My First Summer 



noble coniferous company. The cones are 

 grand affairs, superb in form, size, and 

 color, cylindrical, stand erect on the upper 

 branches like casks, and are from five to 

 eight inches in length by three or four in 

 diameter, greenish gray, and covered with 

 fine down which has a silvery lustre in the 

 sunshine, and their brilliance is augmented 

 by beads of transparent balsam which seems 

 to have been poured over each cone, bring- 

 ing to mind the old ceremonies of anoint- 

 ing with oil. If possible, the inside of the 

 cone is more beautiful than the outside; the 

 scales, bracts, and seed wings are tinted 

 with the loveliest rosy purple with a bright 

 lustrous iridescence ; the seeds, three fourths 

 of an inch long, are dark brown. When 

 the cones are ripe the scales and bracts fall 

 off, setting the seeds free to fly to their 

 predestined places, while the dead spike- 

 like axes are left on the branches for many 

 years to mark the positions of the vanished 

 cones, excepting those cut off when green 



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