CONIFERAE 



105 



Fam. 3. PINACEAE. 

 (Plates 17, 19.) 



Trees. Monoecious or dioecious. Leaves needle- 

 or scale-shaped. The male flower resembles a catkin, each 

 scale bearing two or more pollen bags. The female flower 

 consists of several ovuliferous scales, which finally form a 

 cone. Seeds with a hard shell like a nut, borne on the 

 lignifled scales of the cone. 



This family is represented in the indigenous flora of 

 South Africa only by the sub-family Cupressineae*, 

 which possesses the following distinctive characters : 



Monoecious. Leaves mostly reduced, scale-like, 

 opposite. Scales of cone few in number, decussate, valvate. 

 Embryo with two cotyledons. 



The only S. A. genus. 4 S. A. species. Widdringtoniaf Endl. 



The more important sub-family Abietineae is prac- 

 tically confined to the northern hemisphere, but several 

 species of Pinus have been acclimatised in South Africa, 

 especially Pinus Pinea, the Italian pine or stone pine, 

 P. maritima from the Mediterranean, called here the cluster 

 pine, P. halepensis, the black or Aleppo pine and P. insignis. 

 The ordinary or Scotch fir, P. silvestris (Grove den), from 

 Northern Europe, and P. canariensis from the Canary Islands 

 thrive here properly on the mountains only. The stone 

 pine and the cluster pine are well established on the slopes 

 of Table Mountain and elsewhere. 



* The Cupressineae occupy a somewhat anomalous position among the Pinaceae; 

 indeed some authors consider that they should be regarded as a separate family, while 

 others have united them with the Taxaceae under the name of Taxo-Cupressaceae, 

 raising the section Abietineae to the rank of a family, viz. Abietaceae. 



j- The genus Callitris as understood by Bentham and Hooker in the Genera 

 Plantarum and by Eichler in Engler's Nat. Pflanzenfamilien has been subdivided by 

 other authors into several genera. One of these is the section Widdringtonia, to which 

 the South African and East African species belong. Masters (Journ. Linn. Soc. xxxvii, 

 p. 267) maintains the individuality of the latter genus on morphological grounds, and 

 Saxton (S. Afr. Journ. Sci. vi, p. 282) has recently shown that the embryological 

 development, of those species of Widdringtonia which he was able to examine, differs 

 considerably from that of several of the Australian species of Callitris. 



M. 14 



