2/0 THE LAECII. 



others, under the same outward conditions ; the wood 

 of some varieties harder than that of others, more 

 durable, &c. The difference of variety, too, has con- 

 tributed in no small degree to perplex the student 

 in his researches to ascertain the causes of disease 

 and various other phenomena daily presenting them- 

 selves. 



While, on the one hand, the very distinct variety of 

 plants produced from the same seed-bed has had by 

 far too little attention paid to it, on the other hand, 

 much of what has been said about the two varieties, 

 the red and white flowering, has to a great extent 

 been misleading. There are not only the red and 

 white flowering varieties, but there are at least four or 

 five others whose colour of flowers greatly differ, and 

 the cones still more so. It is very interesting to 

 notice how the colour of the flower is perpetuated in 

 the cone. The red flower produces a red cone, the 

 white flower a light green cone, and so on with all 

 the other shades and varieties. If the theory that 

 the colour of the flower indicates the colour of the 

 wood be a true and reliable one, it would be exceed- 

 ingly useful, as thereby, in selecting a tree for any 

 special purpose of commerce or industry, it could be 

 known to a certainty by the cone what the colour 

 and consequently the quality of the wood is, before 

 the tree is cut down. As a matter of fact, however, 

 the theory fails in this respect, and is therefore of no 

 practical utility, however interesting and instructive 

 it is in other ways. I have cut many trees of the 



