40 PINES 
which, under the process of translation, emerges as 
‘furnished with a protuberance or any projecting 
substance.” It was introduced in 1847, and cannot 
be accounted to have thrived in England. 
These trees, with asymmetrical oblique and per- 
sistent cones, are spoken of among botanists as 
serotinous, which may be taken to mean that some 
untimely episode in the natural course of events 
happens to take place in the course of their existence, 
and the event referred to in this case has reference 
to the shedding of their seeds. Serotinous is a word 
which literally taken means “late in the day,” and 
equally might apply to human action as to tree 
habits. 
Three agents there are said to be which are 
responsible for this process of seed distribution, and 
they are: the wind, animals, and fire, and the P. 
Tuberculata is only amenable to the influence 
of the last. Of such a marked feature is this 
persistent habit in the cone life of some Conifers— 
as, for instance, in the case of the tree in question, 
the Insignis, Muricata, Rigida, and others—that it 
has been suggested that they should be reclassified 
in accordance with this habit. Those who, at a 
humble distance, have tried to master some of the 
rudimentary arrangements of the past-masters of the 
art, and to follow the modest amendments made from 
time to time to a long-established classification, 
which has gradually broadened and developed, ‘in 
unhurried discussion and with authoritative consen- 
sus, must devoutly hope and one and all pray for a 
deliverance from such a drastic overthrow of the 
prescribed rules of the game that may leave so 
many of us to begin anew once more, ‘ to burn 
what we have been taught to adore,” and to bow 
down before a new shibboleth. Heaven save us all 
from a fate like this ! 
