506 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [DECEMBER 
stove, into which I thrust the pinetop, and awaited results, watch 
in hand. When I removed the stub at the end of 4 minutes, the 
needles had all been consumed, but the sheaths, especially those 
of the vigorous young fascicles crowded around the growing point, 
remained for the most part intact. The bud itself, though consid- 
erably scorched and blackened externally, appeared, like the stem, 
not to have suffered beyond the possibility of recovery, though 
this point, as the final result will show, was open to doubt. | 
It may be explained here that in excursions through the moun- 
tains it is desirable to avoid all unnecessary encumbrances in the 
way of luggage, and, as the conditions of life are very primitive in 
the regions of greatest interest to the botanist, one often has to 
resort to homely makeshifts when supplementing observation by ex- 
periment. It is surprising, however, what interesting results may 
sometimes be obtained by very simple means when one is deter- 
mined to get to the bottom of a thing. 
To complete the experiment, I next placed a couple of fresh 
pinetops in an upright position over a brisk blaze of chips and twigs 
out of doors, so as to approximate, as closely as possible, the normal 
conditions of an ordinary brush fire. After 8.5 minutes, when 
the flame had subsided and the needles were all burned away, 
down to their sheathed bases, I placed the stubs in water, together 
with the one that had been subjected to the ordeal of the kitchen 
stove on the day before. At the end of 12 days, when my stay on 
the mountain came to an end, the latter was found to have sustained 
internal injuries which left it in all probability beyond recovery. 
The other two came out of the fiery ordeal, if not altogether un- 
scathed, yet with an appearance of vitality sufficiently unimpaired 
to warrant the presumption that had they remained attached to the 
living stem, like their kindred in nature’s outdoor experiment, they 
would, like them, quickly recover from the effects of the fire. 
The effectiveness of this provision for the safety of posterity is 
further assured by the tendency of the needles to persist on the 
stem of the young shoot for several years, until the more delicate 
parts are lifted beyond the reach of danger. As the growth of 
the sapling progresses, and the increasing thickness of the bark 
provides for the protection of the stem, the needles become massed 
