The Fir. 



PINE. 



In Latin, Pinus ; in French, Pin, 



245. The botanical characters are: — ^The male floAvers are collected in a scaly 

 conical bunch ; they have no petals, but many stamina^ which are connected 

 at their base, but divided at the top, terminated by erect summits ; these are 

 included in the scales, which supply the want of petals and empalements. 

 The female flowers are collected in a common oval cone, and stand at a dis- 

 tance from the male on the same tree. Under each scale of the cone are 

 produced two flowers, which have no petals, but a small germen supporting 

 an awl-shaped style, crowned by a single stigma. The germen becomes 

 afterwards an oblong ovai nut, crowned with a wing included in the rigid scale 

 of the cone. 



246. All Firs^ both descriptions, bear their seed in cones, 

 which, like most other things, ripen in the autumn. If they 

 be suffered to hang on the tree, and do not fall down before 

 the next summer, the warmth of the sun opens them ; and 

 the seeds, which are furnished with a httle wing, fall out, 

 and are borne away by the wind ; and they will sometimes 

 come up, and grow into trees, if they be shaded a little 

 from the sun, and sheltered from the drying winds. You, 

 therefore, gather or pick up the cones in November, or 

 sometime before the spring ; dry them well, and put them 

 by till about March. Being then exposed to the sun, or 

 laid near to a warm fire, the scales of the cones burst open, 

 and the seeds come out. If suffered to remain in the cone, 

 by not being exposed to heat, the seeds will remain good 

 for a dozen, or, perhaps, for twenty years ; but, if taken out 

 of the cones, they will not keep good for more than a year 

 or two 3 or, at least, this is generally the case. 



247. As to the manner of sowing these seeds, which work 

 is to be done as early in the spring as the ground will work 



