CONIFERS. 



29 



species the flowers are together, and in some they are separate ; while 

 in most of them they are upon the same plant but separate ; and in 

 others they are upon separate plants or trees. 



Leaves. These are generally single or in sheaths and bundles, and 

 very variable in the number of them in a sheath ; some have two, 

 some three, some five ; while at times seven, nine, and more leaves are 

 found in a sheath ; and in those which have their leaves in bundles 

 the same variableness is present ; for the number in a bundle may 

 range from six to sixty ; and even in some of these bundle-leaved 

 species the leaves are disposed singly upon the young shoots ; and 

 although botanists take the disposition of their leaves as one of their 

 distinguishing characteristics ; yet it is one of their most inconstant ones. 

 In some genera the leaves are more like scales than foliage ; closely in- 

 laying or imbricated along the shoots or stems. They are also very 

 various in size, ranging from one eighth of an inch to one-and-a-half 

 feet in length ; variously disposed upon the branches — alternate, 

 drooping, erect, four-rowed, opposite, scattered, spiral, solitary, spread- 

 ing, three-rowed, two-rowed, and in whorls. They are also very 

 various in form — blunt-pointed, curved, cylindrical, flat, four-sided, 

 lanceolate, linear, needle-shaped, three-sided, two-sided, and petiolate 

 and non-petiolate : various in texture — hard, leathery, rough, rigid, 

 smooth, pliant, and glaucous and non-glaucous. Generally, they are 

 perennial or evergreen ; yet, in some of the genera and species annual 

 or deciduous. 



Cones. These are from one-eighth of an inch to one-and-a-half feet 

 in length, and from one-eighth of an inch to nine inches broad ; vari- 

 ously formed : — elliptical, egg-shaped, cylindrical, round, rhomboid, 

 and star-Hke : all more or less numerously scaled, valved, and seeded ; 

 and all more or less Hgneous on their exteriors or surfaces. The seeds 

 are also of various formations, and of various sizes ; some winged, some 

 wingless, generally single, two, three, five, and seven ; but rarely more 

 numerous under each scale ; generally the seeds have farinaceous 

 albuminous kernels, not a few of which are of large size, and good for 

 and used as food. 



S.D. L Abiktine^ : The Fir. 



The ancient and classic name Abies is a term of which no certain 

 origin or root derivation can be aflirmed ; yet, the Hebraic roots, 

 Ab, and "^3^^ Abi, signifying greenness, in the Latin Yulgate 

 virentia ; and, again, the Greek awios " a pear," are each appropriate 



