WEYMOUTH PINE ii 



viewed separately, are not always the simplest of 

 sights to arrive at an opinion upon. Let us take, for 

 purpose of illustration, the case of resembling brothers. 

 Smith Minor and Smith Major, in the absence of one 

 or the other, are not always objects to measure 

 accurately at a glance by those outside the more 

 immediate family circle. Smith Major may be in 

 tails, and Smith Minor only in jackets, but the 

 Minor in spite of this is often as tall as the Major, 

 and, deprived of distinguishing sartorial adjuncts, 

 may be easily mistaken for his brother. In music 

 sometimes the original or first subject resolves into 

 the dominant, and at other times into the sub- 

 dominant, and so, to pursue the musical metaphor 

 into the company of the brothers, the major may 

 become the sub-dominant, or equally the dominant 

 may revert into the minor. 



To follow^ up these upsetting effects upon the habits 

 of trees : the length and leaf of cone, subject to the 

 mysterious property of air, climate, and soil, often 

 vary so much that the greater may easily appear 

 to be the lesser, or the lesser to be taken for the 

 greater. There may be, and there are, other minute 

 differences, stomata, evanescent pubescence, and 

 even shape of leaf, between these two, but they are 

 all infinitesimally small and microscopic. The taper- 

 ing point of the Weymouth Pine cone, to the more 

 unenlightened amateur, tells its story of identity 

 perhaps with more regularity and outstanding clear- 

 ness than any other symptom of difference, perhaps 

 even more so than the difference of length of leaf, 

 which is considerable, though inclined often to be 

 rather variable. 



We will call short attention to a few points of 

 similarity of cones that these four members of the 

 Strobi group present. Although it may not help 

 much to recognize them one from the other, it will 



