224 TAXODINEA 
ence of many, I feel no doubt—to put to the unholy 
use of what was called “spiking.” That, being 
interpreted as a youthful practice, was the bringing 
down of your anti-aircraft weapon—originally de- 
signed for defence and not offence—upon that of your 
adversary, and the consequent impaling of the silken 
covering of some victimized, parent-paid, latest 
acquisition in the shape of schoolboy outfit. 
In the natural position of their growth, it may be 
argued that the leaves rather resemble the state of 
an umbrella-covering blown inside out by wind-blast; 
but, if turned more or less upside down, they answer 
to the description given them. Again, it may be put 
forward by the hyper-critical that, whereas the rib- 
resembling Cladodes on the tree number from ten to 
thirty, the number of spikes on the most spacious of 
family ginghams 'has never been known to exceed 
the number of seven or eight. 
But these are but petty criticisms, unworthy of the 
theme, or of a name which explains itself clearly to 
the most unreceptive-minded of students. When we 
add that the second part of its lengthy first name is 
derived from -irvs (Pine), and its second name, 
Verticillata, means whorled, our story of the origin 
of. the name is completed, and in its accomplishment 
we take the pride to ourselves of having mastered 
the fact that both the herbaceous foliation of this 
abnormal tree, and the steel ribs of the common 
umbrella, are produced in whorls. 
In the midst of this above-described complicated 
-arrangement of should-be leaves, reclines, or should 
recline, gracefully in a position fit for a princess in 
a fairy-tale illustration, the cone. It is a stumpy- 
looking, and—unlike the ideal princess in the picture— 
nearly as-broad-as-it-is-long sort of specimen, of very 
similar appearance to the Cembra Cone. 
The tree has the character of being a slow grower 
