P. MONTANA 65 
Taxads of Japan, and makes a particularly interesting 
illustration of the curiosities of coniferous growths. 
Another illustration of this curious tree is figured 
in The Gardener’s Chronicle, May 5th, 1917, and shows 
the disposition of the main stems, extending them- 
selves flatly along the ground, and is commented on 
there by Professor Augustine Henry. 
All these shorter and more scrubby-growing two- 
leaved Pines I refer to the P. Echinata and Virginiana 
(or Mitis and Inops), Banksiana, Contorta, and 
Montana. All have their individualities set forth 
in the Table, so that in theory they ought, with a 
little working out, to create no puzzlement in the 
mind of the identifier ; but, as a matter of fact they 
do, as many have borne me witness. The insur- 
mountable difficulty is their rarity and the want of 
object-lessons. If we could occasionally see them 
all together side by side, difficulties would vanish like 
snow on a river. 
Nature does not, however, permit a mastery of her 
secrets by any such simple, helpful processes as 
these, and perhaps for some reasons it is for the best, 
since that which is acquired easily and swiftly is 
often as easily and swiftly forgotten. 
A perfected Pinetum, set before us in classification 
array, with bud and flower and cone concomitant 
complete, would perhaps be a duller study in reality 
than we imagine, and like a limiting of the lesson- 
books to dictionaries and encyclopedias. Of such 
works, all know, we can make valuable use for refer- 
ence and reminder, but cannot hope to build up from 
them alone a lasting interest in any subject, cult, or 
science. A campaign to conquer the comparative 
anatomies of the Conifers has to be undertaken with 
more Fabian methods. 
