With Gun ft? Rod in Canada 



could penetrate the rocky soil more than a few inches. 

 The tap-root, which usually seeks depth for moisture, 

 seemed to be entirely lacking. The stump measured 

 sixteen inches across, so the tree apparently throve under 

 these peculiar conditions before succumbing to the 

 lumberman's axe. 



No. 2. 



Where the foregoing illustration gives a tree that 

 depended for its sustenance and its foundation strength 

 upon what it could grasp upon the rocky surface, the pine 

 in this picture came up under a flat rock which it lifted 

 during its growth. It then spread its roots out in all 

 directions beneath the environing rocks, which had been 

 deposited by glacial drift. It depended upon the latter 

 for ballast. When the tree swayed in the wind there 

 was a very perceptible movement of the surrounding 

 rocks. The soil in this case, also, was too rocky to permit 

 a tap-root to penetrate to any depth, and the tree trusted 

 solely to its rock ballast to maintain an upright position 

 in a wind storm, and upon its wide-spreading roots for 

 moisture. 



No. 3. 



This diminutive spruce is a veritable parasite. The 

 seed lodged upon the edge of an old pine stump, and was 

 fed from the moisture accumulated by the rotting wood. 

 Stretching its eager roots in all directions, it enveloped 

 the venerable stump and ravenously absorbed any nourish- 

 ment it contained. As shown in the picture, the roots 

 eventually reached the ground, and are seeking new 

 sources of nutriment for the sturdy young suckling. 

 If this tree is not destroyed for the purposes of the 

 requiring pulp and lumber industries, within fifteen years 



244 



