224 TAXODINE.E 



ence of many, I feel no doubt — to put to the unholy 

 use of what was called " spiking." That, being 

 interpreted as a youthful practice, was the bringing 

 down of your anti-aircraft weapon — originally de- 

 signed for defence and not offence — upon that of your 

 adversary, and the consequent impaling of the silken 

 covering of some victimized, parent-paid, latest 

 acquisition in the shape of schoolboy outfit. 



In the natural position of their growth, it may be 

 argued that the leaves rather resemble the state of 

 an umbrella-covering blown inside out by wind-blast ; 

 but, if turned more or less upside down, they answer 

 to the description given them. Again, it may be put 

 forward by the hyper-critical that, whereas the rib- 

 resembling Cladodes on the tree number from ten to 

 thirty, the number of spikes on the most spacious of 

 family ginghams has never been known to exceed 

 the number of seven or eight. 



But these are but petty criticisms, unworthy of the 

 theme, or of a name which explains itself clearly to 

 the most unreceptive-minded of students. When we 

 add that the second part of its lengthy first name is 

 derived from ttitu? (Pine), and its second name, 

 Verticillata, means whorled, our story of the origin 

 of the name is completed, and in its accomplishment 

 we take the pride to ourselves of having mastered 

 the fact that both the herbaceous foliation of this 

 abnormal tree, and the steel ribs of the common 

 umbrella, are produced in whorls. 



In the midst of this above-described complicated 

 arrangement of should-be leaves, reclines, or should 

 recline, gracefully in a position fit for a princess in 

 a fairy-tale illustration, the cone. It is a stumpy- 

 looking, and — unlike the ideal princess in the picture — 

 nearly as-broad-as-it-is-long sort of specimen, of very 

 similar appearance to the Cembra Cone. 



The tree has the character of being a slow grower 



