THE AUSTRIAN PINE 189 



of the twig? Find another year's growth. An- 

 other. Still another. Are there leaves on last 

 year's growth? On the second? On the third? 

 On the fourth? On the fifth? [Sometimes they 

 will find the leaves mostly or wholly gone from 

 the five years' growth, and sometimes there are 

 leaves on the six-year-old twig.] Where did the 

 brown leaves go? How old when they fell? What 

 did they leave behind to show that they had been 

 here? (A queer little three-cornered card, often 

 turned down at the top.) 



Notice the twigs with the round flat buds, or the 

 large clustered ones. [The children find the year's 

 growth there to measure only from three fourths of 

 an inch to an inch.] Why so much shorter than on 

 twigs with long pointed buds? (Its food had to be 

 divided with those little stranger buds that clustered 

 around it, so it could not grow so much.) 



Did you ever try to break a twig or a branch 

 from an Austrian pine ? Was it easily done ? After 

 a snow storm the teacher takes occasion to call 

 the attention of the children to the beautiful but 

 sad appearance of the tree. Its branches no more 

 reach up toward the sky, but droop to the earth. 

 It seems as if the tree could never hold itself up 



