12. PINACEÆ (Taxus baccata) Yew. (Abies larix) Larch. (Laurus nobilis) Bay. (Pinus sylvestris) Scotch Fir. [Illustration: Larch.] [Illustration: Yew.] [Illustration: Bay.] This order contains the various Pines and Firs, together with the Yew and Bay trees, and is sometimes called the "Coniferæ," as they all bear cones. In their general aspect many of these somewhat resemble endogenous trees, growing perfectly straight in the stem, and giving off branches in whorls at regular distances; some, as the Norfolk Island Pine, form perfectly regular figures by the interlacement of their branches. The Firs have their thin narrow leaves starting off singly from the branch, and always on the upper side, like the teeth of a comb, while the Pines have their leaves grouped together, starting off in fours or fives from the same spot. The Conifera furnish the longest and straightest timber of all trees, they commonly grow to 100 feet high, and in New Zealand and California to more than 300. The Wellingtonia Gigantea is the tallest species known, and the Araucaria Excelsa (Norfolk Island Pine), perhaps, the next. The trees of this order are amongst the most useful to man, supplying a number of useful articles, such as turpentine, resin, &c., besides the most valuable timber. Pines, like the Palms, serve as a screen against the severity of the weather, but, while the palms keep off the burning rays of the sun, the pines defend us from the cold of the mountain blasts; they are indeed used as _nurses_, and as such, in our oak plantations, serve to screen the young saplings which are planted among them from the effects of cold until strong enough to bear exposure; when the pines are cut down, and what before appeared to be a pine-wood, appears as a plantation of oaks. The pine-trees furnish those straight stems largely used by builders under the name of "scaffold poles." They also make the best wood for rending into laths for building purposes, their straight and open grain allowing of their being easily split. It is from the vegetable kingdom that most of the medicines in use are derived, but many of these, in improper doses, act as violent poisons; indeed, the most rapidly fatal of all poisons, prussic acid, was originally distilled from the Laurel-cherry, and strychnine, which is hardly less rapid, is the produce of the Nux vomica (Strychnos nux vomica). The following is a list of the principal poisonous plants found growing wild in England:-- * 1. MONK'S-HOOD (Aconitum Napellus). WOLF'S-BANE (Aconitum lycactonum). [Illustration: Monk's-hood.] [Illustration: Horse-radish.] [Illustration: Wolf's-bane.]