De I. VNER VEW D Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope

182 FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE.
their skin is tough. and only slighly marked at the top by the tips of
the female flower scales. The flesh is scanty, dry. and contains from 2 to 3
bony, pitted and grooved seeds, about which are large resin-cells (fig. 71, a).
These impart a sweetish punllgent-arolnlatic taste to the berries. Seed-leaves 2,
needle-like, sharp-pointed. and about an inch long. Seedling leaves which follow
Flm. 71. -- t- iperus occideodalis: a, seed.
these are similar in form, but much shorter, spreading in groups of three at close
intervals. These leaves grow gradually shorter and closer in their arrangement
until about the third or fourth year, when a few twigs bear short leaves of adult
form.