CONIFERS 307 



Corsica, Cevennes ; Arctic Europe and Asia, Himalaya, N. America, 

 Algeria, rare in England. In Siberia the Juniper reaches lat. 69° 

 (Henry Seebohm). 



Juniperus Sabina L. 



Leaves like small rhomboid imbricated scales in 4 rows, or 

 acicular, broadly subulate and spreading. Cone or ' berry ' on a 

 short recurved stalk, not so dark in colour as the other. Bark 

 of the branches reddish brown. 



Dry, stony places up to 8200 feet. Flowers in April and May. 



It is a characteristic shrub of some of the hot Alpine valleys 

 and Pine forests in the south of Switzerland. 



Distribuiion. — Eastern, Central, and Western Alps ; Jura, 

 Pyrenees, Caucasus, Siberia, N. America. 



EPHEDRACE^ or GNETACE^ 



Leaves opposite, very small. Flowers unisexual, male flowers 

 with a tubular membranous perianth, otherwise resembling Coniferce. 

 A very small family of chiefly tropical and Mediterranean plants. 



Ephedra helvetica C. A. Meyer. 



A small dioecious shrub, with opposite branches and no leaves. 

 Stem 1-2 feet high. Female catkins when ripe appearing like red 

 berries, peduncled ; male catkins sessile. The plant resembles 

 certain species of Equiseium in outward appearance. 



Rocky hiUsides ; local. In Switzerland only in Valais (Sion, 

 Sierre, Fully, etc.). April, May. 



Distribution. — Valais, Dauphiny, Central Europe. 



Note.— Conifers possess a power of resistance to extreme cold 

 unsurpassed by any form of vegetation except perhaps the micro- 

 scopic plants which live in the oceans of Arctic regions. The 

 Siberian settlement of Werchsjanst, in about 68° N. lat., is perhaps 

 the coldest inhabited place in the world. The maximum winter 

 temperature is never less than 76 degrees of frost, and occasionally 

 there are 100 degrees of frost. Yet this settlement is surrounded 

 by coniferous trees. 



Dr. Borthwith ^ recently alluded to Kienitz's investigations into 

 the shapes and types of Scots Pine, of which there are two distinct 

 types. The typical Scotch form is a strong-branched, strong- 

 crowned tree. The other is slender and pyramidal, and occurs 

 generally in the Baltic provinces. 



' /« Address to Bot. Soc. of Edinburgh, November, 191 1. 



