THE PINES 223 



the terminal bud has pushed out, and around it five-clus- 

 tered buds are forming a circle of shoots. In autumn, after 

 the season's growth is finished, each twig ends in a single 

 bud, with a whorl of five buds around it. From the 

 ground upward, count the platforms of branches. Each 

 whorl of five marks a year in the tree's growth. The 

 terminal bud carries the height a foot or two upward, and 

 its surromiding five buds grow in the horizontal plane, 

 forming the last and smallest platform of leafy shoots. 

 Each branch is a year younger than the shoot that bears it. 

 Note throughout this little tree the plan of five, from leaf 

 cluster to largest branch. 



Now go to the largest white pine in your neighborhood, 

 study the plan of five in this tree, and find out the reason 

 for any failures. Notice the conflict between the branches 

 in the close platforms. Find branches where this conflict 

 is in progress. Pick out the winner. Read the age of the 

 tree by the platforms of branches on the trunk. 



No evergreen is more beautiful than a white pine grown 

 in rich soil in a situation sufficiently sheltered to defend its 

 supple branches from breakage by severe winds. Its soft, 

 plume-like twigs are dark blue-green, with pale lines 

 lining each individual leaf. The young shoots are yellow- 

 ish green, and they lighten in a wonderful manner the 

 sombre coloring of the older foliage. At the bases of the 

 new shoots cluster the staminate catkins, in early June. 

 Yellow and becoming loose and pendulous as the wind 

 shakos them, they are soon empty of their abundant pollen, 

 which drifts lilvc gold dust and fills the air. Among the 

 youngest leaves, toward the end of the shoot, the pur- 

 plish rosy lips of the erect pistillate cone-flowers catch the 

 dust from nrlglil^or trees, and their naked ovules absorb it 



