352 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16:8— Nov., 1920 



September. After this duty is performed the empty cones fall, 

 starting in the Winter and falling off gradually until early spring. 

 The cone scales are \yi to \yi inches long, and seven-eights of as 

 inch wide, oblong-ovate, slightly thickened at the apex, obtuse 

 or nearly truncate. The seeds are a red-brown and are mottled 

 in appearance. Each seed has a wing an inch long which aids 

 it in gliding through the air when in search of a suitable growing 

 place for the next year. The pattern of the overlapping scales of 

 an unripe cone is intricate and yet regular. Under each scale 

 is a twin seed box where two tiny seeds mature. The blossoming 

 time of the White Pine is June. The light-brown staminate 

 flowers are oval in shape, about one-third of an inch long and are 

 surrounded by six or eight involucral bracts. The anthers have 

 short crests and are also surrounded by six to eight involucral 

 bracts. The pistillate flowers are cylindrical, subterminal, and 

 about one-fourth of an inch long. They have scales which are 

 pinkish purple on the margin. The peduncle of the pistillate 

 flowers are stout and are clothed with bracts. The pollen is very 

 abundant for the pine tree depends upon the wind to sift the 

 pollen dust into the lifted cups of the cone scales which will close 

 upon the treasure as soon as it reaches there. 



The White Pine prefers good soil on either moist woodlands 

 or uplands. A single tree grown in the open has a broad crown 

 that often keeps its lower branches and these are borne to the 

 ground by their own weight. Such a tree is very picturesque 

 and a joy the year round. 



All cone bearing trees have a central stem from which the 

 branches come off in whorls, but so many things have happened 

 to old pine trees that the whorls are not always seen. Each whorl 

 of the. White Pine contains five branches. 



The top-most growing point of the White Pine is known as the 

 1 ' leader' ' . It is this point that leads the growth of the tree upward. 

 It stretches up from the center of the whorl of last year's young 

 branches and there at its tip are the buds which make the branches 

 of this year's growth. If the leader is harmed by insects or the 

 weather so that it is killed one of the branches of the whorl rises up 

 and takes the place of the dead leader. Sometimes a keen competi- 

 tion takes place and two branches fight for the leadership. If 

 both are successful a two-stemmed tree results. 



