A SPRAY OF PINE 39 



newer foliage. The white pine usually sheds its 

 leaves in midsummer, though I have known all the 

 pines to delay till October. It is on with the new 

 love before it is off with the old. From May till 

 near autumn it carries two crops of leaves, last 

 year's and the present year's. Emerson's inquiry, 



" How the sacred pine-tree adds 

 To her old leaves new myriads," 



is framed in strict accordance with the facts. It is 

 to her old leaves that she adds the new. Only the 

 new growth, the outermost leaves, are carried over 

 till the next season, thus keeping the tree always 

 clothed and green. As its moulting season ap- 

 proaches, these old leaves, all the rear ranks on the 

 limbs, begin to turn yellow, and a careless observer 

 might think the tree was struck with death, but it 

 is not. The decay stops just where the growth of 

 the previous spring began, and presently the tree 

 stands green and vigorous, with a newly-laid carpet 

 of fallen leaves beneath it. 



I wonder why it is that the pine has an ancient 

 look, a suggestion in some way of antiquity? Is 

 it because we know it to be the oldest tree ? or is 

 it not rather that its repose, its silence, its un- 

 changeableness, suggest the past, and cause it to 

 stand out in sharp contrast upon the background 

 of the flitting, fugitive present 1 It has such a look 

 of permanence! When growing from the rocks, it 

 seems expressive of the same geologic antiquity as 

 they. It has the simplicity of primitive things; 

 the deciduous trees seem more complex, more het> 



