CEDRUS LIBANI 
3 
Fig- i 3 - 
to find there portrayed the early appearance of the ovule exactly as it was published by M. Baillon in 
i860 (Baillon in Annales des Sciences , 4th ser., tom. xiv. p. 186), from his more modern researches. 
Fig. 13 is copied from that author’s paper in the Annales des Sciences , “On the Female Organs of the 
Coniferse.” It represents the early stage of the seed of Pinus resinosa, and shews exactly the same thing 
as was shewn by Fambert in fig. 12, viz., that, at an early stage, the pistil exists in the form of two projec¬ 
tions or ears, which obviously at first perform the part of a stigma, and afterwards are 
developed into a pericarp protecting the seed. It is true that the right interpreta¬ 
tion of what he saw and figured was not understood by Fambert; but the accuracy 
of his observation remains wholly to his own credit, while his blindness to the true 
meaning of the facts observed was shared by all his contemporaries, and most of his 
successors down to the present day. When the female catkin is more advanced, 
it becomes developed into a large, handsome, erect, oblong-ovate subcylindrical cone, about 2i to 5 
inches in length. That portion of the young scales which is of a purple colour is not increased 
in breadth, but, retaining its former breadth, is expanded along the margin of the scale and weakened 
in intensity, becoming red, and even in some cases thinning off altogether, leaving only a brownish 
semi-transparent or yellowish membranous edge: this manner of its expansion seeming to shew that 
the growth by which the increase of size in the scale is attained takes place 
not equally all over the scale, but farther down than its apex. The rest of 
the scale, behind this reddish margin, is green until mature, when it becomes 
greyish brown; but at all stages it has a peach-like bloom upon it, which is 
due to its texture, which is wholly pubescent, and in some parts exaggerated 
into woolliness. The scales (fig. 14) are coriaceous, with a double fine core 
of ligneous fibres on each side: they spring horizontally from the axis, and 
after about half an inch rise vertically, as shewn in fig. 15. They are thin, broad, obtuse, and truncate at 
the summit along their whole extent, making their upper margin nearly a straight line, which, as already 
mentioned, is red or pale pink, and semi-transparent at the edge. Under the microscope, the pubescence, 
which gives the surface the peach-like bloom, is seen to be composed of transparent, glassy, 
short, rather thick, curved cylindrical hairs, rounded at the apex, which, again, are the con¬ 
tinuation of the cells, which traverse and compose the greater part of the substance of the 
scale, and where they break forth, as at the back of the scale near the base, form its reddish, 
woolly, or villose clothing. The surface of the scale where the pubescence is absent 
is covered with papillae, which are the terminations of these hairs undeveloped. By the 
time that the cone is mature, the bract at its back has been thinned out into a mere ragged scurf. See 
the base of fig. 16. Above the bract at the angle, where the scale turns from horizontal to vertical, there 
is a good deal of the pale reddish or fawn-coloured semi-transparent woolly pubescence just mentioned. 
The cells, which, left loose at the back, form this woolly 
pubescence, are equally numerous on the inner side, but there 
they are mostly folded up, so as to make a kind of promi¬ 
nence. Each scale supports two seeds, closely packed on the 
base of its inner side, and with a broad membranous wing 
(fig. 17), which springs abruptly at right angles from the 
seed, and is also bent at right angles like the scale itself, 
enfolds the whole of one side of the seed, and a small part of the other side. 
Fig. 14. 
Fig. 15 - 
Fig. 17. 
Fig. 18. 
Fig. 16. 
The base of the wing 
The seeds (fig. 18) are 
irregularly triangular and resinous, pale fawn-coloured, as are the wings. The scales do not readily fall 
from the axis. It is only after remaining a second year, or even three or more years, on the tree, that they 
fall off, leaving the core standing erect attached to the branch, as in the Silver Firs. The whole of the 
cone is resinous when green, less so when mature. 
A 2 
[33] 
The 
