The Seniors of the Forest yes) 
This tissue, like the bundle of vessels, is guarded 
by Nature against frosts and winds, for outside 
the delicate green cells there is a tough encompass- 
ing layer, or, it may be, several layers, of fibrous 
cells with very thick walls. These strengthen the 
leaf, rendering it less liable to be broken by gales, 
and they also serve, in a measure, to protect the 
inner tissues from sudden changes of temperature 
and from the drying effect of high winds. Then, 
outside all, is the leaf-skin or epidermis, which is 
also thick and fibrous. 
The stomata are distributed evenly over the sur- 
faces of these needle-shaped leaves. They pierce 
through the epidermis, and through the fibrous 
tissue beneath it, to the delicate green cells which 
may have superfluous moisture to breathe away. 
But as the cone-bearers often live on stony ground 
and in wind-swept situations, it is desirable that 
their leaves shall not part too readily with their 
vegetable juices. So each stoma opens at the base 
of a depression in the leaf-surface, where it is 
somewhat sheltered from the direct sunlight. 
Even in New England there are a number of 
birds which do not join the great southward migra- 
tion, but stay to brave winter and rough weather. 
During latter autumn this remnant is reénforced 
