4 WINTER AND ITS FLORA (CONTINUED)

冬天和冬季植物群（续篇）

1. Wait but a day, and the sun has carried off the jewels from our pines, and we can take another walk to visit them. But which are the pines? Are all the evergreens pines,—our Christmas-tree, these cone-shaped trees in our grounds, and the leafless larch ? They are all of the pine family—the coniferae,—the cone-bearing family of which I have spoken. The Germans have a pretty way of describing this family. They call them the needle-

trees,—those that have narrow, pointed leaves, like needles.

2. It was one of this family, in the German story, you know, that wanted to change its needles into “truly” leaves, like those of the oak and the elm. But glad enough was the dissatisﬁ ed tree to come back to its needles again, and very much should we miss them if all the pines and ﬁ rs and spruces should choose to lay aside their needles, and dress themselves like the other trees. We should lose their green, that lasts us all the winter long. The larch is the only one of this family that mimics the other families of trees, and sheds its leaves in the winter.

3. We can tell the different kinds of this family by the different effect the position of their branches gives them at a distance. The white pine has its regular horizontal stages. We have seen how it spreads them to hold the snow. The pitchpine bears round, tufted masses. The spruce begins from the very ground to conceal its gradually sloping trunk. The ﬁ r rises with a tall, sloping shaft, “clean” from the ground for some distance. Its lower branches are horizontal, while the upper ones bend slightly upwards. The hemlock has a soft, delicate outline, and the cedars and junipers are more ragged and very picturesque.

4. Of these, our White Pine stands ﬁ rst,—for it is the most stately tree of our forests, varying in its outward appearance, and receiving different names according to the place it grows in. We see it frequently, left standing near our towns, its dark green in the summer forming a contrast to the other trees around,—a picture of powerful growth; or, farther away in the country, its dark color is prominent against the soft green of the wild cherry-tree, or its trunk serves as a support for the bitter-sweet and other trailing vines.

5. No wonder that Emerson says:

“W ho leaves the pine tree

Leaves his friend,

Un nerves his strength,

Invites his end.”

For now in the winter this tree seems like a trusty friend, stretching out his sheltering arms, a type of a strong constancy.

6. It is easily distinguished by its leaves, being in ﬁ ves; that is, each one of its slender little needles does not rise separately from the branch, but, with four needle-like companions, comes out of a little gray sheath. These sheaths, each bearing its ﬁ ve needles, are set closely round the twig. A single large bud, encircled by ﬁ ve smaller ones, is at the end of each branch.

7. The branches, as we have said, grow in regular stages or whorls, of about ﬁ ve at each stage, tending upwards when the tree is young, but in old trees horizontal. It is not the season to examine its ﬂ owers, which, indeed, at any time are indistinct. Has it any ﬂ owers? Who ever saw the ﬂ owers of such great old trees? you ask. Every plant must have its ﬂ ower, its blossom, because from them comes the fruit or seed. And the essential parts of a flower are not its showy, its pretty part. The important parts, those which must never fail in a ﬂ ower, because they produce the seed, are the stamens and pistils. These we shall have a chance to study when the ﬂ ower season comes.

8. In all the pine family the ﬂ ower is very incomplete; even the important

pistil has not all its parts, but appears like a mere scale. Besides, the pistils are in one part of the tree, and the stamens in another. So there are two sets of ﬂ owers, one to hold the pistils, called the pistillate ﬂ owers, and another to hold the stamens, called the staminate ﬂ owers. In the white pine the pistillate ﬂ owers are in erect cones on the ends of the uppermost branches, and appear in June. These do not ripen into fruit till the autumn of the second year. It is the ripe cones that give the name to this family and distinguish it.

9. Here are more pines. Are they white pines? Take hold of a branch and count its needles. You will see that there are only three in a sheath, where the white pine had ﬁ ve, and they are ﬂ atter in shape. Each tree, too, is more

irregular in form, and this tree never re ach es the height of the white pine. It is the Pitch Pine. It makes up many of the woods that we call the “pine woods,” and that invite us with their healthy smell.

10. Come in and listen to the pleasant sighing of the wind through the leaves. There is a warm, comfortable feeling here, even in these winter days, for the thick branches have kept the snow from the brown tasseled ground, and we are sheltered from the cold winds. Here and there a stream of sunlight comes in, and lights up a red tinge in the brown, soft carpet, and we can venture to linger awhile and listen to the story the wind is whispering to the pines. The brown empty cones lie scattered about.

11. “O, we have picked thousands of them,” you say. But did you ever consult them about the weather? In damp seasons the scales of the cones drink in the moisture . This makes them swell and close up. When it is dry again, they open gradually. So you see they are little weather-pro phets . A part of the scale of the pistil of which I have spoken makes a wing that ﬂ ies away with the seed when it is ripe. The cones of some of the pines require two or three years to come to perfection .

12. A cart-path leads us among trees that are leafy in summer, by snowcovered bushes, to a favorite summer resting-place under a tall hemlock. It is the hemlock-spruce, or hemlock of the spruce genus. It may fairly be called the most beautiful tree of the family, and we ﬁ nd a cool shelter in the summer beneath it, in a soft corner of the rocks at its feet.

13. Far up in the branches sound the gay voices of the birds, not far off the note of the thrush ,—Wilson’s thrush. But there are dreams of the summer as we look up its tall, ﬁ rm trunk. Its foliage, even now, is soft and delicate, and it is distinguished from the spruce by its slender, tapering little branches and smooth limbs. Here in the forest its lower limbs are stiff and broken.

14. The names of spruce and ﬁ r are used with a bewildering uncertainty, and in the shrubs in our gardens which stand in either genus there is resemblance enough to create much doubt. The leaves of both differ much from the pines we have just described. They are solitary; that is, we no longer find them collected in fives, threes, or twos, and a sheath, but they rise directly from the twig, closely, side by side. The leaves too are shorter than those of the pines, and more ﬂ at. They are more like a little sword than a needle, and some have three sides and some four.

15. The spruce in the beginning of summer puts on a fresh tuft of yellowish-green leaves at the end of each twig, and its branches are so numerous, that its young delicate green gives a great beauty. In the very ornamental shrub in our grounds the lower branches spread close to the ground, and from these a regular pyramid of whorls of leaves rises to the tapering summit. It was from among them that we took our Christmas-tree. Its shelf-like branches offered cozy places for playthings enough to last till next Christmas.

16. On these branches, in the summer, the robins and other birds find pleasant shelter of a rainy day. These are their piazzas and balconies, where they can take exercise when it is too stormy outside. Its leaves, as I have said, are small and flat, and sow themselves along the sides of the stalk, forming a flatter branch than that of the fir, and more like a hand spread out. Its staminate ﬂ owers are near the end of the smaller branches. In the hemlockspruce the cones that have borne the fertile ﬂ owers are long and pointed, of a light-brown color, and hang from the extremities of the branches.

中文阅读

1. 只需等一天，太阳就会把珠宝从我们的松树上捋下去，那时候，我们可以再去看看它们。但是，都有哪些树是松树呢？是不是所有的常青松树和落了叶子的无叶松都是松树？包括我们的圣诞树，我们大地上那些锥形的树木？是的，它们都是松树，都属于我前面说过的球果科。德国人给这个家族的树木取了个好听的名字，叫做“针叶木”——这些树长着尖尖的叶子，就像一把把钢针。

2. 在德国有个故事，说这个家族里有一棵树想把自己的针叶变成“真正的”树叶，就像橡树叶和榆树叶那样。让人庆幸的是，这棵不满的树又把自己的针叶变了回来。如果所有的松树、冷杉和云杉都选择放弃针叶，披上跟别的树同样的衣装，那会让我们十分怀念那些针叶。我们将会失去陪伴我们一冬的苍翠。幸好在这个家族中只有落叶松模仿其他的树种，在寒冬时节褪去所有的叶子。

3. 从这些树枝杈的位置所造成的不同效果，我们远远地就能分辨出这个科不同的种属。白松的枝杈分布形成有规则的水平梯度。我们看过它是如何伸展枝杈，举起落雪的。脂松长着成簇的圆形枝丫。云杉从地面开始，掩饰着它越来越陡的树干。冷杉又高又陡，从地面往上的一段距离都很“干净”，生得矮的枝干水平伸展，而生在上面的枝干微微上弯。铁杉轮廓优美柔和，香柏和杜松生得参差不齐，别致如画。

4. 在这些松树中，首先我要介绍的是我们的白松，因为它是我们森林中最威严的树。因外观不同，不同的生长地常给它冠以不同的名字。白松在我们这里很常见：它们有的长在我们城镇附近，炎炎夏日，那层层叠叠的深绿跟周围的树木形成了鲜明的对比——一副生命力极其旺盛的景象；有的生在更远的乡村，苍翠的深绿映衬着野樱桃树柔和的浅绿；也有的长在藤蔓间，树干成了美洲南蛇藤和那些逶迤的藤蔓攀爬的依附。

5. 难怪爱默生说：

“谁离开了松树，

就离开了朋友，

丧失了勇气，

走到了末日。”

就在这隆冬时节，松树就像忠实的朋友，以一种恒久不变之姿，坚定地伸出臂膀替我们遮风避雨。

6. 从松针很容易辨认出白松，因为它的叶子是五枚一丛的；也就是说，它纤细的松针不是一根一根独自从树枝上冒出来的，而是五根针一样的同伴，一起从灰色的小叶鞘里冒出来。这些叶鞘长在离小树枝不远的地方，每个里面都长出五枚松针。每个枝干的尽头，都有一个独生的萌芽，周围环生着五个小萌芽。

7. 正如我们所说，白松的枝干以有规则的梯度或呈有规则的漩涡状生长，每一阶都有五根树枝。白松年轻的时候往上长；老了以后，就会水平伸展。其实，它开花与否跟季节没多大关系，不管在任何时候，它的花朵都不易为人发觉。那它到底开不开花？谁见过这么古老的参天大树开花？也许你会问。其实，每株植物都会开花，都有花期，因为果实和种子就来自花朵。更重要的是，植物必须开花，因为种子是花朵产出的，花朵就是植物的雄蕊和雌蕊。我们会有机会研究花季何时到来的。

8. 在所有的松树家族中，花朵的构造都是非常不完整的；就连非常重要的雌蕊也不是一应俱全，也不过看上去颇具规模而已。此外，雌蕊在树的一方，而雄蕊在树的另一方。所以，花儿其实分为两种，一种里面是雌蕊，叫做雌花；一种里面是雄蕊，叫做雄花。就白松而言，雌花长在树冠末端竖立的球果里，六月开花。但是，直到第二年秋天，这些花儿才会长成果实。成熟的球果赋予了这个家族“球果科”的名号，并让它不同于别的树种。

9. 这边还有很多松树，它们都是白松吗？抓过一根树枝，数一数它的松针，你会看到这根树枝一个叶鞘里只有三枚松针，而白松有五枚。而且，这棵树松针的形状也略显扁平。每棵树在形态上也都不怎么规则，任它们怎么样也长不到白松那么高。这是脂松。我们所说的“松树林”就是很多脂松长在一块儿形成的，它们散发出健康的气息，邀请我们赏光。

10. 进来吧，来听听风儿穿过树叶时愉快的叹息。即便是在这清冷的冬日，这里也感觉温暖而舒适。浓密的枝丫为我们挡住了落雪寒风。不时有一线阳光射进来，在棕色软地毯上燃起点点浅红色的光芒，我们可以大胆逗留片刻，倾听风儿轻声给松树讲着故事。棕色的空球果散落一地。

11. 你说：“噢，我们捡过成千上万个脂松果。”可是，你曾向它们询问过天气如何？在潮湿的季节，球果的鳞片会吸足水汽，慢慢膨胀并闭合起来。待到天气干燥时，它们便会徐徐打开。瞧，它们还是小小天气预报器呢。我前面说过雌蕊，雌蕊鳞片的某个地方会在种子成熟时长出翅膀，带着种子一起飞翔。有些松树的球果需要两到三年才会成熟。

12. 马车小道将我们带入丛林，若在夏日，这里的树木会遮荫蔽日。沿着积雪覆盖的灌木丛，我们来到一株高高的铁杉下，若在夏日，这里便是最佳的纳凉之地。这就是铁杉，或者说云杉属中的铁杉。很公平地说，这种树堪称该家族最美的树种，夏日，它的华盖遮出一片浓荫，就在树下那些岩石的角落里。

13. 远远的树枝上头传来鸟儿欢快的歌声，跟画眉——威尔逊的画眉婉转的啼鸣不相上下。但是，我们抬头仰视它那高耸而坚固的树干时，就仿若进了夏日的梦境。就算现在，它的松针依然柔软而纤细，它细长、尖锥般的小树枝和平滑的枝干让它有别于云杉。在这里的森林中，它下端的枝干坚硬而粗糙。

14. 提起云杉和冷杉，人们总是心存疑虑，不那么确定。我们花园中的灌木丛里就有这两种树木，它们确实长得非常相像，让人分辨不清。两种树的松针跟我们刚才描述的松树都不相同。它们的叶子都是独生的，也就是说，它们不是一个叶鞘里长五枚、三枚或者两枚树叶了，而是直接从小枝杈上冒出来，一片挨着一片。叶子也比那些松叶更短、更扁。它们不像针叶，更像是一把小剑，有的有三个棱，有的有四个。

15. 初夏，云杉每根小枝杈的末端都生出一簇鲜嫩的黄绿色树叶和无数根树枝。它一身雅致的绿色新装，风姿绰约。作为生在地面上的观赏树木，它下端的枝叶一直伸到地面上。那些枝叶像漩涡一样，从地面一路往上，漩出一个正椎体，越来越尖，直到顶端。我们的圣诞树就选自这些云杉。它的枝丫长得像架子，为那些玩具提供了十分惬意的去处，让它们安心等待又一年圣诞的来临。

16. 夏日，这些树枝上的地方便是知更鸟儿们避雨的乐土，就是它们的露天广场和阳台。外面风雨大作时，它们可以在这里活动锻炼。我刚才说过，它的叶子又小又扁，密布于茎干上，形成比冷杉更扁更平的枝叶，就像一只手往外平伸着。它的雄花就长在小枝干末端的附近。铁杉的球果又尖又长，呈浅棕色，吊在树枝的末端，结出繁茂的花朵。