The ovule-bearing leaf has on the back a scale with fringed edge (_F_, _sc._), quite conspicuous when the flower is young, but scarcely to be detected in the older cone. From the female flower is developed the cone (Fig. 75, _A_), but the process is a slow one, occupying two years. Shortly after the pollen is shed, the female flowers, which are at first upright, bend downward, and assume a brownish color, growing considerably in size for a short time, and then ceasing to grow for several months. [Illustration: FIG. 75.--Scotch pine (_Pinus sylvestris_). _A_, a ripe cone, × ½. _B_, a year-old cone, × 1. _C_, longitudinal section of _B_. _D_, a single scale of _B_, showing the sporangia (ovules) (_o_), × 2. _E_, a scale from a ripe cone, with the seeds (_s_), × ½. _F_, longitudinal section of a ripe seed, × 3. _em._ the embryo. _G_, a germinating seed, × 2. _r_, the primary root. _H_, longitudinal section through _G_, showing the first leaves of the young plant still surrounded by the endosperm, × 4. _I_, an older plant with the leaves (_l_) withdrawing from the seed coats, × 4. _J_, upper part of a young plant, showing the circle of primary leaves (cotyledons), × 1. _K_, section of the same, × 2. _b_, the terminal bud. _L_, cross-section of the stem of the young plant, × 25. _fb._ a fibro-vascular bundle. _M_, cross-section of the root, × 25. _x_, wood. _ph._ bast, of the fibro-vascular bundle.] In Figure 75, _B_, is shown such a flower as it appears in the winter and early spring following. The leaves are thick and fleshy, closely pressed together, as is seen by dividing the flower lengthwise, and each leaf ends in a long point (_D_). The ovules are still very small. As the growth of the tree is resumed in the spring, the flower (cone) increases rapidly in size and becomes decidedly green in color, the ovules increasing also very much in size. If a scale from such a cone is examined about the first of June, the ovules will probably be nearly full-grown, oval, whitish bodies two to three millimetres in length. A careful longitudinal section of the scale through the ovule will show the general structure. Such a section is shown in Figure 77, _G_. Comparing this with the sporangia of the pteridophytes, the first difference that strikes us is the presence of an outer coat or integument (_in._), which is absent in the latter. The single macrospore (_sp._) is very large and does not lie free in the cavity of the sporangium, but is in close contact with its wall. It is filled with a colorless tissue, the prothallium, and if mature, with care it is possible to see, even with a hand lens, two or more denser oval bodies (_ar._), the egg cells of the archegonia, which here are very large. The integument is not entirely closed at the top, but leaves a little opening through which the pollen spores entered when the flower was first formed.