334 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLAXTS. 



1. PI'NUS, L. Pine. 



[The cLissical Latin name.] 

 Flowers monoecious. Staminate aments clustered in terminal spikes. 

 Stamens numerous, inserted on the axis ; anthers subsessiie, 2-celled, 

 opening lengthwise, covered at apex by the dilated scale-like connective. 

 Fertile aments solitary or clustered ; the carpellary scales with de- 

 ciduous dracts and each bearing a pair of inverted ovules at its base. 

 Fruit a cone formed of the woody scales which are thickened at apex 

 ("except in the White Pines), persistent and spreading when ripe and 

 dry; the nut-lilce seeds partly sunk in an excavation at the base of each 

 scale, and icingecl by an adhering portion of its lining. Cotyledons 3-12, 

 linear. jTrmwidi leaves in bundles of 2 - 5, needle-shaped, each fascicle 

 from the axils of a chalfy scale. Fruit generall}^ maturing in the au- 

 tumn of the second year after flowering. 



* Leaves 1 -o {rarely A) in a slicatJi : IjarTc roiigTi : cones icoody.^ scales 

 tMcJcened at tlie end and mostly tiji^ped witli a spine. 



t Leaves in twos except in JS^o. 3. 

 1. P. in'ops, Ait. Leaves rather short ; strobiles oblong ovoid, often 

 curved ; spines of the scales slender and straight. 



Fio. 2^^3-3. A brnnch of a Pine with staminate aments at the top. 234. A stamen. 285« 

 A branch Avith pistillate aments at the apex and the fruit (cone) belo-w. 2o6. A scale 

 from the fertile ament with tu-o ovules at its base. 237. Scale from a ripe cone, with ono 

 of the two seeds removed. 238 The germinating embryo of a Pine, with several cotylO" 

 flons. 



