255 OW THE ?RyCTinCATIOK OP THE FIRS. 



precedes the female cone, as to disappear wholly before the 

 Scotch £r. pistil is scarcely visible. The Scotch lirwill serve as a pro-r 

 per example. The female cone for the present year came 

 QUt in June, 1811. In May, 1811, all the powder of the 

 ^tamens had disappeared ; besides that the cone shows no 

 -seed till full three months after its first coming, of course 

 these seeds could not be impregnated. !Next year, May 1812, 

 the cone will show (by many outward si^ns) that the seed is 

 ready to receive the line of life; the pistils in the cone will 

 be elongated ; the drops ready to be saturated with the pow- 

 der of the stamen as soon as it is fit. The pistil is then in 

 the (?xact situation in which 1 drew it in my last letter; 

 and the impregnating and nourishing vessels distended in a 

 manner they never are but at this time. As soon as the 

 drops are saturated, the pistil draws in, and all is complete 

 for the year, except that the cones continue to increase and 

 alter their form by degrees. The followinj^^year, March 1813, 

 they will beoin to swell about the y)oints, an<l in a \'^w months 

 to open ; and this is the time the cones in England are 

 obliged to be gathered, or they are very apt to shed their 

 seed. Still they areyjir /oo wucA attached to their stalks; 

 and are often greatly hurt by this early plucking. 1 be- 

 Foreign seed lieve it will be acknowledged that now, as well as in Evelyn's 

 of pinea best, ^j^^^ ^^g ^^^^ ^f ^H pines arp/ar better coming frorp abroad, 

 than that shed in our own country : and the reason is plain : 

 they are able (from the shade either of the mountain or the 

 forest where they grow) or from the northern climate, to rer 

 main on the trees till ripe; so that they are not gathered till 

 the fourth or fifth season. That is, if appeating in |8ll, 

 they are not sent to this country till 1314 or 1815 : by which 

 means, the integuments will be completely loosened from 

 the tree, (not torn as ours are), their seed will be perfected, 

 and fiill of moisture; and if in taking out the seed some in^ 

 jury is done to the vessels, it signifies little, as the process ig 

 completed : but in ours, when the seed is but half formed, 

 to injure the vessels is to stop the completion of the seed, 

 a«d this is the exact difference between the two sorts when 

 exannned: the work of Nature is finished in the foreign 

 seed ; in ours \i i? not perfected. No person, who is not o, 



dijfe^ior^ 



