1. We find that the pine-tree body is clearly marked out into root, stem, leaves, and cones.
2. Also that the stem and root have definite strands of “water-pipe” cells, and that the stem has rings of wood, one of which is added every year.
3. The leaves vary a little in the different members of the family, but the commonest kind of leaf is the fine sharp “needle” leaf of the ordinary pine (see fig. 53). In almost all cases the leaves remain on the tree for more than a year; they are evergreens (it is only the larch among the English-growing members of the pine-tree family which has new leaves every year), and the leaves are simple and strong, and well protected.
4. There are no “flowers,” but the two kinds of cones which take their place are easily recognised. The two kinds of cone generally grow on different branches of the tree, the small ones only live a short time and scatter the pollen, and the larger ones often remain two or three years on the tree, and form the seeds. The wind scatters the pollen; you will remember in the spring-time before the leaves are out, how the “sulphur rain” showers down from the pine-trees; this is the yellow pollen, which is blown in clouds on to the seed-bearing cones. There are millions of pollen grains scattered in this way, and but few of them ever reach a cone. You will remember that many of the flowering plants could afford to make small quantities of pollen, as they had special carriers in the insects to take it from flower to flower.
Fig. 123. A branch of Pine with a small young seed-bearing cone, and a large ripening one.
Besides the pollen cones, you should find two sizes of seed-cones on the tree: some quite small, and green or pink, and some large ones which are brown and ripe. It will be easier to see their structure at first in the big ones; they consist of a number of brown scales packed neatly one over another. If you pull these apart you will see that each of them bears two seeds on its upper side.
