The important difference between this treatment of the distr. of Coniferales on a world wide basis and some other discussions is that the genera and subgeneric groups above the species level are considered as the essential units of discussion. With this treatment it becomes apparent that with the exception of 7 genera found world-wide in all northern continents nearly all other genera of this hemisphere are related to lands that border on the Pacific O. Similarly in the Southern Hemisphere, where only a single genus Podocarpus has world wide distr., there are only a few genera that are not related to the continents and islands on the 2 sides of the S. Pacific. Thus the perimeter of the Pacific is the region of reference for the distr. of nearly all genera throughout the world, with s.-e. China and Japan the actual world center. While the present distr. suggests that this clustering around the Pacific may be due to recent cycles of speciation, there must have been other speciation cycles centered elsewhere during earlier geological periods. The role of land bridges is discussed, but in the S. Pacific region land bridges alone appear inadequate to account for all of the peculiarities of distr. that exist. In this region where evidence for land bridges is inadequate, Wegener''s theory of continental drift as modified and explained by DuToit would account for the present distr. of conifers on a very simple basis. A key to the sections and other subdivisions of the genus Podocarpus is appended. This is necessary in order to clarify the parts of the discussion having to do with this large southern genus. An outline of the system of classification by families and subfamilies as followed by the author at present is included.