40 A SPRAY OF PINE. 



been many times cut down, but which always sprouted 

 again. But the pines do not sprout again. The 

 spontaneous development of a new bud or a new 

 shoot rarely or never occurs. The hemlock seems to 

 be under the same law. I have cut away all the 

 branches, and rubbed^way all the buds of a young 

 sapling of this species, and found the tree, a year and 

 a half later, full of life, but with no leaf or bud upon 

 it. It could not break the spell. One bud would 

 have released it and set its currents going again, but 

 it was powerless to develop it. Remove the bud, or 

 the new growth from the end of the central shaft of 

 the branch of a pine, and in a year or two the branch 

 will die back to the next joint ; remove the whorl of 

 branches here and it will die back to the next whorl, 

 and so on. 



When you cut the top of a pine or a spruce, re- 

 moving the central and leading shaft, the tree does 

 not develop and send forth a new one to take the 

 place of the old, but a branch from the next in rank, 

 that is, from the next whorl of limbs, is promoted to 

 take the lead. It is curious to witness this limb rise 

 up and get into position. One season I cut off the 

 tops of some young hemlocks, that were about ten 

 feet high, that I had balled in the winter and had 

 moved into position for a hedge. The next series of 

 branches consisted of three that shot out nearly hori- 

 zontally. As time passed one of these branches, 

 apparently the most vigorous, began to lift itself up 

 very slowly toward the place occupied by the lost 



