304 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



seed-cones (Fig. 31) presents a very fine harmony of .diverse 

 colours, yet they are not constructed so as to attract 

 the visits of insects. They do not require the services 

 of insects to carry the pollen of the male cones to the 

 ovules of the female cones. They produce an enormous 

 amount of pollen, which falls in showers of yellowish- 

 white dust, and is blown by the wind, far and wide, on 

 to the female cones. Hence it is that though the cones 

 are " flowers," and the pine trees are flowering plants, 

 yet they have none of the beautiful shapes and colours 

 which we associate, as a rule, with flowers — shapes and 

 colours due to the modification in the latter of the leaves 

 called " petals " which are set with attractive brilliancy 

 around the stamens and pistil. The conifers are an 

 ancient race, dating from geological ages before the 

 chalk, when plants had not " learnt " (as they subse- 

 quently did) to colour their flowers and to provide nectar 

 so as to ensure the visits of insects and the carriage by 

 them of their pollen from plant to plant. Even in the 

 group of plants with coloured flowers there are trees 

 which have abandoned the production of colour in their 

 flowers, and like the conifers depend upon the wind to 

 carry their pollen instead of seeking the aid of insects. 



The word " pine " is of Latin origin, and belongs 

 properly to the South of Europe ; the word " fir " is 

 Teutonic, and is originally applied to the same trees in 

 the North of Europe as those to which " pine " is applied 

 in the South. It is of no use trying to determine what 

 conifers should rightly be called " firs " or " fir trees," 

 and which " pines " or " pine trees." There is complete 

 confusion and indifference nowadays in the use of those 

 words, and the botanists have in the past added to the 

 confusion by their changing and uncertain use of the 

 names Pinus and Abies. A definite system of naming 



