The Seniors of the Forest 283 
So girdled cone-bearers have been known to ex- 
ist for forty years. Indeed a pine has ‘‘as many 
lives as a cat.’’ We realize this when we see the 
pitch-pines at home, in the ‘‘ turpentine country ’”’ 
of Georgia. Deeply wounded, or even girdled, and 
all bare save for a tuft or two at the top, they 
still live, and remind one of Charles the Second 
who was ‘ 
‘such an unconscionable time a-dying.’’ 
Were it not for these peculiarities of structure, 
girdled pines would share the fate of girdled-oaks 
and maples, which seldom survive their injuries for 
more than three or four years. In these trees the 
heart-wood, which has retired from active service, 
can never resume its conductive duties, and there. 
is no balsam which can be converted into sur- 
geons’-plaster in time of need. 
So the wood which is laid bare dries out more 
and more, and as soon as the drying has penetrated 
the outer or vital part of the trunk plant-fluids 
can no longer move between leaves and roots, cir- 
culation stops, and the tree dies. 
Though the cross-section of a pine-tree is much 
like that of an oak, their woody tissues have a 
different aspect under the microscope. 
The wood of the cone-bearers is almost entirely 
composed of ‘‘ tracheids,’’ which are little tubes 
