from the ovule, so far as known, is the same as that of the 
Conifere, we turn now to that order. 
CONIFER. 
The Conifer&, or cone-bearing trees, are so called from 
their fruit being in the form of cones, as in the Pines; 
“these cones are made up of flat scales regularly over- 
lapping each other, and pressed together in the form of a 
spike or head; each scale bears one or two naked seeds in 
its inner face.” “The pollen is contained in the substance 
of a body that retains in some degree its leafy type, and an 
assemblage of such bodies forms the ‘catkin.’” In the 
Cypress we have cells (corresponding to stamens) at the 
edge of the leaf. The leaves of Selaginella (a Cycopod), 
with their large and small spores (Figs. 136, 137), are as 
much flowers as the leaves of Coniferz with their organs. 
The Coniferae are invaluable to man, as including the most 
important of the timber-trees of cold countries, and furnish- 
ing the turpentines, resins, pitch, tar, and Canada Balsam. 
Among the Conifere are found the Pines, Fir, Spruce, 
Cypress, Cedars, Larch, and Juniper. Atcertain seasons the 
ovule of Coniferae develops in its interior a mass of cells, 
the Endosperm; later in this Endosperm appear Corpuscles; 
within the Corpuscle is developed the Embryonic vesicle. 
The Ovule, Endosperm, Corpuscle, and Embryonic vesicle 
are to the Conifere and Cycade what the Large Spore, 
Prothallus, Archegonium, and Embryo-cell are to the 
Lycopods, the pollen of the Gymnosperme corresponding 
to the small spores of the Lycopodiacex: the reproductive 
organs of Lycopodiacez and Gymnosperme are, therefore, 
essentially the same. The higher plants differ from these 
orders in that the embryo-sac contains the embryo-cell only; 
whereas, in Lycopodiacex and Gymnosperme, a Prothallus 
or Endosperm with Archegonia or Corpuscles is produced, 
