each scale, maturing the 

 first year : foliage 2-ranke(l. 



4. Thuya. Scales 8 to 12, rather thin, imbricnte. Seeds e(pinlly 2-wingiMl. 



5. Libocedrus. Scales G, thick-coriaceous and valvate, only the middle pair fertile. Seeds 



une(iually 2-winged. 



Tkibe II. TAXODINE/E. Scales of the fertile aments more numerous and spii-ally arranged, 

 in fruit forming a woody cone. Ovules er<'ct or in some genera inverted. Leaves alter- 

 nate. Otherwise as Cupvcssinecc, and intermediate lietween that tribe and the Abidincoe. 



6. Sequoia. Tall trees, with short-linenr to ovate-lanceolate acute cariuate leaves, and ovate 



cones with thick wedge-shaped spreading scales. 



