432 CONIFERS, (pine family.) 



mostly persistent leaves, and mouoecions or dioecious amentaceous flowers. 

 Calyx and corolla none. Ovules orthotropous. Fruit a cone or drupe, 

 Embryo in the axis of the albumen. Cotyledons 2 or more. 



Synopsis. 



Suborder I. ABIETINEjE. Fertile flowers consisting of numer- 

 ous bracted imbricated carpellary scales, bearing two collateral inverted 

 ovules at their base, and forming a cone in fruit. Buds scaly. 



1. PINUS. Leaves 2 - 5 in a cluster, mostly elongated, sheathed at the base. 



2. ABIES. Leaves single, short, destitute of a sheath. 



Suborder II. CUPRESSINE^. Fertile flowers consisting of few 

 bractless mostly peltate carpellary scales, bearing one or several erect 

 ovules at their base, becoming fleshy or indurated, and forming in fruit a 

 drupe or cone. Buds naked. 



3. JUNIPERUS. Fruit a drupe. Leaves minute, imbricated. 



4. CUPRESSUS. Fruit a globular cone, with peltate scales. Leaves imbricated, persistent. 



6. TAXODIUM. Fruit a globular cone, with peltate scales. Leaves spreading, on slender 



deciduous branchlets. 

 €. THUJA. Fruit an ublnng cone, with imbricated oblong scales. Leaves minute, imbri- 

 cated on the flattened branches, persistent. 



Suborder III. TAXINE^SI. Fertile flower solitary, without a car- 

 pellary scale. Fruit a drupe. Buds scaly. 



7. TAXUS. Drupe surrounded by a fleshy cup. Albumen homogeneous. 



8. TORREYA. Drupe naked. Albumen ruminated. 



1. PINUS, Toum. Pine. 



Flowers monoecious. Sterile aments spiked or clustered. Stamens numer- 

 ous on the axis, with very short filaments : anthers with a, scale-like connective, 

 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Fertile aments tenninal, single or clustered. Car- 

 pellary scales in the axils of deciduous bracts, each bearing two collateral in- 

 verted ovules at the base, indurated in fruit, and forming a cone ; the apex 

 commonly thickened, angular, and spiny. Seeds nuUike, lodged in an excava- 

 tion at the base of the scale, and furnished with a thin deciduous wing. Embryo 

 in the axis of oily albumen. Cotyledons 3-12, linear. — Trees. Leaves ever- 

 green, needle-shaped, 2-5 in a cluster, their bases enclosed in a thin scarious 

 sheath. 



* Leaves two in each sheath. 



1. P. pungens, Michx. (Table-Mountain Pine.) Leaves from a short 

 sheath, crowded, short and rigid ; cones large, commonly 3-4 in a whorl, ovate, 

 sessile, the thick scales pointed at the apex, and armed with a very stout spine, 

 which on the upper scales is incurved, on the lower ones recurved. — Mountains, 

 rarely west of the Blue Eidge, Georgia to North Carolina, and northward. — A 



