164 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



fertilisation takes place in these cones ; in the brown woody ones 

 the scales are separate, for the seeds are then formed and ready 

 to be dispersed. Thus pollination takes place in the young red 

 cones ; fertilisation in the green ones in the year following pollina- 

 tion ; and dispersion of the seed, which is furnished with a wing, 

 from the brown woody cones borne by the two-year-old shoot. 



EVERGREENS 



The Scots Pine is an evergreen. There are not a large number 

 of evergreens in the British Isles ; they are rather characteristic 

 of countries with long summer droughts and moist winters, 

 and therefore belong to climates such as the Mediterranean 

 district, Cape Colony, S. Australia, the coast of California, Chili, 

 etc. The essential character of an evergreen compared with a 

 deciduous tree is that green foliage-leaves are present at all seasons 

 of the year, whereas a deciduous tree during the winter is without 

 green foliage-leaves, the leaf-scars under the buds denoting their 

 position before they fell off in the autumn. In many evergreens 

 the leaves last only a year, the old leaves falling as soon as the 

 new ones come out ; in some trees, as in the Scots pine, they 

 last several years, and in other species of pine even longer. The 

 leaves of evergreens are usually leathery in texture, and the 

 upper surface is often glossy. The trees are low in stature. 

 Amongst evergreens in this country may be mentioned the Holm 

 Oak (Quercus Ilex'), the Box, the Holly, and the Spurge Laurel. 

 Box trees form part of a mixed natural wood on Box Hill near 

 Dorking, the other trees being oak, beech, and yew. That this 

 is a natural wood and not a plantation is rendered probable from 

 the hundreds of seedlings found under the trees, and from the size 

 to which the trees grow, for in gardens where the Box is planted 

 it is hardly more than a shrub. The wood used at one time to be 

 very much in demand for wood engraving. The Holly, like the 

 Box, has a very fine grain wood, and is very hard ; the bark is 

 used in the preparation of bird-lime. It grows at an altitude of 

 1000 feet, and thrives best in damp air ; the Forest of Dean has 

 magnificent specimens. In bud, each leaf has two minute stipules, 

 which drop off as the bud opens. 



