CLASS II. GYMN OSPERMS. 



OVULES not enclosed in an ovary, fertilized by the pollen without 

 the intervention of a pistil, and becoming truly NAKED SEEDS, the 

 carpel being represented by a flat open scale or entirely wanting. 

 EMBRYO with 2 opposite, or several whorled cotyledons. 



ORDER CXXXI. CONIFEKJE. CONIFERS. 



Trees or evergreen shrubs, with branching trunks, abounding in a resinous juice. 



Lvs. scattered or fascicled, linear or acerose (rarely lanceolate), parallel- veined, rigid, generally evergreen. 



Fls. monoecious or dioecious, destitute of calyx or corolla. 



Sterile, monandrous or monadelphous, collected in a kind of loose ament 



Anth. 2 or many-lobed, often tipped with a crest. Pollen lame, usually cpmpound. 



Fertile, in aments composed of open, scale-like carpels, or solitary and without a carpel. 



Ovary, style and stigma wanting. Ovules i, 2 or many, erect or inverted. 



Fr. A strobile (cone), or a solitary seed. Integuments hard and crustaceous. 



Embryo in the axis of oily albumen. 



Genera 29, species 150, natives of all climates, but most abundant in the temperate /ones, those of the 

 southern, however, very different from the pines, spruces, larches and cedars of the northern. 



Properties. Few orders can be named, which are of more importance to mankind, whether in refer- 

 ence to their invaluable timber or their resinous secretions. Turpentine, tar, pitch and resin are the 

 product of the pines. Burgundy pitch is yielded by Pinus sylvestris of Europe ; Venetian turpentine 

 by the Larix ; oil of Savin bf Juniperus Sabina of Europe, &c. 



, m ^ _ 12 



FIG. 54. 1. Branch of Thuja occidentals, with strobiles. 2. A magnified branchlet with a sone of 

 staminate flowers. 3. A carpellary scale with the two winged seeds. 4. A vertical transverse section 

 of one of the seeds, showing the embryo, &c. 5. The immature, erect ovules. 6. One of the ovules 

 enlarged, showing the micropyle at top. 7. Branch of Abies Americana. 8. Scale, with the bract. 9. 

 Scale with immature ovules. 10. Scale with ripe seeds. 11. A pair of leaves of Pinus resinosa. 12. 

 Anther of Pinus sylvestris. 13. Scale of the cone, with the ovules turned downwards. 14. Staminate 

 scale of Cupreous, with Dollen. 15. Fertile scale, with many erect ovules. 



