INTRODUCTION. Vll 



Araucaria, into a New family, under the name of Dammarace^, 

 not only on account of the breadth and expansion of their 

 leaves, but from their containing spiral vessels sufficiently large 

 to be easily perceptible in the leaves, produced on the older 

 wood,* and from the inverted position of the female blossoms. 



In the CupREssiN^ all the branches are scattered along the 

 main stem, the lateral ones being densely furnished with slender 

 branchlets clothed with scale-like leaves, mostly imbricated in 

 four rows on the adult plants. 



In the JuNiPERiN^ the fruit is a kind of berry (Galbulus), 

 composed of a fleshy or fibrous juicy substance, covered with 

 a glossy skin, and furnished externally with minute scales. 



The TAXACEiE, or Yew family, although not properly conife- 

 rous plants, as they do not bear cones, and have continuous in- 

 articulate branches, the wood of which have ligneous tissue, 

 marked with circular disks, are still classed with coniferac in all 

 popular enumerations, being considered as of the same charac- 

 ter and general habit of growth. 



* The spiral vessels are very small, and only perceptible in the young 

 slioots of Pinus and Abies. 



