NATURE NOTES

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23131, 21 September 1940, Page 6

NATURE NOTES

A CANNIBAL PINE

(By L. W. McCaskill)

An adult reader has sent in a large log of Finns radiata with a cone embedded in the middle. This is the first time I have met this curiosity in Pirus radiata, but it quite commonly occurs in a pine growing on poor dry areas in California. In this tr ( ee, Pinus tuberculata, the cones are held tightly against the branches and may remain on the tree for 30 years or more. The cambium layer, that part of the tissue

which makes the new growth, produces new outer and inner bark which grows over some of the cones just as it will grow over the stump left where a branch has been removed. Years after someone may split the branch for firewood and find the cones deeply embedded. Something similar must have happened with the cone in the sketch. It is possible that the cone fell into a fork and became jammed there. As the tree grew it could not displace the cone so just grew round it. We have all probably heard of other examples of trees growing round foreign objects. Sometimes fencing wire Is tied round trees which are mads to serve as posts. In a year or so

A GOOD TRICK Show your friend a piece of paper on which you have drawn the letter B. Then ask, “Could you add one line to this R and make a ship?” He will be

nuzzled, so you add the word “line” to the' R and make if “liner.” —’MATE THISTLEDOWN, Hawarden. A TONGUE-TWISTER A tutor who tooted a flute, .Tried to teach two young tooters to toot.

Said the two to the tutor, “Is it harder to toot, or To tutor two tooters to toot?” —’MATE TROPIC FLOWER, P.W.D., Oaro, Marlborough. ORIGINAL RIDDLEMEREE My first is in coal but not in wood, My second is in cloak but not in hood, My third is in run but not in walk, My fourth is in nib but not in chalk. My fifth is in fat but not in’ thin, My sixth is in head but not in chin. My seventh is in tin also in lids. My eighth is in children but not in kids. My whole is a great day on September 28.

Answer: Club Fair. —’MATE THISTLEDOWN. Why are oysters lazy? Because they are . always, found in their beds. L —DAPHNE ROLFE. Ikawai.

the wire apparently disappears—new tissue has been produced and grown over it. Some years ago I was cutting a willow log for firewood and found inside an axe head. Evidently some one had driven the axe into the tree and departed, leaving the tree to engulf it. Oak trees in England have a habit of growing unconcernedly round all kinds of foreign bodies. Oaks are still used for the “knees” of lifeboats and

OUTSIDE INSIDE THE LOG The tip of the The cone is Firmly embedded cone is visible /I fits Into B when log is dosed

of the barges which have recently been built in large numbers because of the rejuvenation of canal transport in England. . During quite recent operations of this kind, it was necessary for the saw to cut round flints, staples, wire and nails, and in at least one case the name plate of a tree. ’ Strangest of ali was the discovery of a hole in the middle of a huge log which container the remains of a nest and eggs. Name plates on trees should regularly be inspected to make sure the> are not cutting into the tree —otherwise the tree will gobble them up just a: the pine “eats” its own cones. Information about strange object: found in logs would be helpful and ; should be glad to receive any.

GOOD-BYE TO THE FARM : The holidays are over, So back to school once more, > We loathe to leave the country, s Our hearts are very sore. "WTiat fun we had on the stack. And in the hay loft, too, We rode, and rode old Dobbin, Until he lost a shoe.

Each day in pony cart, Around the fields we’d ride, And see the lambs frisk about, ’Tis there we’d love to bide. But it’s “Good-bye” to the stack, And “Good-bye” to the swing. "Good-bye” to the new .born lambs, "CSood-bye” to everything. —JEANNE MARSHALL, Oak grove, Ashburton.