186 
CLASS DICECIA. 
cucumber uneven and watery. We find in the same artificial 
order a very different family of plants, called Coniferous or 
cone-hearing plants ; these have the staminate flowers in aments, 
each furnished with a scale or perianth supporting the stamens ; 
the pistillate flowers are in strobilums, each furnished with a 
hard scale. The stems are woody, the leaves evergreen, and 
the juice resinous. To this natural family belong the pine and 
cypress. 
280. The character of trees may be studied to advantage at 
four diflerent seasons : in winter^ when the forms of the ramifi- 
cation can be seen in the naked boughs, and the leaf and flower- 
buds examined in their inert state ; in spring^ when in blossom ; 
in summer^ when the foliage is in perfection ; and in autmivriy 
when, during the first stages of decay, the mellowness and va- 
riety of tints afford beautiful subjects for the pencil of the 
painter, and for those who love the study of nature under all 
her forms. 
281. The Class Dicecia (two houses) has ^'5; 
staminate and pistillate flowers on separate 
plants. The distinction with regard to the 
orders^ as in the preceding class, is derived 
from the number of stamens. 
Here are no plants of the fl/rst order ^ or 
with one stamen. 
282. Order Diandria^ two stamens — con- 
tains the willow (sALix), Avhich has long and 
slender aments both of staminate and pistil- 
late flowers, the two kinds being on separ- 
ate trees. The order Triandria contains 
the fig (Ficus), remarkable for containing 
the flower within the fruit, which is botanically considered as a 
juicy receptacle within which are concealed the minute flowers 
and seeds. The fig is peculiar to warm countries. Order Tetran- 
dria contains a parasitic plant, the Mistletoe of the oak { Viscum 
album). The Druids* considered this plant as sacred to the 
silvan deities. Tradition relates that where Druidism pre- 
vailed the houses were decked with this plant that the silvan 
spirits might repair to them. The fruit of the mistletoe con- 
tains a viscid matter by means of which the seeds adhere to 
the trees ; in germinating, the seeds send their radicles into the 
bark of the plant to which they are attached, and from which 
this true parasite receives its nourishment. 
• The Druids, it is supposed, derived their name from drus, a Greek word signifying oak, as it was 
in groves of this tree tiiat the priests celebrated their mysterious rites, and sacrificed human victims to 
tlieir sanguinary deities. 
Cono-bearing nlant.s. — 280. Appearance of trees at different seasons. — 28L Clasa Diocia. — 282. 'Wlil* 
Vow— Fig—Wiyticton. 
