Minnesota Plant Life. 



187 



ance. The topmost branches usually dispose themselves in a 

 flamboyant manner, which makes it possible to recognize this 

 variety of pine as tar as it can be seen. The leaves are slender 

 prismatic needles, borne in groups of five, on special short 

 branches. They are of a somewhat bluish-green color, and dur- 

 ing their first winter are inclosed in small bright green buds. 

 The staminate cones are light -brown, egg-shaped, about a third 

 of an inch long and mature in a single season. The pistillate 

 cones are somewhat smaller at first, of a purplish color and 

 borne on the topmost branches of the tree, while the staminate 

 cones are usually developed on the lower branches. Originally 

 the pistillate 

 cones are erect, 

 but during the 

 first year of 

 their lives they 

 become heavier 

 and take a hori- 

 zontal position. 

 At this time 

 they are nearly 

 an inch in 

 length. The 

 next year they 

 grow rapidly, 

 become pendu- 

 lous, and reach their full size in mid-summer. They are now six 

 inches in length and seven-eighths of an inch or thereabout in 

 diameter. During the autumn of the second year, they open and 

 scatter their brown seeds, each of which is furnished with a del- 

 icate wing by means of which it is disseminated by the wind. 

 Within the seed will be found an edible albumen, with, however, 

 a strongly resinous odor, and in the centre of this stands the 

 straight young pine with from eight to ten seed-leaves growing 

 in a crown about the short apex of its stem. The root, before 

 it issues from the seed, is already provided with a root-cap and 

 the stem-area below the seed-leaves is short. The white pine 

 contains more resin than any other variety, yet it is not ordi- 

 narily used in the manufacture of turpentine as is the pitch pine 

 of the south. 



Fig. 70. 



White pines on the rocks at Taylor's Falls, 

 graph by Williams. 



After photo- 



