PHANEROGAMIA 



441 



left, appear as if arranged in comb-like rows. The cones are terminal and pendent ; 

 at maturity the seeds drop out and the cones then fall off entire, retaining their 

 scales. The cover-scales are very small, and not visible externally. Pinus silves- 

 tris, the Scotch Fir, a forest tree upwards of 40 m. high with a dome-shaped crown. 

 The needles are borne in pairs on greatly shortened lateral axes, or dwarf-shoots 

 (spurs), provided with scale-like leaves. The male flowers (Fig. 372, 1, a), externally 

 like those of Abies, spring closely crowded together from the summit of elongated 

 shoots which, by continued growth, become prolonged beyond them, producing 

 leafy dwarf- shoots. The female flowers are at first spherical and of a reddish 



f& l B. 



Fig. 37"2. — Pinus silrcsti-is. 1, Branch with male (a) and female (b) inflorescences; c, cone; rf, 

 needles : 2, staminal leaf ; a, viewed from the side ; b, from below : 3, carpel ; a, viewed from 

 above ; b, from below : 4, fertile scale with the two seeds (a), seed-wing (b), seed (</) : 5, seed 

 in longitudinal section. — Officinal. (After Wossidlo.) 



colour (1, b). The cones (1, c) have very small cover-scales, but long woody fertile 

 scales thickened at the ends in rhombic areas, the apophyses. As in Picea excelsa, 

 the eones fall off entire, after the seeds have fallen. Larix europaea, the 

 European Larch, is particularly distinguished by its deciduous leaves, which are 

 borne in clusters on short spurs. 



Geographical Distribution. — The Pinaceae inhabit chiefly the North Temperate 

 Zone where many species form by themselves widely extended forests. In countries 

 bordering on the Northern Pacific, particularly in China, Japan, and California, 

 they exhibit their most varied development. With the exception of the Australian 

 Eucalyptus, the giant trees of California, Sequoia gigantea, with stems over 100 m. 



2 H 



