The New Student's Reference Work/Conifers

Co′nifers, the greatest group of living gymnosperms, containing such plants as the pines, spruces, hemlocks, firs, redwoods, cedars, cypresses, junipers, yews. The species are characteristic of the temperate regions of the northern and southern hemispheres, and are almost entirely absent from the tropics. Among them are some of the most valuable timber-trees, and the yearly inroads upon them for lumber, unless properly controlled, will result presently in their extinction. Their most characteristic features are the central shaft which never breaks up into branches, the evergreen needle-leaves, the cones and the soft and very evenly-grained wood. They are a very ancient group, their remains occurring in great abundance in the earlier rocks. See Gymnosperms.