GTMXOSPEEMIA. 359 



sidered as a single flower. The nature of the pollen is further explained 

 in the physiological part of this work. The female inflorescence consists 

 of a cone, composed of single carpellary scales, each seated in the axil of 

 a membranous bract, the whole spirally arranged round the axis ; each 

 carpel possessing, on the upper face at the base, 2 naked ovules, with their 

 points directed towards the base of the carpel. In other Abietinece the 

 stamens are more complex : in Cunninghamia the anther is 3-celled ; in 

 Araucaria many-celled, the loculi consisting of free tubular bodies attached 

 by their apices to a thickened connective at the upper end of a slender 

 filament. The condition of the carpels also varies, Araucaria and Dammara 



Fig. 445. 



Fig. 447. 



Fig. 445. Open carpel of Pinus, with two naked ovules at the base. 



Fig. 446. Winged seed of Pine. 



Fig. 447. Anther-bearing scale of Pinus. 



having but 1 ovule, Cunninghamia 3, and other genera more. A diversity 

 also appears in the cones, from the different ways in which the carpels are 

 developed ; in Pinus sylvestris, and many others, the upper ends become 

 thickened into woody heads (apophyses) meeting in a valvate manner, 

 forming the " tessellse " of the continuous surface of the unopened cone, 

 while in Abies, Cunninghamia, &c. the upper ends of the ripe carpels 

 overlap in an imbricated manner. The bracts are obviously serially con- 

 tinuous with the leaves of the branch, but the scales within the bracts 

 have been the subject of much controversy. The generally adopted view 

 is that they represent two leaves fused together and produced from a 

 contracted or undeveloped branch axillary to the bracts. Brongniart 

 considered the scale as produced by an enation or chorisis from the bract. 

 According to him, in the cones of Cupressinece there are bracts and no 

 scales ; in those of Abietinece the bracts are split to the base so as to 

 form a bract and a scale superposed to it ; while in Araucaria the cone 

 consists of bracts only partially split. 



In Cupressinece, the stamens of Cupressus, Juniperus, Thuja, &c. are 

 peltate, with several loculi under the overhanging connective ; and the 

 carpels representing the female flowers have in Thuja 2 ovules, in 

 Cupressus many, in Juniperus 2 or only 1 erect ovule at the base ; in 

 Juniperus the carpels ripen into fleshy structures, cohering together so as 



