LXXXVII. CONIFERS. 
419 
Pinus.~\ 
the cones, spread open, having the appearance of a dry or 
fleshy scale destitute of style or stigma , and arising from the 
axil of a membranous bractea ; in the solitai'y flower sometimes 
apparently wanting or adhering to the ovule. Ovules naked, 
inverted or erect, with a large opening ( foramen ) at the 
summit. Fruit consisting either of a naked seed seated in a 
fleshy receptacle, or of a cone : the latter is formed of the 
scale-shaped ovaries which become enlarged and indurated or 
fleshy, and occasionally of the bracteas also, which are some- 
times obliterated, and sometimes extend beyond the scales in 
the form of a lobed appendage. Seeds with a hard crustaceous 
integument. Embryo in the midst of fleshy and oily albumen , 
with 2 or more opposite cotyledons ; the radicle next the apex 
of the seed, and having an organic connection with the albumen. 
— Resinous trees or shrubs, of vast importance , inhabitants of 
various parts of the world. W ood in concentric layers , destitute 
of the large dotted ducts ( bothrenchyma ) so obvious in the Oak 
and other Dicotyledonous trees. 1 Leaves linear , acerose or 
lanceolate rigid , entire at the margins , or dilated and lobed , always 
with parallel veins, sometimes fascicled and sheathing at the base. 
— From the pine, Pinus, we derive an immense quantity of 
useful timber , turpentine, pitch, &c. ; P. Larix yields Venetian 
turpentine ; P. Cedrus is the cedar of Lebanon. 
1. Pixus. Fruit (dry) a manv-flowered cone ; scales closely imbricate, 
all dry. Seeds 2 on the inner face of each scale, crustaceous, 
winged at the end. 
2. Jcniperus. Fruit (drupaceous) a small roundish few-flowered cone: 
scales closely imbricate ; lower ones dry, empty ; 3 upper fleshy, 
enclosing 1 — 3 bony wingless seeds. 
3. Taxus. Fruit (drupaceous) composed of a cup-shaped fleshy recep- 
tacle (with dry empty scales at its base), surrounding a single 
naked bony seed. 
I. Ovules inverted: foramen inferior. Pollen-grains oval, with 
darkly granular extremities and an intermediate transparent 
band; outer coat not ruptured readily by moisture. Abie- 
TINEiE Br. 
1. Pinus Linn. Fir. 
Monoecious. — Barren fl. in crowded racemose catkins ; scales 
attached by the base, with 2 anther-cells. — Fertile fl. in an 
ovate or oblong many-flowered cone ; its scales closely imbri- 
cate, dry, at length indurated ; lowest ones empty, the others 
1 The cells or fibres ( pleurenchyma ) of which the wood is composed, not being 
accompanied by vessels or ducts, are so pressed together that a transverse section 
exhibits under the microscope a kind of network, with square meshes formed by 
straight lines crossing each other at right angles , without any circular openings. 
The woody cells or fibres are moreover furnished on their side with curious gland- 
like disks, observable when a thin longitudinal slice is taken parallel to the me- 
dullary rays, but not when at right angles to these. 
T 6 
