CHAPTEK XI. 

 THE CONIFERJE. 



EXERCISE LV. 

 Characters of the Coniferce. 



THERE is still another large group of widely-dis- 

 tributed plants that must be specially described. 

 When we speak of evergreens, everybody knows 

 what we mean, and thinks of pines, balsams, hem- 

 locks, spruces, cedars, junipers, arbor-vitaes, or what- 

 ever species are most familiar. When we speak of 

 cone-bearing trees or shrubs, it is not quite the same 

 group of plants that is thought of, for, although every- 

 body knows what cones are, yet untaught and unob- 

 servant people would hardly think of a juniper-berry 

 as in any way allied to a cone. But, although cone- 

 bearing trees are everywhere to be found, and uni- 

 versally known, yet very few people can tell when 

 they flower, what sort of flowers they bear, or what 

 a cone really is ; and yet their structure and habits 

 in respect to flowering and fruiting are even more 

 remarkable than their general appearance. They are 

 monoecious or dioecious, and blossom in spring. Their 

 flowers are in clusters, usually aments, sometimes in 

 the axils of the leaves, and sometimes at the extremi- 

 ty of the branches. The fruit is two years in ripen- 

 ing, so that the full-grown cones, seen upon- them in 

 summer, were blossoms the year before. 



To study their flowers, you must begin in the 



