SCOTCH FIR (PINE). 349 



bear at the tip a new shoot inclining upwards. These branches are 

 arranged in tiers ; the lowest grov/s at right angles to the stem, and 

 each succeeding one in the upward ascent takes a more acute 

 angle and is somewhat less spreading than the last, till the summit 

 of the tree is reached, where a leafy shoot surmounts the whole. The 

 decrease from the tip of the lowest bough to the topmost whorl is 

 graduated with perfect regularity, so that the tree is shaped like a 

 cone of dense formation with a sharply-pointed apex. The same tree 

 when old has a massive trunk, destitute of branches for three quarters 

 of its height. The boughs themselves are curiously curved ; they 

 spread in every direction and are often pendent. The tapering spire 

 has given place to a flat canopy of dense foliage and matted twigs. 

 Instead of the gracefulness of youth the tree has acquired something 

 ot the grandeur of old age. 



The paucity of branches is principally due to two causes. In the 

 first place, the lower branches become decayed as the tree advances 

 in age, and fall away, leaving only stumps or scars behind them. 

 But the tree, once fully grown, can put out no new boughs in or below 

 the places of those it may have lost. In this respect it differs from 

 the Elm, Poplar, and many other trees, where the trunk after lopping 

 is soon covered with adventitious shoots. In the second place, the 

 twigs bear an unusually small number or buds in comparison with 

 other trees. The leaves are abundant, and arranged closelv together 

 to form a spiral line round the twig, but perhaps not more than 

 two or three of them in succession will be found to bear a bud in 

 the axil. 



We have thus an arrangement ot two or three buds together, 

 clustered, slightly one above the other, round the shoot, with a 

 considerable interval, occupied only by leaves, before the next cluster 



