2296

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

like leading shoot. The branches, in young trees, are disposed in regularwhorls from the base to the summit; but in old trees the lower branchesdrop off, and the tree terminates in a pyramid of open angular branches,so that the regular whorls only occupy the middle portion of the tree. Inyoung trees, the branches are nearly horizontal; but in old trees they droopgracefully at their extremities; and this pendulous disposition of the branches,joined to the dark sombre green of the leaves, gives to the whole treesomewhat of a gloomy or melancholy aspect. (See fig. 2214., to a scaleof 24 ft. to 1 in.) Between the regular whorls of branches, a few small abor-tive shoots appear occasionally. The bark of the trunk is rather thin,warty, and of a reddish brown, becoming wrinkled and scaly on old trees.The roots are spread-ing, without a taproot,and with numerousfibres. The leavesare solitary, of a darkgrassy green, gene-rally under 1 in. inlength, curved orbent, sharp-pointed,very straight andstiff, and more crowd-ed together laterallythan on the upperand under sides ofthe branchlets. Themale catkins are nu-merous, solitary, inpairs, or a few toge-ther; from ^in. to1 in. in length, onlong peduncles; cy-lindrical, generallycurved, of a yellow-ish colour, tippedwith red ; resem-bling at first a half-ripe strawberry, butgradually lengthen-ing and becominglooser; and, whenripe, discharging agreat quantity of yel-low pollen from the anthers. The female catkins are produced at theextremities of the branches; and the cones, as they ripen, become pendent.When in flower, the catkins are red or purplish, and pointed; but theysoon take the form of a cone, or, rather, pointed cylinder; their colourthen becomes greenish, and this changes, as they ripen, into a rich red-dish brown. In different soils and situations, the colour of the femalecatkins, when in flower, varies from a dark red or purple to a pale redor yellow, or even to a greenish hue. The ripe cones are from 5 in.to 7 in. in length, and from 1J in. to 2 in. broad. The scales are rhom-boidal, slightly incurved, and rugged or toothed at the tip, with two seedsin each scale. The seeds are very small, and resemble those of P. syl-vestris ; but are sharper-pointed, of a deep reddish brown, and rougherto the touch. In Germany, according to Hartig, they are frequentlyused for adulterating those of P. sylvestris, as they are obtained fromtheir cones with scarcely any trouble; while those of P. sylvestris requireconsiderable time and labour, and very frequently the employment of a

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