356 



THE FIR TRIBE. 



like the down of the thistle, flies away lightly enough 

 before the mountain breeze. Until the seeds are ripe, that 

 is, for a year or more after 

 flowering, the cones are 

 hard balls of wood, com- 

 j)osed of a number of dis- 

 tinct pieces, so closely ad- 

 hering together that not a 

 (Iroj) of water can penetrate 

 them, and firm enough to 

 bear the shock of dropping 

 from the loftiest trees, or 

 of leaping from rock to 

 rock without injury. AVhen 

 the seeds are thoroughly 

 ripe, but not before, the 

 cones, whether remaining 

 attached to the tree or lyiug on the ground, open spon- 

 taneously, and allow the seeds ,to 



;e of stone-pine. 



SEED OF SCOTCH PINE. 



Thus a constant succession of 

 young plants is kept up, a provision which, 

 in the case of this tribe, is the more necessary 

 from the fact that they send up no suckers 

 from the roots, and when cut or blown down 

 they never send up new shoots from the 

 mutilated trunk. Their duration, too, in most 

 instances, is less than that of other forest 

 trees. 



Seedling Firs are remarkable for being 

 composed of five or six seed-leaves, which 

 in their youngest stage are united at their 



1 points by the shell of the seed. When this 



falls off they spread, and a bud containing true 

 leaves rises from the centre. 



The geographical range of the Fir-tribe 

 SEEDLING, jg extensive, but they are most abundant in 



