In order to avoid confusion in the use of the term Coniferae, we may
adopt as a class-designation the name Coniferales, including both the
Coniferae—using the term in a restricted sense—and the Taxaceae.
The most striking characteristic of the majority of the Coniferales is
the regular manner of the monopodial branching and the pyramidal
shape. Araucaria imbricata, the Monkey-puzzle tree, A. excelsa, the
Norfolk Island pine, many pines and firs, cedars and other genera
illustrate the pyramidal form. The mammoth redwood tree of
California, Sequoia (Wellingtonia) gigantea, which represents the tallest
Gymnosperm, is a good example of the regular tapering main stem
and narrow pyramidal form. The cypresses afford instances of tall
and narrow trees similar in habit to Lombardy poplars. The common
cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), as found wild in the mountains of
Crete and Cyprus, is characterized by long and spreading branches,
which give it a cedar-like habit. A pendulous or weeping habit is
assumed by some conifers, e.g. Picea excelsa var. virgata represents
a form in which the main branches attain a considerable horizontal
extension, and trail themselves like snakes along the ground. Certain
species of Pinus, the yews (Taxus) and some other genera grow as
bushes, which in place of a main mast-like stem possess several
repeatedly-branched leading shoots. The unfavourable conditions
in Arctic regions have produced a dwarf form, in which the main
shoots grow close to the ground. Artificially induced dwarfed plants
of Pinus, Cupressus, Sciadopitys (umbrella pine) and other genera
are commonly cultivated by the Japanese. The dying off of older
branches and the vigorous growth of shoots nearer the apex of the
stem produce a form of tree illustrated by the stone pine of the
Mediterranean region (Pinus Pinea), which Turner has rendered
familiar in his “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” and other pictures of
Italian scenery. Conifers are not infrequently seen in which a lateral
branch has bent sharply upwards to take the place of the injured
main trunk. An upward tendency of all the main lateral branches,
known as fastigiation, is common in some species, producing well-marked
varieties, e.g. Cephalotaxus pedunculata var. fastigiata; this
fastigiate habit may arise as a sport on a tree with spreading branches.
Another departure from the normal is that in which the juvenile or
seedling form of shoot persists in the adult tree; the numerous
coniferous plants known as species of Retinospora are examples of
this. The name Retinospora, therefore, does not stand for a true
genus, but denotes persistent young forms of Juniperus, Thuja,
Cupressus, &c., in which the small scaly leaves of ordinary species are
replaced by the slender, needle-like leaves, which stand out more or
less at right angles from the branches. The flat branchlets of
Cupressus, Thuja (arbor vitae), Thujopsis dolabrata (Japanese arbor
vitae) are characteristic of certain types of conifers; in some cases
the horizontal extension of the branches induces a dorsiventral
structure. A characteristic feature of the genus Agathis (Dammara)
the Kauri pine of New Zealand, is the deciduous habit of the
branches; these become detached from the main trunk leaving a
well-defined absciss-surface, which appears as a depressed circular
scar on the stem. A new genus of conifers, Taiwania, has recently
been described from the island of Formosa; it is said to agree in
habit with the Japanese Cryptomeria, but the cones appear to have a
structure which distinguishes them from those of any other genus.
With a few exceptions conifers are evergreen, and retain the leaves for several years (10 years in Araucaria imbricata, 8 to 10 in Picea excelsa, 5 in Taxus baccata; in Pinus the needles usually fall in October of their third year). The larch (Larix) Leaves. sheds its leaves in the autumn, in the Chinese larch (Pseudolarix Kaempferi) the leaves turn a bright yellow colour before falling. In the swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum) the tree assumes a rich brown colour in the autumn, and sheds its leaves together with the branchlets which bear them; deciduous branches occur also in some other species, e.g. Sequoia sempervirens (redwood), Thuja occidentalis, &c. The leaves of conifers are characterized by their small size, e.g. the needle-form represented by Pinus, Cedrus, Larix, &c., the linear flat or angular leaves, appressed to the branches, of Thuja, Cupressus, Libocedrus, &c. The flat and comparatively broad leaves of Araucaria imbricata, A. Bidwillii, and some species of the southern genus Podocarpus are traversed by several parallel veins, as are also the still larger leaves of Agathis, which may reach a length of several inches. In addition to the foliage-leaves several genera also possess scale-leaves of various kinds, represented by bud-scales in Pinus, Picea, &c., which frequently persist for a time at the base of a young shoot which has pushed its way through the yielding cap of protecting scales, while in some conifers the bud-scales adhere together, and after being torn near the base are carried up by the growing axis as a thin brown cap. The cypresses, araucarias and some other genera have no true bud-scales; in some species, e.g. Araucaria Bidwillii, the occurrence of small foliage-leaves, which have functioned as bud-scales, at intervals on the shoots affords a measure of seasonal growth. The occurrence of long and short shoots is a characteristic feature of many conifers. In Pinus the needles occur in pairs, or in clusters of 3 or 5 at the apex of a small and inconspicuous short shoot of limited growth (spur), which is enclosed at its base by a few scale-leaves, and borne on a branch of unlimited growth in the axil of a scale-leaf. In the Californian Pinus monophylla each spur bears usually one needle, but two are not uncommon; it would seem that rudiments of two needles are always produced, but, as a rule, only one develops into a needle. In Sciadopitys similar spurs occur, each bearing a single needle, which in its grooved surface and in the possession of a double vascular bundle bears traces of an origin from two needle-leaves. A peculiarity of these leaves is the inverse orientation of the vascular tissue; each of the two veins has its phloem next the upper and the xylem towards the lower surface of the leaf; this unusual position of the xylem and phloem may be explained by regarding the needle of Sciadopitys as being composed of a pair of leaves borne on a short axillary shoot and fused by their margins (fig. 15, A). Long and short shoots occur also in Cedrus and Larix, but in these genera the spurs are longer and stouter, and are not shed with the leaves; this kind of short shoot, by accelerated apical growth, often passes into the condition of a long shoot on which the leaves are scattered and separated by comparatively long internodes, instead of being crowded into tufts such as are borne on the ends of the spurs. In the genus Phyllocladus (New Zealand, &c.) there are no green foliage-leaves, but in their place flattened branches (phylloclades) borne in the axils of small scale-leaves. The cotyledons are often two in number, but sometimes (e.g. Pinus) as many as fifteen; these leaves are usually succeeded by foliage-leaves in the form of delicate spreading needles, and these primordial leaves are followed, sooner or later, by the adult type of leaf, except in Retinosporas, which retain the juvenile foliage. In addition to the first foliage-leaves and the adult type of leaf, there are often produced leaves which are intermediate both in shape and structure between the seedling and adult foliage. Dimorphism or heterophylly is fairly common. One of the best known examples is the Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis), in which branches with spinous leaves, longer and more spreading than the ordinary adult leaf, are often found associated with the normal type of branch. In some cases, e.g. Sequoia sempervirens, the fertile branches bear leaves which are less spreading than those on the vegetative shoots. Certain species of the southern hemisphere genus Dacrydium afford particularly striking instances of heterophylly, e.g. D. Kirkii of New Zealand, in which some branches bear small and appressed leaves, while in others the leaves are much longer and more spreading. A well-known fossil conifer from Triassic strata—Voltzia heterophylla—also illustrates a marked dissimilarity in the leaves of the same shoot. The variation in leaf-form and the tendency of leaves to arrange themselves in various ways on different branches of the same plant are features which it is important to bear in mind in the identification of fossil conifers. In this connexion we may note the striking resemblance between some of the New Zealand Alpine Veronicas, e.g. Veronica Hectori, V. cupressoides, &c. (also Polycladus cupressinus, a Composite), and some of the cypresses and other conifers with small appressed leaves. The long linear leaves of some species of Podocarpus, in which the lamina is traversed by a single vein, recall the pinnae of Cycas; the branches of some Dacrydiums and other forms closely resemble those of lycopods; these superficial resemblances, both between different genera of conifers and between conifers and other plants, coupled with the usual occurrence of fossil coniferous twigs without cones attached to them, render the determination of extinct types a very unsatisfactory and frequently an impossible task.
A typical male flower consists of a central axis bearing numerous spirally-arranged sporophylls (stamens), each of which consists of a slender stalk (filament) terminating distally in a more or less prominent knob or triangular scale, and bearing Flowers. two or more pollen-sacs (microsporangia) on its lower surface. The pollen-grains of some genera (e.g. Pinus) are furnished with bladder-like extensions of the outer wall, which serve as aids to wind-dispersal. The stamens of Araucaria and Agathis are peculiar in bearing several long, and narrow free pollen-sacs; these may be compared with the sporangiophores of the horsetails (Equisetum); in Taxus (yew) the filament is attached to the centre of a large circular distal expansion, which bears several pollen-sacs on its under surface. In the conifers proper the female reproductive organs have the form of cones, which may be styled flowers or inflorescences according to different interpretations of their morphology. In the Taxaceae the flowers have a simpler structure. The female flowers of the Abietineae may be taken as representing a common type. A pine cone reaches maturity in two years; a single year suffices for the full development in Larix and several other genera. The axis of the cone bears numerous spirally disposed flat scales (cone-scales), each of which, if examined in a young cone, is found to be double, and to consist of a lower and an upper portion. The latter is a thin flat scale bearing a median ridge or keel (e.g. Abies), on each side of which is situated an inverted ovule, consisting of a nucellus surrounded by a single integument. As the cone grows in size and becomes woody the lower half of the cone-scale, which we may call the carpellary scale, may remain small, and is so far outgrown by the upper half (seminiferous scale) that it is hardly recognizable in the mature cone. In many species of Abies (e.g. Abies pectinata, &c.) the ripe cone differs from those of Pinus, Picea and Cedrus in the large size of the carpellary scales, which project as conspicuous thin appendages beyond the distal margins of the broader and more woody seminiferous scales; the long carpellary scale is a prominent feature also in the cone of the Douglas pine (Pseudotsuga Douglasii). The female flowers (cones) vary considerably in size; the largest are the more or less spherical cones of Araucaria—a single cone of A. imbricata may produce as many as 300 seeds, one seed to each fertile cone-scale—and the long pendent
