326 APPENDIX. 
Orper 34. CUPULIFERA, 
Moneecious trees, rarely shrubs. Leaves alternate, stipulate. Flowers 
solitary or in unisexual spikes or fascicles. Male: Perianth single, four- to six- 
lobed, lobes often unequal; stamens, one to twenty, with slender filaments and 
two-celled anthers. Female solitary or two, three, or five, sessile included in a 
common cupuliform involucre clothed on the outer surface with spines or scales 
or transverse plates; perianth superior, two- to six-lobed; ovary interior, two- to 
six-celled; styles, two to six, short, stigmatiferous at the tips; ovules usually 
two in each cell, pendulous. Fruit of one or several nuts enclosed in an invo- 
lucral cup; seed solitary, without endosperm, embryo straight, usually folded or 
sinuous, tadicle small, superior. 
This order comprises numerous fine timber trees: it includes the English 
oak (Quercus Robur) and many other species, also the sweet chestnut (Castanea 
vesca), the European beech (Fagus sylvatica), &c. 
GENUS I. FaGus. 
Trees with scaly buds. Leaves persistent or deciduous, often unequal at 
the base: stipules deciduous, chaffy. Male: Flowers in a membranous cam- 
panulate perianth, five- or six-lobed, solitary or fascicled; stamens, eight to 
twelve, exserted; anthers apiculate. Female: Two to four minute, in a three- 
or four-lobed involucre, which is clothed externally with spines or adnate bracts ; 
perianth urceolate, adnate with the ovary; ovary inferior, three-celled; styles, 
three, very short, filiform; ovules one in each cell. Fruit, two to four trigonous 
nuts contained in a woody three- or four-lobed involucre, clothed with spines or 
transverse lamella; nuts one-seeded; cotyledons plaiced. 
Sus-ctass. GYMNOGENS. 
Order 35. CONIFER. 
Lofty trees or shrubs, rarely prostrate, usually resinous; wood destitute of 
true vessels, and consisting of fibres, with one or more series of concave discs. 
Leaves needle-shaped or linear or ovate, often reduced to imbricating scales, 
sometimes dimorphic, exstipulate. Flowers, in catkins, monoecious or dicecious: 
perianth absent. Male: Catkins of several or numerous scale-like stamens, 
opposite or whorled or spirally imbricated round an elongated axis, each stamen 
consisting of a connective sessile or stipitate at the base, and usually expanded 
at the apex, sometimes peltate ; anther-cells, two to twenty, parallel or radiating 
or pendulous, opening longitudinally. Female: Cones consisting of opposite or 
whorled or spirally-arranged imbricate scales, each carrying one or more naked 
ovules, or of a fleshy cup or receptacle, with one or two naked ovules, micropyle 
gaping. Fruit, a woody, coriaceous, or succulent cone or drupe, or a seed 
imbedded at the base in a dry or fleshy receptacle; seeds often winged, testa 
hard or membranous, endosperm horny or fleshy, embryo straight, with two or 
more cotyledons, radicle superior or inferior. 
This order includes a large number of valuable timber-trees, and affords 
the chief commercial timbers used for general purposes in both hemispheres. 
Amongst those best known outside New Zealand may be mentioned the Cali- 
fornia red-wood (Sequoia sempervirens), the Scotch fir (Pinus sylvestris), the deodar 
(Cedrus deodara), the larch (Larix Europee), the Norway fir (Picea excelsa), the 
Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria excelsa), and many others. 
