270 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
world. The group of the cone-bearers to which 
the hemlock, cedar, pine, spruce, and fir, as well as 
the arbor-vite and the larch, belong, were the first- 
born of flowering-plants. They are the link, con- 
necting ferns and their allies with the kindred of 
the lily and of the rose. 
All native cone-bearers belong to one botanic 
group, the Pine family, and this divides itself into 
two very unequal branches, the true pine connec- 
tion (Pinacez) and the yews (Taxacez). 
All our wild evergreens, except the yews, are 
numbered among the pinacez, and so are the larch 
and the ‘‘ bald’’-cypress of the Southern States, 
which are not evergreen. The Taxacez are repre- 
sented in this country by a couple of small garden- 
shrubs, by the European yew, and the gingko or 
‘‘ maiden-hair tree’’ of cultivated grounds, and by 
the wild yew or ground-hemlock which straggles 
over barren northern hillsides. 
The sprouting yew, like the baby-bean or maple, 
appears above ground with two seed-leaves and so 
do the seedling juniper, cedar, and arbor-vite. 
But the pine, spruce, fir, and hemlock begin at 
once to show some characteristics which -prove their 
pedigree, and distinguish them from the kin of the 
lily or of the rose. 
