FRtflT OP CONWEROUS PLANTS. 



25 



appressed, sometimes adherent, and spirally arranged around a common 

 axis. At the base of each scale, on the side away from the axis, 

 is a bract, which varies much in form and size in the different 

 kinds, in some large and protruding beyond the scales, in others 

 minute and enclosed by them. The scales are regarded as carpellary 



leaves which have not folded round 

 the ovules; the bracts are now known 

 to be metamorphosed foliage leaves. 

 The fruit is generally of a conical 

 form, but this form is considerably 

 modified in the different genera, being 

 nearly cylindrical in the Silver Firs, 

 ovoid in many of the Pines, greatly 

 elongated in others, and almost spher- 

 ical in some of the Araucarias. In 

 the Cypress tribe, the scales are pel- 

 tate and arranged in opposite pairs, 

 the entire fruit being spherical or 

 ovoid. In Juniperus, the ovule bearing 

 scales become fleshy, and by their 

 coalescence (always in threes) form a 

 berry. In the Yew tribe, in which 

 the female flowers are either solitary 

 or clustered, the scale is developed 

 into a succulent disc* In the Sequoia 

 tribe (Taxodise) the cones may be 

 regarded as intermediate between those 

 of the Abietinese and Cupressineae, 

 combining the general appearance and 

 form of some of the former with much 

 of the structure of the latter, the ■scales 

 enclosing from three to nine seeds 

 according to the kind. They have, 

 however, a peculiarity which must be 

 noted. The axis in some species 

 frequently continues to grow after the cone is formed, and there 

 Is produced on the apex a whorl or fascicle of leaves, differing in 

 » Technically called an afiltus. 



Fig. 7.— Fertile branchlet of 

 japonica, var. Lobbij with cones haying pro- 

 longed axes, bearing foliage leaves at their 



