PINE 63 



The Scots Pine is one of our most beautiful trees, occurring 

 wild or self sown in many places, though most of the examples 

 met with will have been planted. When young the tree has the 

 regular pyramidal form familiar in its relatives used as Christmas 

 trees, but in old trees the lower branches have usually perished 

 and the crown of branches borne on the stout tapering trunk is 

 irregular and often very beautiful. The trunk and branches 

 are clothed with a characteristic scaly bark and have a reddish 

 tint. The foliage is confined to the younger twigs, but branches 

 of from three to five years old are bare, having lost the evergreen 

 foliage. 



If a leafy shoot of the Pine is examined it will be found that 

 the green leaves are not borne directly on the main stem. This 

 bears only small pointed brown scale-leaves, which are spirally 

 arranged and closely crowded. In the axil of each of these 

 scale-leaves is a lateral shoot. This has a short cylindrical stem 

 bearing the remains of a few scale-leaves and only two green 

 foliage-leaves. Between these the little growing point of the 

 shoot will be found, but it remains inactive and the shoot bears 

 no more leaves and does not increase in length. These two- 

 leaved shoots upon which all the foliage of the tree is borne are 

 called " short shoots/' in contrast to those to which the growth 

 and branching of the plant is due. These " long shoots " bear, 

 as has been seen, only brown scale-leaves. The foliage-leaves 

 are the well-known (< needles" of the Pine. Each is long, narrow, 

 and pointed ; convex on the lower surface, but flattened above. 

 After living for several seasons, the short shoots with their leaves 

 drop off, and the older parts of the branch system are bare except 

 for the remains of the scale-leaves. 



The tip of each long shoot ends in a large brown bud. This 

 is covered with bud-scales which protect it through the winter. 

 In the spring it grows into a shoot increasing the length of the 

 branch, and in turn ending in a bud. The short shoots bearing the 

 foliage-leaves are already developed upon the new growth and 

 have only to attain their full size. Just beneath the terminal 

 bud are several similar buds borne laterally. These, like the 

 terminal bud, do not develop further until the following spring, 

 when they grow out into long shoots. The branches thus stand, 



