LEAVES AND BUDS 3 
number of leaves to be found in a bunch is bounded 
by a count of fingers and thumb found on the hand 
of normal man. To put it still more simply—if it 
requires simplifying—the number of leaves per 
bundle range, like Nature’s digits, from one to five, 
and the most common, indigenous, and beautiful of 
our Pines, the so-called Scots Pine—and take heed, 
all who talk names, that, in deference to your fellow 
countrymen north of the Tweed, you do not speak 
of it as Scotch, neither of them, nor of their Pines 
as Scotch, but always Scots—which contains two in a 
bundle, gives the beginner his first intuition upon the 
problems of an absorbing subject. This counting 
of leaves by no means exhausts the Alpha and Omega 
of the art, it only starts us on a long journey, a veri- 
table Via Dolorosa of difficulties. We submit a few 
points for observation of their component parts 
that are quite within the scope of the more unversed, 
and necessitate no deep dive into botanical depths. 
Leaves.—The number in a bundle. The length of 
the leaf. The length of the little covering which 
encases the base of the leaf, and which is called the 
basal sheath, and whether that sheath remains 
(persistent) or drops off (deciduous) or tears away 
(rosette-shape, e.g. Pinus Aristata, Balfouriana, and 
Cembroides Group). The margins of the leaves, 
whether serrulate (jagged), or entire (smooth). 
N.B.—In point of fact all Pines are serrulate more 
or less except these: the Flexilis, Pumila, and Albi- 
caulis, the Aristata and Balfouriana; and of these the 
second and third mentioned are practically non- 
existent in Great Britain. This characteristic is one 
for the microscope to solve. 
Buds.—Their shape, whether resinous or non- 
resinous. As an object-lesson at hand to all, the buds 
of the Scots Pine are resinous, those of the Common 
Spruce non-resinous. 
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