Outdoor Visits  by Edith M. Patch

Some Trees with Cones

"May we go this week while we are at the farm?" asked Don.

"Yes, you may go to-day," said his uncle.

"May we keep the different kinds of cones we find?" asked Nan.

Uncle Tom said, "When you learn the name of a cone tree and how its leaves grow, you may have some of its cones."

So they went to visit cone trees.

The biggest cones they found on a white pine tree. Some of these cones were about six inches long.

It took the white pine cones two summers to grow. So there were some small young cones on the tree and some that were big and old.

The short young cones were closed. They were not old enough to let their seeds fall out.

The long old cones were open. Their seeds fell out in September.

The white pine is an evergreen tree. It does not shed its old leaves until its new leaves grow. It is never without green leaves. So people call it "ever green."

The leaves are long and slender. They look somewhat like needles. So people call them "pine needles."

The leaves of the white pine grow in clusters. There are five leaves in each cluster.

Don and Nan counted the leaves in some of the clusters on a low branch.

They could not pick any cones from the pine tree. The cones were high.

But they found some dry open cones on the ground under the tree. So they took them to show to their uncle. They asked him the name of the tree.

"If you will tell me how the leaves grow, I will tell you the name of the tree," he said.

"The leaves grow in clusters," said Nan.

"There are five long slender leaves in each cluster," said Don.

"The name of the tree is White Pine," said Uncle Tom, "and you may have the cones to keep."

"Does any tree have bigger cones than the white pine?" asked Don.

"Yes," said Uncle Tom. "Some other kinds of pines have much bigger cones.

"They grow where winter is not so cold as it is here."