COX1FEILE 547 



CONIFERS. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL iii. 420. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovules are naked, solitary, or vary 

 from two to several collaterally inserted near the base, rarely 

 under the apex of an ovuliferous scale in the axil of a bract ; 

 they are superficial or partly submersed in the tissue of the 

 scale and erect or reversed with the micropyle superior or point- 

 ing to the base of the scale accordingly. The fruit is usually a 

 cone consisting of closely imbricating scales covering the seeds ; 

 but in many species of the tribes Taxese and Podocarpese, and 

 in Cephalotaxus the scales remain small while the large, solitary 

 seed projects considerably beyond them. The seed is ovoid or 

 oblong with a membranous, fleshy or crustaceous testa some- 

 times winged at the sides or again at the apex. Endosperm 

 is copious and fleshy or farinaceous, and remarkably ruminated 

 in Torreya. The embryo is straight and axial with two, three 

 or many cotyledons, usually shorter than the radicle. 



Pinus Pinaster may serve as a type of the Order. The 

 seeds are winged at the upper end, the wing being produced 

 by delarnination from the inner layer of the ovuliferous scale. 

 The outer layer of the testa is thick and woody while the 

 inner one is membranous. The embn~o is clavate, and 

 straight, with six to seven or more cotyledons which are tri- 

 gonous, obtuse and several times shorter than the cylindrical 

 radicle. 



Seedlings. The cotyledons vary greatly in different genera, 

 and in the different species of Pinus, Abies, and Picea the 

 number varies even in individuals. They also vary more or 

 less in shape dependent upon their number, in the same way 

 as in the secondary leaves of Pinus. When there are only 

 two they are flat or plano-convex, but when more numerous 

 they are trigonous, triquetrous, or form some segment of a 

 cylinder. 



The cotyledons of Taxus baccata (fig. 677) are linear, 

 obtuse, flat, or slightly plano-convex, two in number, 1*7 cm. 

 long, and 2 mm. wide. The primary leaves are opposite or 



N N 2 



