7. Chamæcyparis. Cone globose; scales peltate. Seeds 1 or 2, narrowly winged.
8. Thuya. Cone pendulous, oblong, of 8–12 imbricated scales. Seeds 2, 2-winged.
[*][*] Diœcious. Fruit berry-like, with bony ovate seeds.
9. Juniperus. Fruit-scales 3–6, coalescent. Foliage not 2-ranked.
Suborder II. Taxàceæ. (Yew Family.) Flowers diœcious, axillary and solitary, the fertile consisting of a naked erect ovule which becomes a bony-coated seed more or less surrounded or enclosed by the enlarged fleshy disk (or scale).
10. Taxus. Leaves linear, scattered. Seed surrounded by a red berry-like cup.
1. PÌNUS, Tourn. Pine.
Sterile flower at the base of the shoot of the same spring, involucrate by a nearly definite number of scales, consisting of numerous stamens spirally inserted on the axis, with very short filaments and a scale-like connective; anther-cells 2, opening lengthwise. Pollen of 3 united cells, the 2 lateral ones empty. Fertile catkins solitary or aggregated immediately below the terminal bud, or lateral on the young shoot, consisting of imbricated carpellary scales, each in the axil of a persistent bract, bearing a pair of inverted ovules at the base. Fruit a cone formed of the imbricated woody carpellary scales, which are thickened at the apex (except in White Pines), persistent, spreading when ripe and dry; the 2 nut-like seeds partly sunk in excavations at the base of the scale; in separating carrying away a part of its lining as a thin fragile wing. Cotyledons 3–12, linear.—Primary leaves thin and chaff-like, merely bud-scales; from their axils immediately proceed the secondary needle-shaped evergreen leaves, in fascicles of 2 to 5, from slender buds, some thin scarious bud scales sheathing the base of the cluster. Leaves when in pairs semicylindrical, becoming channelled; when more than 2 triangular; their edges in our species serrulate. Blossoms developed in spring; the cones maturing in the second autumn. (The classical Latin name.)
§ 1. Leaves 5, each with a single fibro-vascular bundle; sheath loose, deciduous; cones subterminal, their scales but slightly thickened at the end and without prickle or point; bark smooth except on old trunks.
1. P. Stróbus, L. (White Pine.) Tree 75–160° high; leaves very slender, glaucous; sterile flowers oval (4–5´´ long), with 6–8 involucral scales at base; fertile catkins long-stalked, cylindrical; cones narrow, cylindrical, nodding, often curved (4–6´ long); seed smooth; cotyledons 8–10.—Newf. to Penn., along the mountains to Ga., west to Minn. and E. Iowa. Invaluable for its soft, light, white or yellowish wood, in large trees nearly free from resin.