WEYMOUTH PINE 1I 
viewed separately, are not always the simplest of 
sights to arrive at an opinion upon. Let us take, for 
purpose of illustration, the case of resembling brothers. 
Smith Minor and Smith Major, in the absence of one 
or the other, are not always objects to measure 
accurately at a glance by those outside the more. 
immediate family circle. Smith Major may be in 
tails, and Smith Minor only in jackets, but the 
Minor in spite of this is often as tall as the Major, 
and, deprived of distinguishing sartorial adjuncts, 
may be easily mistaken for his brother. In music 
sometimes the original or first subject resolves into 
the dominant, and at other times into the sub- 
dominant, and so, to pursue the musical metaphor 
into the company of the brothers, the major may 
become the sub-dominant, or equally the dominant 
may revert into the minor. 
To follow up these upsetting effects upon the habits 
of trees: the length and leaf of cone, subject to the 
mysterious property of air, climate, and soil, often 
vary so much that the greater may easily appear 
to be the lesser, or the lesser to be taken for the. 
greater. There may be, and there are, other minute 
differences, stomata, evanescent pubescence, and 
even shape of leaf, between these two, but they are 
all infinitesimally small and microscopic. The taper- 
ing point of the Weymouth Pine cone, to the more 
unenlightened amateur, tells its story of identity 
perhaps with more regularity and outstanding clear- 
ness than any other symptom of difference, perhaps 
even more so than the difference of length of leaf, 
which is considerable, though inclined often to be 
rather variable. 
We will call short attention to a few points of 
similarity of cones that these four members of the 
Strobi group present. Although it may not help 
much to recognize them one from the other, it will 
