This order has been already inserted, p. 380.
Little heath-like plants, with small flowers and showy berries. The Crowberry, _Empetrum nigrum_, is very common in Scotland on heaths.
ORDER CLXXVII.--CONIFERÆ. (SEE CHAP. XII. P. 205.)
The male and female flowers are both produced in catkins, and both consist only of scales. The pollen of the male flowers is very abundant, and is discharged freely in fine weather. The female flowers form cones, consisting of numerous scales, at the base of each of which are two winged seeds. The timber abounds in resin.
ORDER CLXXVIII.-CYCADEÆ. (SEE CHAP. XII. P. 229.)
These singular plants have thick timber-like trunks, yet they can hardly be called trees, as they increase in height by a single terminal bud. The leaves are pinnate, and they unroll, when they expand, like those of the ferns. The male flowers are in cones, and the female ones either in cones, or produced on the margin of contracted leaves. The principal genera are Zamia and Cycas, and one species of the latter yields a kind of sago; the true kind being a product of a species of Palm.
All the trees belonging to this division are natives of tropical countries; and they, as well as all the herbaceous plants belonging to it, are distinguished by the veins of their leaves being never branched, but principally in parallel lines. These plants are re-divided into those with a perianth, which are called the Petaloideæ, and in which are included the Orchidaceæ and the bulbous-rooted plants; and those without a perianth, which are called Glumaceæ, and in which are included the grasses, and sedges.
ORDER CLXXIX.--HYDROCHARIDEÆ.--THE FROG'S BIT TRIBE.
Aquatic plants, two of which are of very curious construction. In Vallisneria, the male and female flowers are on different plants, and the buds of the female flowers rise on long spiral stalks, which gradually uncoil, till the flower appears above the surface of the water, where it expands. The male flowers are produced on separate plants at the bottom, but, before they expand, they detach themselves from the soil, and rise up to the surface, where they float till the flowers have opened, and the pollen has fallen on the stigmas of the female flowers, after which the male flowers wither, and the female ones coil up their stalks again to ripen the seed-vessels at the bottom. This curious arrangement is necessary, because the pollen should be dry when it falls on the stigmas; and nearly a similar arrangement takes place with the Fresh-water Soldier (_Stratiotes_). The Frog's Bit (_Hydrocharis morsus ranæ_) is a floating plant, with pretty white flowers. _Damosonium indicum_ is a very handsome water-plant, with white flowers and winged stems.