206 TRANS. OF THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 



Wood white, tough, not very resinous ; of extremely slow 

 growth, so that a small smooth-barked stem of 13 lines diam- 

 eter exhibited about fifty annual rings, all between \ and ¥ V 

 line wide, the smaller ones consisting of 3-6, the widest ones 

 of 15-25 layers of cells, each cell 0.007 line in diameter. A 

 tree of 2 feet thickness would at that rate indicate an age of 

 over 1,000 years; but the annual rings of larger trees grow- 

 ing in favored situations are wider, and, if a specimen sent 

 by Dr. Parry is not mislabelled, sometimes as wide as ±- line, 

 giving the largest trees a probable age of 500-800 years. 

 Branches spreading, very often many of them twisted, stunt- 

 ed, or dead ; the larger branches and the stem itself frequent- 

 ly covered with young branches or shoots, which seem to keep 

 life in the old trunk Leaves crowded from the axils of ovate, 

 acuminate, brittle, at first light brown scales, which, persist- 

 ing longer than the leaves themselves, cover the branches 

 with their rough blackish remains ; leaves light green on both 

 sides without white dots, mostly with numerous exsudations 

 of white resin, usually curved upwards, entire on edges and 

 keel, abruptly acutish, stouter in fruit bearing, more slender 

 in such trees as produce principally male flowers, in very ro- 

 bust specimens H and rarely even H, usually about 1 inch 

 long; on sterile branches straight and horizontal, "giving the 

 branches the appearance of so many bottle brushes." The 

 vaginae consist of 7-S oblong scales with fringed margins, 

 adpressed and forming a sheath 3-4 lines long on the young 

 leaf, soon spreading and squarrose, falling off in the second 

 or third year. Many lanceolate acuminate scales, perulae, 

 sheathe the lower part of the young shoots; shorter and 

 broader bracts, bearing in their axils the male aments, follow 

 next. The aments together form a very short spike, or rather 

 head, 6 or 8 lines long ; often these heads persist on the axis 

 for 2 or even 3 years with a few bunches of leaves above each 

 one, giving the appearance of a leafy spike 1 or H inches 

 long! Our figure does not represent this condition distinct- 

 ly, but it shows the numerous naked spaces, about 10 in num- 

 ber, which in former years had been occupied by male flow- 

 ers. I have seen branches with 16 such naked spaces, prov- 

 ing that leaves were persistent for 16 years — a fact unheard 

 of among pines, where leaves are said to endure generally 

 only 3 years. The stipitate oval anient 3-4 1. long, has a 

 proper involucrum of 4 oblong scales or bracts of equal 

 length. It seems that the involucrum of the male anient 

 and the form of the anient and of the anthers, together with 

 the fruit and seed, offer characters of importance for the dis- 

 tinction and arrangement of species, hitherto neglected prob- 

 ably because living nature has not been studied as diligently 

 as the dried mummies of the herbaria, and these contain so 

 few good flowering specimens of Pines ; the number of leaves, 



