456 CONIFERS. 



ing character depends, however, greatly on the habit of 

 the individual, as it is carried to a much greater extent 

 in some trees than in others, although they may be simi- 

 larly situated, both as to soil and situation. The trunk 

 is covered with a thin bark, of a reddish colour and 

 scaly surface, with occasional warts or small excrescences 

 distributed over its surface ; and the roots, which spread 

 on all sides of the tree, run horizontally near the surface 

 of the ground, and are so superficial, as to be partly ex- 

 posed to view for some distance from the bottom of the 

 trunk. 



The leaves are scarcely an inch long, of a deep grass- 

 green, straight, stiff, and sharp-pointed, and disposed around 

 the shoots, though more crowded laterally, than on the 

 upper and under sides of the branches. The male flowers, 

 or catkins, about an inch long, are cylindrical, on long 

 peduncles, curved, of a yellowish colour with red tips, 

 and discharging, when expanded, a profusion of yellow 

 pollen. The cones are produced at the ends of the branches, 

 appearing, at first, as small-pointed purplish red catkins ; 

 after impregnation they gradually assume the cone-like 

 form and become pendant, changing first into a green, 

 and, as they become matured, into a reddish brown, ac- 

 quiring a length of from five to seven inches, and a breadth 

 of about two inches. The seeds, which are small and fur- 

 nished with large membranous wings, are not shed or 

 voided from the cones till the spring of the second year. 

 The young plant appears with from seven to nine coty- 

 ledons, but makes little progress till after the third year, 

 when it begins to put out lateral branches. Its progress 

 from this time, till it reaches its fifth or sixth year, is 

 at the annual rate of about six inches, after which age, 

 if planted in a favourable soil, its average annual growth 



