146 TSUGA, OR HEMLOCK SPRUCE FIRS 



apex. All these points, we humbly submit, are too 

 much in the form of minute points of microscopic 

 mystery for any, outside the select few, to contend 

 with. And the same may be said of the stomata, 

 how many lines or whether conspicuous or non- 

 conspicuous ; points, all of them, a little too close 

 up to the profession for the generality of tree friends. 



Then there are the buds, which grow from three 

 points of the branchlet — at the end of the long 

 shoots, at the end of the short shoots, and in the axils 

 of the leaves. This, again, is a little too ultra- 

 botanical for the ambition of most, and a very un- 

 recallable item of differentiation for even the more 

 attentive of students. 



Next are the branchlets. The colour of some 

 (and we instance that of the red-twigged Japanese 

 Larch) we are willing to admit as of helpful signifi- 

 cance at times. But their pubescence or non-pubes- 

 cence, which in so many cases tells its story clarion 

 clear, we contend is rather a broken reed to depend 

 upon in the case of some Larch. The Japanese is 

 generally accredited with pubescence, yet you may 

 pluck shoot after shoot, from tree after tree, time 

 after time, and find their twigs as innocent of down 

 as any chitty-faced babe girl's complexion in earliest 

 nursery days. 



So far we have made but little advance in our 

 quest, the aim of which is how to distinguish the 

 species of the Larch tribe. At this stage of the 

 proceedings we feel almost inclined to abandon the 

 chase, to hobble our hobby in the stable for good 

 and all, and lock the door. In our despair we must 

 look to the cones and their attendant sprites, the 

 bracts they bear, whence will come help. It would 

 perhaps be of benefit if, in this effort at arrangement, 

 we were allowed to borrow metaphors from the 

 prize-ring confraternity, and adopt some of their 



