44^ 



PHANEROGAMS. 



pairs of leaves of Dammara stand at an acute angle to one another. The foHage- 

 leaves of most Conifers are very persistent, and may live for several years, their leaf- 

 cushions keeping pace in growth for a long time with the increase in size of the axis ; 

 in Larix and Salisburia the Reaves alone are deciduous in autumn, in Taxodium 

 distichum the axes that bear them are also deciduous. 



The Flowers of Coniferse are always diclinous ; either monoecious, as in the 

 Abietineae and Thuja, or dioecious, as in Taxus, Salisburia, and Juniperus commu7iis ; 

 the male are usually much more numerous than the female flowers. They are never 

 terminal on the primary stem, differing in this respect from those of Cycadeae ; even 

 the larger woody branches bear only rarely, as in Abies excelsa^ terminal (in this 

 case only female) flowers. Usually the flowers are produced at the apex of small 

 foliage-shoots of the last order, or in the leaf-axils of the stronger foliage-shoots. 

 In Thuja, for instance, male and female flov/ers appear- at the end of small short 



Fig. -^ij. —Salisburia adiantifolia (natural size). A a short secondary foliage-shoot with female flowers, on the naked axes 

 of which are placed the ovules j/t; B a male flower; C part of one magnified, a the pollen-sacs; D longitudinal section of 

 an ovule magnified ; E a ripe seed with an abortive one by its side on the floral axis. 



green shoots of the bilateral system of branches ; in Taxus and Juniperus, on the 

 other hand, in the axils of foliage-leaves of larger shoots ; in Abies pectiiiatii they are 

 found on the under side of shoots of a higher order at the summit of older trees, 

 both kinds in the axils of foliage-leaves, the female flowers singly, the male in 

 larger numbers. The flowers of Piniis sylvestris and allied species appear in the 

 place of the undeveloped branches (tufts of leaves) which stand in the axils of the 

 scales of growing woody shoots, the males usually in groups forming an inflores- 

 cence the primary axis of which is the mother-shoot, the female flowers generally 

 more scattered. In Salisburia the flowers appear exclusively on the short lateral 

 branches which annually form new rosettes of leaves, and they are situated in the 

 axils of the foliage-leaves or of the inner bud-scales (Fig. 317, ^ and B). 



The part of the floral axis immediately beneath the organs of reproduction is 

 densely covered with scales or foliage-leaves in the female plant of Taxus, Juniperus, 



