OUR NATIVE CONIFERS. 
73 
larger, its buried branches sending up twigs a foot long. The 
roundish-oblong, leathery leaves are not toothed ; they are 
smooth above and glaucous beneath, strongly net-veined on 
either side. The purplish or yellow catkins do not develop till 
after the leaves. It is restricted to the mountains of Aberdeen, 
Forfar, Inverness, Perth, and Sutherland. 
The Weeping Willow (Salix babylonica), so conspicuous an 
ornament of riverside lawns, is an introduced species, whose 
slender branches hang downwards. It has large, lance- 
shaped, finely toothed leaves, smooth above and glaucous 
beneath. Further description of so well-known a tree is un- 
necessary. It attains a height of forty to fifty feet. The name 
babylonica was bestowed in the belief that its headquarters were 
on the banks of the Euphrates. It is now known to be a native 
of Japan, and other parts of Asia. 
The name Willow is the Anglo-Sa.xon welig, indicating 
pliancy, willingness. 
Our Native Conifers. 
The British flora is singularly poor in coniferous plants, 
the Scots Pine, the Yew, and the Juniper being our only 
native species, and even of these some authorities will have it 
that the Yew is not truly a Conifer at all; they place it in a 
separate order — Taxacece. For our present purpose, however, 
although the Yew does not produce cones, it will be convenient 
to keep it in its old position. The principal feature distinguishing 
all Conifers and their allies [Gymnosperms) from other flowering 
plants (^Angio sperms) is briefly this : Angiosperms have their 
incipient seeds {ovules) enclosed in a carpel, through which a 
shoot from the pollen grain has to penetrate in order to reach and 
fertilize the ovule. In Gymnosperms the carpel takes the form of 
a leaf or bract, upon which the naked ovule lies open to actual 
