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spurs or shortened branches had been stimulated to develop leaves 
with internodes, as is sometimes seen in the terminal shoots of the 
larch, thus showing a reversion to the condition which is present in 
the seedh'ng plants of /^. sylvestris. He also called attention to the 
fact that these spurs in Pinus fall off bodily after a certain period, 
from two to five years according to the species, thus approximating, 
as previously pointed out by Dr. J. Stark {Trans, Roy, SocEdin., 
vol. xxvii., pp. 651-9), to many Cupressinese, in which the individual 
leaves do not fall off, but where there is from year to year a shedding 
of leafy twigs, a phenomenon to which the term cladoptosis has been 
applied. In the genera Sciadopitys and Phyllocladus there are no 
foliage leaves at all in the adult state, these being all reduced to 
scales, and the function of the leaf performed by cladodes, which are 
slender and needle-like in Sciadopitys and form flat expansions in 
Phyllocladus. 
Fir Leaf WooL—Y\x wool is a textile fibre which in Saxony is 
manufactured out of the needles of the fir-tree, the process being 
partly chemical and partly mechanical. For this purpose the needles 
are gathered in spring and summer, when they are young and green, 
old and withered ones being unsuitable. They are taken into barns, 
and there dried in a current of air. When dried, they are subjected 
to a settling and fermenting process similar to that in use for flax. 
This softens the woody parts and loosens them from the fibre, but 
the complete separation is only obtained after a lengthy boiling by 
steam. During this boiling k by-product is obtained in the shape of 
an oil (fir-wood oil), which is gathered and sold to chemists as a 
remedy for rheumatism and gout, its properties being similar to those 
of turpentine. The complete separation of bast and fibre is produced 
exactly as with flax. The fibre is now passed through a milhng 
machine similar to that in use for woolen cloth, and is then carded 
and spun like cotton. Generally the carded fibre is mixed with a 
certain proportion of cotton or wool, and thus a kind of merino yarn 
is produced, which is worked in the hosiery frames into singlets, 
dravyers, and stockings, these fabrics being then sold as anti-rheu- 
matics and as a preventive of gout. When examined under the 
microscope the fibre appears as a tube, and striped, and as if covered 
by a fine network. Goods made of this fibre are sold to a con- 
siderable extent in Germany, though they are dearer than the ordinary 
merino goods. 
Thuja gigantea is, among the trees on the north-west coast, the 
Indian's best friend, for out of its wood and bark he manufactures 
endless articles oi domestic, hunting, fishing, and warlike economy. 
Most of his canoes are hollowed out of it, at least in Vancouver 
Island; and there is a case quoted where a canoe made out of 9^/^^^' 
sus Nutkaensis^ in Vancouver, was quite an exception, and indee 
the canoe was probably traded from some of the northern tribes, an 
not of Vancouver manufacture at all. The Indian ^opes^are ais 
very commonly twisted out of its bark. North of latitude S^ y^IC 
sus Nutkaensis takes the place of Thuja gigantea, and is ^PP^^'^'^ ^ 
the Indians to all the useful purposes of the latter, and to so 
others in addition. For instance, at the Matlakatlah Mission, on 
