CONIFER.^. 



447 



&c. (Figs. 318, 319); but is developed as a naked stalk in the Abietmefse, Salis 

 buria, the male plant of Taxus, Podocarpus, &c. (Fig. 317 A, B). The flowers 

 of Coniferae resemble those of Cycadeae in the peculiarity that the axis elongates 

 even at the part that produces the organs of reproduction; if these are numerous, the 

 whole flower presents the appearance of a long cone, resembling externally a catkin ; 

 and this term is indeed given to it in the superficial language of many systematists, 

 although the catkin of Dicotyledons is an inflorescence, the pseudo-catkin of Conifers 





Fig. ^iS.— Taxus baccata; A male flower (mag^nified), 

 « the pollen -sacs; ^ a stamen seen from below with open 

 pollen-sacs; C piece of a foliage-shoot with leaf <^, from the 

 axil of which springs the female flower, s its envelope of 

 scales, sk the terminal ovule; /> longitudinal section of the 

 same (magnified), i' integument, kk nucleus of the ovule, 

 X a rudimentary axillary ovule ; E longitudinal section 

 through a more mature ovule before fertilisation, i integu- 

 ment, kk nucleus, e endosperm, m aril, s upper scales 

 of the envelope. 



Fig. 319. — Jii7iipe}-tis commiDiis ; A longitudinal 

 section of a male flower, 5 (upper figure) a stamen seen 

 from the front and the outside, (lower figure) seen from 

 the back of the axis ; C longitudinal section of a female 

 flower; a the pollen-sacs, s the peltate lamina of the 

 stamen, b lower leaves of the floral axis, c carpels, 

 sk ovules, kk nucleus, i the integument (A and C X 

 about 12). 



a single flower. In Angiosperms the flowering shoot usually undergoes a very 

 peculiar development at its summit, the portion of the axis which bears the flower 

 (the receptacle) remaining very short and broad, and the floral leaves and organs 

 of reproduction being formed in positions which diff"er greatly from those of the 

 foliage-leaves; in Coniferae the distinction between a floral and a foliage- shoot is 

 much less, and this is especially conspicuous in the arrangement of the leaves ; 

 if those of the foliage-branches are arranged spirally, so also are usually those of 

 the flowers, as, e.g., in the Abietineoe ; if, on the contrary, as in the Cupressineae, 



