57 



the sections cut showing them to be exactly opposite those of the ceUs contiguous 

 to each other, the pits being closed by a middle lamella, which no doubt fills the 

 function as laid down by Gardiner, i.e., permitting the passage of protoplasmic 

 fibrils connecting the energids of the respective cells. On the other hand they 

 probably play an important part in the forming of syncytes, although no actual 

 case was met with in the material examined. 



The presence of a dark-coloured substance, a manganese compound, in the 

 lumina of the tracheids of the different forms, is a feature in the wood of most 

 Callitris species. 



(c) Economics. 



Callitris trees are an inestimable asset to Australia and should be closely 

 conserved or reafforested, as they are invaluable in the interior where the termite 

 (white ant ) is found ; for their timbers are, owing to the presence of a phenol, 

 and other chemical bodies, able to resist to a large extent the depredations of 

 this enemy to mankind, and every effort should be made to propagate our Cypress 

 Pines under a scientific system of forestry. 



As showing the value of pine plantations to a country, the following excerpt 

 from the Cape Times, and written by D. E. Hutchins, Conservator of Forests, 

 may not be out of place : — 



It is worth a long journey to Genadendal to witness the natural regeneration of the cluster- 

 pine. Between 1825 and 1830, i.e., about seventy years ago^ a small area at the foot of the mountain 

 near the picturesque old churchyard was trenched and sown with cluster-pine seed. None of these 

 seventy-year-old pines now remain, though one or two of their broad stems can still be identified. 

 From these trees the cluster pine has spread, self-sown, up the rocky face of the mountain and into 

 the rugged Genadendal VaUey, presenting most picturesque and remarkable effects : now subduing the 

 moorland veld, and anon covering with ample humus the bare rocks. No sight has so impressed 

 me since my first view of Table Mountain from a Wynberg window at daybreak on a serene winter's 

 morning. The Genadendal Valley runs into the heart of the highlands for 4 or 5 miles. To the 

 east rises the Genadendal Mountain, 5,000 feet high. From this valley issues the stream that waters 

 the station, and some distance up, on both sides of the water, extend these natural woods of 

 cluster-piae, unsurpassed in their sylvan beauty, and in their lesson of potential forest wealth, by 

 anything else at a distance from Table Mountain. Mr. Vedemann pointed out to me a spot on the 

 east side of the valley where, when he left Genadendal in 1881, there was only a scattered growth 

 of pine, which was traversed by a veld fire five years afterwards, in 1886. Nevertheless, the whole 

 of this area is now covered with a sufficient stock of young self-sown pine, with larger pines scattered 

 among them, showing by their blackened stems where the fire had passed. On the west side of the 

 valley the pine woods are intersected by winding paths. It is necessary from time to time to clear 

 these paths of the young pines, which would otherwise soon obliterate them. Wherever any opening 

 lets in a little light young pines make their appearance, exactly as in Scotch-pine forests in Europe. 

 . . The country must have pine plantations. Dr. Schlich, in a recent able paper read 

 before the Imperial Institute, has shown how the pine timber supplies of the world are reaching a 

 visible termination. The present importation of pine wood to South Africa must considerably 

 exceed in value a quarter of a million pounds sterling. 



