LEAVES AND BUDS 3 



number of leaves to be found in a bunch is bounded 

 by a count of fingers and thumb found on the hand 

 of normal man. To put it still more simply — if it 

 requires simplifying — the number of leaves per 

 bundle range, like Nature's digits, from one to five, 

 and the most common, indigenous, and beautiful of 

 our Pmes, the so-called Scots Pine — and take heed, 

 all who talk names, that, in deference to your fellow 

 countr^^men north of the Tweed, you do not speak 

 of it as Scotch, neither of them, nor of their Pines 

 as Scotch, but always Scots — which contains two m a 

 bundle, gives the beginner his first intuition upon the 

 problems of an absorbing subject. This counting 

 of leaves by no means exhausts the Alpha and Omega 

 of the art, it only starts us on a long journey, a veri- 

 table Via Dolorosa of difficulties. We submit a few 

 points for observation of their component parts 

 that are quite within the scope of the more unversed, 

 and necessitate no deep dive into botanical depths. 



Leaves. — ^The number in a bundle. The length of 

 the leaf. The length of the little covering which 

 encases the base of the leaf, and which is called the 

 basal sheath, and whether that sheath remains 

 (persistent) or drops off (deciduous) or tears away 

 (rosette-shape, e.g. Pinus Aristata, Balfouriana, and 

 Cembroides Group). The margins of the leaves, 

 whether serrulate (jagged), or entire (smooth). 



N.B. — In point of fact all Pines are serrulate more 

 or less except these : the Flexilis, Pumila, and Albi- 

 caulis, the Aristata and Balfouriana ; and of these the 

 second and third mentioned are practically non- 

 existent in Great Britain. This characteristic is one 

 for the microscope to solve. 



Buds. — ^Their shape, whether resinous or non- 

 resinous. As an object-lesson at hand to all, the buds 

 of the Scots Pine are resinous, those of the Common 

 Spruce non-resinous. 



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