140 FAMILIAR TREES 
become gradually reddish from their apices down- 
wards before reaching maturity. The seed is larger 
than in any other European Pine, and it has a 
hard stony “testa,” or envelope, which gives the 
tree the name of Stone Pine; whilst its hatchet- 
shaped wing is so small as to appear to be a 
merely “vestigial” structure, useless, that is, for 
that purpose of seed-dispersal for which this 
structure has presumably been evolved in allied 
forms. The entire cone is much lighter in colour 
than those of the Cluster Pine, and the * apophyses,” 
or “ tesselle,” differ in having keel-like ribs proceed- 
ing from each of their four-rounded angles, instead 
of the one diagonal keel in those of that species. 
In the centre of each tessella is a greyish rhom- 
boidal depression, from the centre of which rises 
the broad, blunt prickle. 
Young plants of the Stone Pine exhibit a pe- 
culiarity not noticed in other species of the genus. 
After branching has begun, and some of the dwarf 
shoots with paired needles have been produced, the 
plant puts forth long slender twigs bearing single, 
i.e. not paired, needles, without scale - leaves or 
“basal sheaths,” half the length of those of the 
typical adult foliage, and of a bluish-grey-green. 
Later on, shoots bear these so-called “primordial” 
or “protomorphic” leaves mixed with the ordinary 
dwarf shoots; and then the former cease to appear. 
The Stone Pine may perhaps be a native of 
China, where it is plentiful, as in the South of 
Europe it is seldom seen in situations far removed 
from habitations. It occurs in the South of France 
