BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION. 51 



Owing to the shedding of the older leaves at the end of the second year and to the short 

 annual growth of the axis, the leaves on the older trees are conspicuously crowded into dense 

 tufts or tassels on the tips of the braucblets. 



The high development of the organs of transpiration, as shown by the immense number of 

 breathing cells, clearly indicates that forests of the Longleaf Pine, and in fact of most evergreens, 

 are not less important than forests of deciduous trees in inliuencing atmosi)heric conditions, 

 particularly when i^ is considered that in the former, clothed with perpetual foliage, this function 

 suffers but little interruption of its activity. 



FLORAL ORGANS. 



The male and female flowers are sometimes found on the same branch; they are, however, 

 more fixMiueutly situated on different branches, the male flowers mostly on the lower (PI. y,l>). 

 The male flowers consist of a slender axis, the staminodial column, around which the numerous 

 naked anthers are densely crowded, forming a cylindrical catkin-like flower from 2 to 2i inches 

 and over in length, surrounded at the base by a calyx-like involucre consisting of twelve ovate 

 somewhat leathery bracts, of which the lowest pair or exterior ones are laterally compressed, 

 strongly keeled, and much smaller. The connective of the dark-rose purple anthers spreads out 

 in a semiorbicular denticulate crest: a number of these male flowers are crowded around the 

 base of this year's shoot, forming a dense whorl. After the discharge of the pollen the withered 

 flowers remain for several months on the tree. The pollen remaining for a long time suspended 

 in the air is often wafted to widely distant localities. In the latitude of Mobile its discharge 

 takes place during or shortly after the second week of March. 



The female flowers (see PI. V, «) are united in a subterminal oval, erect, short-stalked catkin, 

 which is also surrounded by an involucre, the bracts being more numerous, longer, moi'e acuminate, 

 and membranaceous than those of the male flower. 



The carpellary scales bearing ovules are ol)l(jng oval, tipped with a strong reflexed point, and 

 are almost hidden by the thin flat scales by which they are subtended, which, however, they soon 

 surpass in size. During the first year the young cones make but slow progress in their growth. 

 On the opening of the second season they are scarcely over an inch long; during the summer they 

 increase rapidly and reach their full size during the latter part of the fall. The cones are placed 

 horizontally on the branches below the terminal bud (subterminal), sessile, slender, conical with a 

 .slight curve and from G to 8 inches long; of a dull tan color; the thick scales are light to dark 

 chestnut brown on the inside, 2 inches or slightly over in length, and bear on their exposed end, 

 or apophysis, a small but i)rominent tubercle armed with a short recurved prickle (see PI. VI). 

 Plate VI exhibits truly and fully the open cone and especially the flue markings on the apophysis 

 of the scale. The cones are shed in the latter part of the winter of the second year, rarely 

 remaining to the following spring. On breaking from the branches they leave the lowest rows of 

 the scales behind. 



SEEDS. 



The seeds are strongly convex, oblong, oval, less than a half inch long, and surrounded by the 

 long oblique wing (see PI. VI). The shell is whitish, at the front face marked by three promi- 

 nent ridges, flat, smooth, and darkly spotted on the posterior side. It incloses an oily kernel, 

 covered by a white seed coat; rich in nutritious matter and palatable, the seeds furnish in fruitful 

 years an abundance of mast. They are shed before the fall of the cone during the dry weather, 

 most abundantly during the latter part of the fall (end of October or November the best time for 

 their collection) and in a lesser degree during the winter. They germinate easily after reaching 

 maturity, and it often happens, in wet, sultry weather, that they begin to sprout before leaving the 

 cone, in which event the whole crop is destroyed. This, together with the killing of the flowers 

 by late frosts, seems to be one of the main causes of failure of the seed crop so frequently observed. 

 From the behavior of the seed just mentioned and from its oleaginous character it is to be inferred 

 that the period of time during which the seeds retain the power of germination under ordinary 

 circumstances is but a short one, but as a matter of fact seeds a little over a year old have been 

 known to germiuate. 



