144 
NATURE NOTES. 
stem gradually becomes woody. Next spring the seedling will 
throw out several delicate young leaves with brown scales at 
their base, such as we find on the mature beech tree ; where we 
find these scales, therefore, we may be quite sure we have a 
seedling in, at least, its second year. The cotyledons of the 
Lime are curiously notched, and so unlike the adult leaves that 
we shall hardly guess what they are until they are old enough 
to have the second pair of leaves, which are like those of the 
parent tree. 
After some careful search 
\ and study, one may learn to 
recognise at a glance the 
seedlings of all the forest 
trees. We shall not find co- 
tyledons on the young Oak, 
Horse-chestnut, or Sweet- 
chestnut seedlings, because 
these normally remain be- 
low the ground, forming a 
storehouse of nutriment for 
the young tree. 
It is interesting to watch 
the growth of acorns and 
the two kinds of chestnuts, 
when placed in damp moss 
in a saucer. After a few 
weeks the plumule will be 
seen rising up and gradually 
developing into leaves, and 
. th^ radicle grows into the 
moss and absorbs water 
through its numerous white 
rootlets. Three years ago I 
placed a Horse-chestnut thus 
in moss, with a little coco- 
nut fibre, and kept it well watered. The first year it bore two 
leaves only, the next year four leaves appeared, and now it has 
fourteen, and is a handsome little tree eleven inches high with a 
woody stem. 
I remember, many years ago, seeing a Scotch Fir growing 
out of a mass of house-leek on the top of a wall ; it grew into 
a healthy, vigorous young tree about fourteen inches high, and 
in spite of its starved condition it contrived at last to bear an 
abundant crop of fir-cones. 
A collection of seedling trees, carefully dried between sheets 
of blotting paper in a press or under a weight, then fastened 
into a blank book with strips of gummed paper, with the English 
and Latin names to each, and a note of the age of the seedling, 
will form a pleasant memento of our forest rambles, and proba- 
bly may lead on to further studies of the same kind. Lemon and 
