254 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



tached to the ends of young shoots are the staminate flowers, 

 in which each young ovule is protected by a scale. For these 

 we also looked in June and found them mostly near the top 

 of the trees, where the boys picked them ; but we found far 

 more staminate flowers than pistillate ones. 



From our observations made on other trees, we knew 

 at once that the young cones, as the fruit of pine trees is 

 called, had the pollen carried to them by the wind. Al- 

 though, to judge from the abundance of pollen produced, 

 the cones must have been fertilized, they grew much less 

 during the summer than we had expected. But John thinks 

 he has solved the problem about the slow growth of these 

 cones. He found some twigs that bore these small cones at 

 the tip, but bore mature cones with seeds at the base of the 

 season's growth. He has concluded that these cones do not 

 mature until the second autumn after their appearance. 

 Examine carefully the material he brought and tell me 

 what you think about his conclusion. 



In the mature cones we find one or two seeds under each 

 scale. These seeds are provided with a thin wing, by means 

 of which they can sail considerable distances on the wind. 

 Do you know at what time the mature cones open ? Of 

 what advantage is it to the tree to have the cones near the 

 top? 



55. Besides the white pine, the Red Pine (Pinus resfnosa) 

 and the Labrador Pine (Pinus Bariksiana) are common in the 

 Northern States and in Canada, the latter often forming 

 large forests. Farther south and along the eastern coast 

 other species take their place. The range of the white pine 

 is from Newfoundland to Manitoba, south along the Alle- 

 ghenies to Georgia, and to Illinois and Iowa. 



If evergreens are common in the neighborhood, the teacher 

 ought to make himself and pupils acquainted with most of 



