218 TREES 



leaved trees. In the coal measures are found the mum- 

 mied remains of these prehistoric conifers. The cycads in 

 the Everglades of Florida are some of their surviving repre- 

 sentatives. These are facing extinction, and the conifers, 

 too, are declining. They had reached their prime as a race 

 when the broad-leaved trees appeared upon the earth. 

 The vigor of the new race enabled it to seize the richest, 

 well-watered regions. They drove the conifers to seek the 

 swamps, the exposed seacoasts, the barren and rocky 

 mountain slopes. Man has ruthlessly destroyed for tim- 

 ber the coniferous forests of this country and much of the 

 territory denuded by the axe is either devoted to agricul- 

 ture or has been seized by broad-leaved species of trees, 

 more tenacious of life and with seeds more quick and sure 

 to germinate than those of the conifers. The time is not 

 far distant, geologically speaking, when this ancient and 

 dechning family of trees will exist only as man fosters it by 

 cultivation. 



The conifers have resinous wood, with stiff, needle-like 

 or scale-like leaves, and inconspicuous flowers of two sorts, 

 borne in clusters like catkins. The pistillate catkin 

 matures into a woody cone made of overlapping scales at- 

 tached to a central stem. , On each scale are borne one or 

 more winged seeds. 



The one character which is constant in the whole co- 

 niferous group and sets it apart from the rest of the plant 

 kingdom, is expressed in the name Gymnosperm, applied to 

 this botanical grand division. It means "naked seed." 

 There is no ovary in the flower. The naked ovules are 

 borne on the scales of the fertile spike or catkin, which is 

 held apart and erect in blossoming time. They are 

 pollinated by the wind, which sifts them with golden pollen 



