SCOTCH PINE 119 



trunks go cleanly up until near the top ot the tree, when 

 the branches are given off, almost or quite horizontal 

 in their general direction, and greatly gnarled and twisted 

 into wild picturesqueness. Under favourable conditions 

 the tree may go on increasing in bulk for a hundred and 

 fifty years, and last in good trim for yet another hundred 

 after that. 



The leaves of the Scotch pine are in pairs, each of these 

 couples being surrounded at its base by a wrapping of 

 short, dry scales. The leaves, sometimes happily called 

 " needles," are long, narrow, and rigid. They are ever- 

 green, and remain for two or three years on the branches. 

 They then turn brown and fall to the ground, remaining 

 unchanged for a considerable time, and forming a thick 

 layer. This mass of dry dead leaves and the shade cast 

 by the spreading mass of foliage overhead, combine to 

 cause that absence of other vegetation that is so striking. 

 In an ordinary wood one often finds the trees being 

 ascended by ivy or enwrapped with hop, or traveller's 

 joy, or honeysuckle, and in the sweet Springtime the 

 new-born primroses, in all their delicate beauty are nestling 

 everywhere, the white anemone stars are in profusion, 

 and the hyacinths beneath the trees are one great sheet 

 of purple splendour, while, later on, other plants take 

 their place. The fir woods alone are unchanging : above 

 is ever the same evergreen canopy, and beneath ever 

 the same brown carpeting. April, July, November, all 

 are as one, except that in the Autumn one find sometimes 

 a considerable amount of varied fungus-growth. 



The Scotch pine is yet another example, of which we 

 have had several already, of monoecious growth. The 



