A PINE SEEDLING 



resin and food material, and is enclosed in a tough leathery 

 skin which is carried out beyond the seed into a long, very 

 thin, papery wing, which has very nearly the exact shape of 

 the screw or propeller of a steamer. This wing or screw is 

 intended to give the seed as long a flight in the air as 

 possible before it reaches the ground. If you watch them 

 falling from the tree, or throw one up into the air and 

 observe it attentively, you will see that it twirls or revolves 

 round and round exactly like the screw of a steamship. It is 

 difficult to explain what happens without rather advanced 

 mathematics, but it is just the reverse of what happens in 

 the steamer. 



The machinery in the steamer turns the screw, and the 

 pressure of the water, which is thrown off, forces the boat 

 through the water ; in the case of the pineseed, the pressure 

 of the air on the flying wings makes the seed twirl or turn 

 round and round, and so the seed must be a much longer 

 time in falling. They often fly to about 80 or 100 yards 

 away from the parent tree. 



Once upon the ground, the seed has to germinate if it 

 can ; its root has to pierce the soil or find a way in between 

 crevices of rocks or sharp-edged stones. All the time it is 

 exposed to danger from birds, beasts, and insects, which are 

 only kept off by its resin. But it is difficult to see, for its 

 colour is just that of dead pine needles and its shape is such 

 that it easily slips into crevices. Then the seven or eight 

 small green seed leaves break out of the tough seed coat, and 

 the seedling is now a small tree two inches high. It may 

 have to grow up through grass or bramble, or through 

 bracken, which last is perhaps still more dangerous and diffi- 

 cult. It will probably be placed in a wood or plantation 

 where hundreds of thousands of its cousins are all competing 



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