CHRISTMAS TREES 303 



by Charles II. In Scotland it is still ignored, and in 

 Latin countries presents (strena, or in French Us 

 etrennes) are given on New Year's Day and not on 

 Christmas Day. 



The spruce is in our part of the world the commonest 

 of the great series of cone-bearing trees which we speak 

 of as pines and firs. Botanists call this series or 

 " natural order " of trees the Coniferae, in reference to 

 the fact that their flowers are cone-shaped growths con- 

 sisting of scales set in a spiral order around a central 

 stem. Each scale is more or less overlaid by a second 

 small scale or " bract " (sometimes evanescent), and on 

 the inner surface of the deeper scale the naked ovules 

 are carried in the female cones, whilst the pollen-pro- 

 ducing growths are similarly carried by the smaller and 

 more delicate male cones. The ovules are exposed 

 nakedly, and are, therefore, in a more primitive condi- 

 tion than those of ordinary flowering plants, in which 

 they are overgrown and enclosed by the modified leaves 

 which form the " pistil " or central part of the flower. 

 Hence the conifers are called flowering plants with 

 " naked seeds," or Gymnosperms, whilst the rest of 

 the flower-bearing plants are called plants with " covered 

 seeds," or Angiosperms. The cones are at first green 

 (sometimes purple), and become brown as they ripen. 

 The small loosely-packed male cones, less familiar to 

 most people than the solid and large seed-bearing cones, 

 are often of a fine crimson colour when young, and when 

 ripe of a bright chestnut brown, but the cones of 

 pine trees are with few exceptions (the Douglas fir is 

 one) not brilliantly coloured nor set out to attract the 

 eye, as are the flowers of most flowering plants. Though 

 a young branch carrying its groups of green " needles," 

 rich brown male cones, silver-white hairs and swelling 



