LEAVES IN WINTER QUARTERS. 1 65 



length is beset with long, needle-like leaves, 

 arranged in clusters, and bound together at the 

 base by bands formed of the delicate scales of the 

 tiny buds, like bristles in a brush. In some of 

 these fascicles are counted seven leaves, showing 

 how exuberant and full of resinous blood it is. 

 The usual number in each sheath on older trees 

 is only five. 



However hardy and thrifty these evergreens 

 appear, they can not grow in the cold Winter, and 

 so have made special arrangements, like the 

 deciduous trees, in preparing other buds, wherein 

 lie dormant the shoots and foliage of the next 

 Spring. In a whorl at the tip of this strong, 

 healthy spur are placed six of these leaf nests, 

 with a larger terminal one in the center. Break 

 off one of them and view it with your magnifier. 

 It is in the form of a cone, like the growth of the 

 tree and the seed vessels of many members of the 

 pine family. With what exquisite workmanship 

 Nature has folded the tough, rusty brown scales 

 over each other, covering them with a thin coat 

 of pitch, and trimming their margins with fine, 

 woolly hairs, that not a drop of water, or a whiff 

 of frost may find their way to the tender baby 

 shoot within ! 



The order in which these buds are set explains 

 why the pines and spruces are inclined to grow 

 into such conoidal figures. That larger bud in 



