22 THE PIKE. 



women to listen to their sound. The leaves, on the other hand, so far 

 from resembling those of oaks, are narrow, and usually needle-shaped. 

 Their veins, instead of meandering in all directions, run in lines that 

 converge towards the point, and not seldom the entire leaf is little more 

 than a stiff green bristle. So with the flowers. Though distinct 

 apparatus is present for the production of seed, and the distinction of 

 sex is as plainly marked as in the oak, here everything is of the most 

 simple kind. The sweet brightness of rose and lily is entirely wanting ; 

 even the plain green floral coverings of a grass-blossom are not to be 

 found ; Nature seems to have taken pleasure in showing how, with the 

 utmost stateliness of figure, could be associated the last extreme of 

 incompleteness as to flowers. The stamens make their appearance 

 either in pretty little sheaves along the branches, as in the larch-tree, 

 or in clusters that seem mountains of such sheaves ; the pistils are 

 developed iu connection with the rudiments of those elegant and 

 familiar productions known as fir-cones ; not, however, as in other 

 plants, in the form of a closed ovary, but as flat scales, with the ovules 

 lying at the base ; and when the time arrives for the pollen to be 

 conveyed to the ovules, it is transmitted, not through a stigma and 

 style, but immediately. The pollen gone, the stamens wither away 

 and fall to the ground ; the clusters of ovules, with their protecting 

 scales, undergo changes similar to those of ripening fruits, and in due 

 time we get the cone, now a hard and solid body, and oftentimes more 

 like the work of the wood- carver or sculptor than the produce of a tree. 

 The variety in these cones is most wonderful. We see in it once more 

 how amazing is the ingenuity that, dealing with a simple idea, appa- 

 rently susceptible of no modification, shall nevertheless play upon it as 

 a musician upon his lute, and strike us the more by displaying resources 

 where and when least expected. The pieces of which the cone is com- 

 posed are not, as would at first appear, altered remains of a perianth ; 

 they are the scales by which the female flowers were sheltered, now 

 greatly enlarged and indurated, and forming a kind of capsule for the 

 seeds. While young, they remain closed ; when mature, especially if 

 exposed to warmth, they separate., and the seeds fall to the ground. 

 But in many cases the seeds are provided with a wing, which enables 

 the wind to carry them to a distance. 



What a beautiful phenomenon is this of the wings of seeds ! " Give 

 us wings " is the universal cry of nature ; and though we commonly 

 associate such wings with plants like thistles and dandelions, in truth 

 there are as fine examples, yea finer ones, among trees. One of the most 



