X INTRODUCTION. 



and composed of loosely-placed persistent scales. In the Genus 

 PsEUDO-LAEix (the Chinese Larch) the leaves are long, linear, 

 soft, deciduous, and disposed in tufts, or bundles on the adult 

 branchlets, and with the cones rather large, pendulous, and 

 composed of very deciduous and divergent scales. In the 

 Genus Cedrxjs (the Cedars) the leaves are in tufts on the adult 

 parts, persistent and evergreen ; with the cones erect on the 

 upper surface of the larger branches, and the scales more or 

 less deciduous after the seeds are ripe. From the true Abie- 

 tincEe Professor Link has, in a very able article on the Genus 

 Pinus, separated the Genera, comprising Dammara, Cunning- 

 hamia, and Araucaria, into a New family, under the name of 

 DammaracejE, not only on account of the breadth and expan- 

 sion of their leaves, but from their containing spiral vessels 

 sufficiently large to be easily perceptible in the leaves, pro- 

 duced on the older wood,* and from the inverted position of 

 the female blossoms. 



In the CuPRESSiNE^ all the branches are scattered along the 

 main stem, the lateral ones being densely furnished with slen- 

 der branchlets clothed with scale-like leaves, mostly imbricated 

 in four rows on the adult plants. 



In the JuNiPERiNEiE 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 coni- 

 ferous plants, as they do not bear cones, and have continuous 

 inarticulate branches, the wood of which have ligneous tissue, 

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

 popular enumerations, being considered as of the same character 

 and general habit of growth. 



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

 shoots of Pmus and Abies. 



