PINOIDEÆ. PINE FAMILY. CONIFERS.
ABIETACEÆ. CUPRESSACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, resinous; leaves simple, mostly evergreen, relatively small, entire, needle-shaped, awl-shaped, linear, or scale-like; stipules none; flowers catkin-like; calyx none; corolla none; ovary represented by a scale (ovuliferous scale) bearing the naked ovules on its surface.
ABIETACEÆ.
Larix. Pinus. Picea. Tsuga. Abies.
Buds scaly; leaves evergreen and persistent for several years (except in Larix), scattered along the twigs, spirally arranged or tufted, linear, needle-shaped, or scale-like; sterile and fertile flowers separate upon the same plant; stamens (subtended by scales) spirally arranged upon a central axis, each bearing two pollen-sacs surmounted by a broad-toothed connective; fertile flowers composed of spirally arranged bracts or cover-scales, each bract subtending an ovuliferous scale; cover-scale and ovuliferous scale attached at their bases; cover-scale usually remaining small, ovuliferous scale enlarging, especially after fertilization, gradually becoming woody or leathery and bearing two ovules at its base; cones maturing (except in Pinus) the first year; ovuliferous scales in fruit usually known as cone-scales; seeds winged; roots mostly spreading horizontally at a short distance below the surface.
CUPRESSACEÆ.
Thuja. Cupressus. Juniperus.
Leaf-buds not scaly; leaves evergreen and persistent for several years, opposite, verticillate, or sometimes scattered, scale-like, often needle-shaped in seedlings and sometimes upon the branches of older plants; flowers minute; stamens and pistils in separate blossoms upon the same plant or upon different plants; stamens usually bearing 3-5 pollen-sacs on the underside; scales of fertile aments few, opposite or ternate; fruit small cones, or berries formed by coalescence of the fleshy cone-scales; otherwise as in Abietaceæ.