120 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



The seeds of the conifers are curiously formed 

 and colored, white, brown, purple, plain or 

 spotted like birds' eggs, and excepting the juni- 

 per they are all handsomely and ingeniously 

 winged with reference to their distribution. 

 They are a sort of cunningly devised flying ma- 

 chines, — one-winged birds, birds with but one 

 feather, — and they take but one flight, all save 

 those which, after flying from the cone-nest in 

 calm weather, chance to alight on branches 

 where they have to wait for a wind. And though 

 these seed wings are intended for only a mo- 

 ment's use, they are as thoughtfully colored and 

 fashioned as the wings of birds, and require 

 from one to two seasons to grow. Those of the 

 pine, fir, hemlock, and spruce are curved in such 

 manner that, in being dragged through the air 

 by the seeds, they are made to revolve, whirling 

 the seeds in a close spiral, and sustaining them 

 long enough to allow the winds to carry them to 

 considerable distances, — a style of flying full 

 of quick merry motion, strikingly contrasted to 

 the sober dignified sailing of seeds on tufts of 

 feathery pappus. Surely no merrier adventurers 

 ever set out to seek their fortunes. Only in the 

 fir woods are large flocks seen ; for, unlike the 

 cones of the pine, spruce, hemlock, etc., which 

 let the seeds escape slowly, one or two at a time, 

 by spreading the scales, the fir cones when ripe 

 fall to pieces, and let nearly all go at once in 



