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•' You may as well forbid the mountain pines 

 To wag their high tops and to make no noise 

 When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven." 

 In " Cymbeline, " Belarius says of the " two princely boys " : 

 *' They are as gentle 

 As zephyrs blowing below the violet, 

 Not wagging his sweet head, and yet as rough, 

 Their royal blood enchafed, as the rudest wind, 

 That by the top doth take the mountain pine 

 And make him stoop to the vale." 

 The economic value of coniferous timber is very great, and will 

 continue to be so as long 8S the present order of things shall last. 

 The tanner finds the bark of the larch and other species of great 

 value as a tanning material. Resinous substances of various 

 kinds, often called "gums,'' seem to be indispensable to the 

 maker of varnishes and polishes. The Chili pine furnishes an 

 abundance of seeds which are eaten by the Arancarian Indians. 

 The Bunya-bunya of Queensland has large edible seeds. The 

 Stone Pine yields edible seeds, which are sold in the markets of 

 Southern Europe, and the Californian nut pine formerly furnished 

 a large supply of winter food. It is often said, and not without 

 good reason, that pines help to make a district healthy. They do 

 40, it appears, by giving out hydrogen di-oxide and ozone, which, 

 may be called nature's purifier. It is known that, like the 

 Eucalypti, some of the species are very suitable for planting in 

 ibadly-drained and unhealthy districts. But I must leave this side 

 of the subject, and go to one that comes under botanical geography. 

 A very interesting enquiry is this, ''How came the distribution of 

 conifers to be as it is?" Before any answer to this is attempted, 

 it must be noted that they belong in large part to the north tem- 

 perate region. There are tropical and sub-tropical species, but 

 many of them love the elevated plateau and the mountain side. 

 The western side of North America from British Columbia, down 

 through Washington, Oregon, California to Mexico is ttie home of 

 conifer grandeur. Thence have come to us from mountain forests 

 and lofty place, many of the giants, the Sequoia included, through 

 the enthusiastic toil of a few men, the best known of whom is 

 t)avid Douglas, a great explorer, whose name will ever be held in 

 highest honour by all lovers of conifers. The Douglas fir, the 

 most valuable timber tree of the Pacific region, is named after him. 

 This fir and several others, of which he was the discoverer, are 

 largely planted in Britain, and some of them may be seen in our 

 €wn neighbourhood. If we had the same conditions as exist on the 

 Pacific coast, perhaps we could have trees three hundred feet high, 

 hut, in trees, as in many other things, we are not so tall as our 



