BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION. 51 



Owing to the sbedding of the older leaves at the end of the seeoud year and to the short 

 annual growth of the axis, the leaves on the older trees are eonspicuously crowded into dense 

 tufts or tassels on the tips of the branchlets. 



The high development of (he organs of transpiration, as shown by the immense number of 

 breathing eells, clearly indicates that forests of the Longleaf Pine, and in fact of most evergreens, 

 are not less important than forests of deciduous trees in intiuencing atmospheric conditions, 

 particularly when it is considered that in tiie former, clothed with perpetual foliage, this function 

 suffers but little interruption of its activity. 



I LORAL ORGANS. 



The male and female flowers are sometimes found ou the same branch; they are, however, 

 more frequently situated on different branches, the male Howers mostly on the lower (PI. V, h). 

 The male flowers consist of a slender axis, the staminodial column, around which the numerous 

 naked anthers are densely crowded, forming a cylindrical catkiu-lilie flower from 2 to lii inches 

 and over iu length, surrounded at the base by a calyx like involucre consisting of twelve ovate 

 somewhat leathery bracts, of which the lowest pair or exterior ones are laterally compressed, 

 strongly keeled, and much smaller. The connective of the dark-rose purple anthers spreads out 

 in a semiorbicular denticulate crest; a number of these male flowers are crowded around the 

 base of this year's shoot, forming a dense whorl. After the discharge of the pollen the withered 

 flowers remain for several mouths ou the tree. The pollen remaining for a long time suspended 

 in the air is often wafted to widely distant localities. In the latitude of Mobile its dischaige 

 takes place during or shortly after the second week of March. 



The feuiale flowers (see PI. V, a) are united iu a subterminal oval, erect, short-stalked catkin, 

 which is also surrounded by an involucre, the bracts being more numerous, longer, more acuminate, 

 and membranaceous than those of the male flower. 



The carifellary scales bearing ovules are oblong oval, tipiied with a strong reflexed iwiut, and 

 are almost hidden by the thin flat scales by which they are subtended, which, however, thej^ soon 

 surpass in size. During the first year the young cones make but slow progress in their growth. 

 Ou the opening of the second season they are scarcely over an inch long; during the summer they 

 increase rapidly and reach their full size during the latter part of the fall. The cones are placed 

 horizontally on the branches below the terminal bud (subterminal), sessile, slender, conical with a 

 slight curve and from G to S inches long; of a dull tan color; the thick scales are light to dark 

 chestnut brown on the inside, 2 inches or slightly over in length, and bear on their exposed end, 

 or apophysis, a small but prominent tubercle armed with a short recurved prickle (see PI. VI . 

 Plate VI exhibits truly and fully the open cone and especially the tine markings on the apophysis 

 of the scale. The cones are shed in the latter part of the winter of the second year, rarely 

 remaining to the following spring. On breaking from the branches they leave the lowest rows of 

 the scales behind. 



The seeds are strongly convex, oblong, oval, less than a half inch long, and surroumlcd by the 

 long oblique wing (see PI. VI). The shell is whitish, at the front face marked by three prominent 

 ridges, flat, smooth, and darkly spotted on the posterior side. It incloses an oily kernel, covered 

 by a white seed coat; rich in nutritious matter and palatable, the seeds furnish in fruitful years 

 an abundance of mast. They are shed before the fall of the cone during dry weather, most abun 

 dantly during the latter ])art of the fall lend of October or November the best time for their 

 collection), and in a lesser degree during the winter. They germinate easily after reaching 

 maturity, and it often liappens, in wet, sultry, weather, that they begin to s[)rout before leaving 

 the cone, iu which event the whole crop is destroyed. This, together with the killing of the flowers 

 by late frosts, seems to be one of the main causes of failure of the sefd crop so frequently observed. 

 From the behavior of the seed just mentioned and from its oleaginous character it is to be inferred 

 that the period of time during which the seeds retain the power of germination under ordinary 

 circumstances is but a short one, but as a matter of fact seeds a little over a year old have been 

 known to germinate. 



