I. THE PINES. 59 



struction by various enemies. On a rocky surface, they may be 

 cast into the crevices of the rocks, or beneath the thin soil which 

 covers them. On an open plain, they require protection, which 

 may be found in various low bushes, such as sweet fern ; or if 

 sown on a waste, sterile land, they must be sown with the seeds 

 of some quick-growing shrub, or tall grass, which shall protect 

 them for two or three years. For the first two or three years, 

 these plants are of slow growth ; but after the fifth they grow 

 very rapidly; and continue, in favorable situations, to make 

 one or two feet annually, until they have reached twenty or 

 thirty feet, and, in the case of the taller species, a much greater 

 height. The root, in most species, penetrates at once, in the 

 first or second year, to the depth of one or two feet, but never 

 to a much greater depth. 



The evergreens are transplanted with less facility and success 

 than most deciduous trees. Those intended for transplantation 

 are, therefore, in the English nurseries, usually kept in pots, 

 whereby they are prevented from throwing down a long root. 

 All the pines are, however, successfully transplanted, if sufficient 

 care be taken not to injure the roots nor heads, and to have a 

 pit sufficiently large for all the roots to be fully .spread, and 

 not to set them too deep. The most difficult are the white and 

 pitch pines. To ensure success, these should be transplanted 

 in winter ; the pits having been formed and the plant to be 

 moved having been surrounded by a circular trench in the pre- 

 vious autumn. In this way, the whole of the roots, with the 

 frozen earth adhering, may be removed in a single ball, and set 

 at once in the pit, and surrounded by loose earth kept ready for 

 the purpose. 



The evergreens have been divided * into three sections : — 



1. Those whose fruit is a true cone, with numerous imbricate 

 scales, like the fir and pine ; 



2. Those with a globular, compound fruit, like the cypress 

 and arbor vitae ; 



3. Those with a solitary fruit, like the yew. 



* By L. C. Richard. Annales du Museum, XVI, 296. 



