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 Jin. 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 m.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