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346 The Book of Woodcraft because its gum was long considered a sovereign remedy for wounds, inside and out. It is still used as a healing salve. In the southern Alleghanies is a kindred species (A. fraseri) distinguished by silvery underside of leaves, and smaller rounder cones. The Conifers illustrate better than others of our trees tne process and plan of growth. Thus a seedling pine has a tassel or two at the top of a slender shoot, next year it has a second shoot from the whorl that finished last year. So each year there is a shoot and a whorl correspond- ing exactly with its vigor that season, until the tree is so tall that the lower whorls die, and their knots are overlaid by fresh layers of timber. The timber grows smoothly over them, but they are there just the same, and any one carefully splitting open one of these old forest patriarchs, can count on the spinal column the years of its growth, and learn in a measure how it fared each season. In working this out I once cut down and examined a tall Balsam in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho. It was 84 feet high, had 52 annual rings; and at 32 inches from the ground, that is, clear of the root bulge, it was 15 inches in diameter. The most growth was on the N.E. side of the stump — g in. next " least There were 50 well-marked whorls and 20 not well marked; there were altogether 70 whorls, but 20 were secondary. The most vigorous growth on the tree trunk corresponded exactly with the thickest ring of wood on the stump. Thus annual ring No. 2)i on the stump counting from the centre coincided with an annual shoot of more than 2 feet length, which would be that of the wet season of 1883. Some of the annual shoots were but 6 inches long and had correspondingly thin rings. There was, of course, one less ring above each whorl or joint. Similar studies made on Jack Pine and Yellow Pine gave similar results. On hardwood trees especially those of alternate foliage one cannot so study them except when very young. i E. ' — ^m. S. ' — 8 in. N. ' — 6^in. W. ' — 6iin. N.W. ' — 6 in.