158 FOREST TREES. 



the dark dull foliage, and the Pine tribe, retouched by the breath of 

 returning Spring, stands forth in renewed beauty long before the bare, 

 leafless trees of the forest have put forth one single green bud. The 

 new growth of the yearly shoots does not take place till the month of 

 May ; it is but the refreshing and retinting of the old leaves that comes 

 to cheer our eyes thus early in the season ; and as we look upon the 

 rich verdure we call to memory those sweet lines of Mrs. Hemans, 

 so familiar and so descriptive of our Pine woods, in the " Voice of 

 Spring : " 



" I have looked on the hills of the stormy North, 

 And the Larch has hung all its tassels forth ; 



The Pine has a fringe of softer green, 



And the earth looks bright where my iteps have been."' 



The cone of the White Pine appears a little later than the new 

 shoots, but near the top of the wood of the former year ; they are narrow, 

 curved of a deep or rather bluish green, soft and leatherv, slightly pointed, 

 and often covered with clear drops of turpentine, which becomes white 

 and hardened in the course of the year. The winged seeds lie at the 

 base of the scales, imbedded in the leathery covering, carefully secured 

 from injury during its embryo state. The ripened seeds form the food 

 of a large number, both of our birds and smaller animals. The seedling 

 pine is a pretty, tiny, tufted thing, with a slender stem, and a number of 

 dark green needle-like leaves. Look at this pigmy, can it be the original 

 form of yonder stately tree ? And yet it is so. Every year a new set of 

 shoots springs from a conical scaly head at the top of the main central 

 stem of the former year's growth. From this head are developed from 

 five to seven straight upright shoots ; of these the middle one is the 

 longest and strongest, and forms the leader ; sometimes accident, as 

 wind or frost, or insects, injures this central shoot, and two of the 

 nearest and stoutest take its place, so that a double crown is formed. 



After a little while the scales that had protected the young spiny 

 leaves fall away, leaving the leaves in clusters of fives, clothing the 

 fibrous woody stems of the new growth which hardens as the season 

 advances. The leaves deepen in colour, and by the latter end of June 

 and July the cones begin to form in the older trees. 



* The yearly growth of the new Pine shoots measures from eighteen 

 inches to fully two feet, in a healthy free-growing young tree ; but in the 

 dense forest the length of the main shoots is still longer. The bark of 

 the Pine for many years remains smooth and green. As the trunk 

 increases from within, rifts in the surface, near the roots, begin to appear, 



' The age of ii pine tree, till it ii^aclies its meridian lii'i},'lit, has Imtii rcckoiii'd at a peiioil of 

 from one liniidnil to one hundnil and lil'ty years. This is as reyitnls its iijiward growth ; but 

 floes uot ineliidf the full duration of the tree while living. 



