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cotyledons, w'hich look like the seams of an expanding balloon. 

 Anon they become free and spread open, showing the apical shoot 

 in their midst. Should no accident happen, a specimen in five 

 years will have attained a height of about a yard, and of the five rings 

 of branches will probably show three pretty clearly. At twenty years 

 of age its trunk may be expected to measure some six inches in 

 diameter. 



As just mentioned, the branches occur round the trunk in rings, 

 and in the younger trees they are particularly well marked as a rule. 

 The sub-branches on these branches also appear in the same way. 

 The reason for this is clear if the resting buds at the tip of a shoot 

 are examined in the winter. There is an apical shoot, in virtue of 

 which the branch increases in length, and a ring of subordinate 

 shoots around it, which may be some ten in number, but are usually 

 less. These latter produce the whorl of branches. 



When, in the spring, these buds begin to lengthen, they are seen to 

 be covered with small, brown scale-leaves, in the axils of which are 

 produced dwarf shoots, which, after producing two foliage leaves only, 

 cease to develop further. The brown scale-leaves fall immediately, 

 but the foliage-leaves persist for a long time, and eventually the 

 dwarf-shoots fall entire, as the fir-needles that are so well known. 



When a tree has reached a certain age some of the young spring 

 branches, instead of bearing dwarf shoots exclusively, have a cluster 

 of them turned into pollen-bearing flowers, the branch as it grows pro- 

 ducing dwarf shoots beyond. There is nothing attractive about the 

 blossoms ; they are not intended to entice insects as are the flowers 

 of the honeysuckle or the may. 



It is near the beginning of June, as a rule, that these flowers are 

 mature and ready to discharge their pollen, which is produced in 

 immense quantities. The least puff of wind sets it free in clouds 

 and covers everything with an impalpable yellow dust, its fall quite 

 justifying the name of " sulphur showers," which country people have 

 bestowed on the phenomenon. 



Everyone interested in plants knows that no fruit or seed can be 

 obtained unless the pollen is conveyed to the place where the embryo 

 seeds are being produced — in other words, unless the plant-egg is 

 fertilized. We must recollect that the conifer is one of Nature's early 

 attempts at making a flowering plant, and it seems that she first 

 arranged that the wind should carry the pollen — hence the immense 

 amount produced. I suppose the pollen grains actually used must 

 be reckoned as one against millions produced in vain — apparently a 

 sheer waste of energy on the part of Nature. Later she evolved a 

 more economic method, and by the attraction of bright flowers and 

 sweet scents enticed the insects to carry the pollen. Still, many of 

 the older type of plants live on to the present day. 



About this date — the end of May or beginning of June, 1909 

 — when the male flowers are shedding their pollen, it will be found 

 that on some branches the secondary buds forming the ring round 



