50 THE PINE. 



amber was once the liquid secretion of a primaeval 

 pine or fir, and the insects we find embedded in it 

 were preserved by the elegant operations of nature, 

 just after the same manner as those of the microsco- 

 pist's cabinet. 



So true is it over again that man, with all his in- 

 genuities and discoveries, when he opens his eyes 

 and walks into the archives of nature, invariably 

 finds that he is only a copyist, an unintentional 

 and unconscious one, it may be, but still only a 

 copyist. Nature is beforehand with him in all his 

 devices and designs. 



Even food is supplied by conifers, namely, in the 

 seeds contained in their cones, which are often of 

 considerable size, and full of nutritious matter. 

 This is the case with the seeds of the stone-pine, 

 which are commonly eaten in Italy. The Swiss and 

 Siberian pines, and many others, also yield eatable 

 seeds. Wood, as supplied by the conifers, has its 

 most celebrated representative in that of the cedar- 

 tree. But the true cedar, native of the mountains 

 of Lebanon and thence called Cedrus Libani, must 

 not be confounded with the red cedar used for lead- 

 pencils. The latter is the produce of an entirely 

 different tree, the Juniperus Bermudiana, and, as its 

 botanical name imports, is brought from the West 

 Indies. Lebanon cedar is pale and yellowish ; and 

 although it exhales an agreeable odour, the scent is 

 by no means so strong as that of the pencil-cedar. 



