Transcriber’s Note
  Italic text displayed as: _italic_




STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

[Illustration: SWAMP WHITE OAK

_Quercus platanoides_]




  STUDIES _of_ TREES
  IN WINTER

  _A Description of the Deciduous Trees of
  Northeastern America_

  BY

  ANNIE OAKES HUNTINGTON

  WITH AN INTRODUCTION

  BY CHARLES S. SARGENT, LL.D.

  DIRECTOR OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM AND AUTHOR OF THE
  “SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA”

  _ILLUSTRATED WITH COLORED PLATES BY MARY
  S. MORSE, AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY
  THE AUTHOR_


  BOSTON
  KNIGHT AND MILLET
  1902




  _Copyright, 1901_
  BY KNIGHT AND MILLET

  FIRST IMPRESSION, DECEMBER, 1901
  SECOND IMPRESSION, JANUARY, 1902




  TO

  My Two Friends

  MY MOTHER, ELIZABETH QUINCY HUNTINGTON
  AND
  JEANNETTE WARREN PAYSON

  _IN TOKEN OF GRATITUDE AND LOVE_

  I DEDICATE THIS BOOK




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE

  INTRODUCTION                                                        xv

  CHAPTER

  I. THE STUDY OF TREES IN WINTER                                      3

  Trunk and branches. Stems and twigs. Leaf-scars.
  Bundle-scars. Buds.

  II. THE HORSECHESTNUT                                               15

  The Horsechestnut. The Ohio Buckeye.

  III. THE MAPLES                                                     21

  Sugar or Rock Maple. Red or Swamp Maple.
  White or Silver Maple. Striped Maple or Moosewood.
  Ash-leaved Maple or Box Elder. Norway
  Maple. Sycamore Maple.

  IV. THE ASHES                                                       35

  The White or American Ash. Red or Downy Ash.
  Black Ash. European Ash.

  V. THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES                                        45

  Butternut. Black Walnut. Shagbark or Shellbark
  Hickory. Mockernut or Whiteheart Hickory.
  Bitternut Hickory. Pignut Hickory.

  VI. THE BIRCHES, HOP HORNBEAM, AND HORNBEAM                         59

  Canoe, Paper, or White Birch. American, Gray,
  or White Birch. Black or Sweet Birch. Yellow
  Birch. Red or River Birch. Dwarf Birch.
  European White Birch. Hop Hornbeam, Ironwood.
  Hornbeam, Blue Beech.

  VII. THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS                                  77

  American Beech. European Beech. Chestnut
  Oak. White Oak. Swamp White Oak. Mossy-cup,
  Overcup, or Bur Oak. Chestnut or Rock
  Chestnut Oak. Dwarf Chestnut Oak. Post or
  Rough Oak. Black Oak. Red Oak. Pin Oak.
  Scrub Oak.

  VIII. THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY                                   101

  American or White Elm. Slippery or Red Elm.
  Cork or Rock Elm. English Elm. Scotch,
  Dutch, or Wych Elm. Hackberry, Sugarberry,
  Nettle tree.

  IX. THE BUTTONWOOD, THE TUPELO, AND THE
  MULBERRIES                                                         117

  Buttonwood, Sycamore, or Plane tree. Tupelo,
  Pepperidge, Sour Gum tree. Flowering Cornel,
  Flowering Dogwood. Red Mulberry. White
  Mulberry.

  X. THE LOCUSTS, THE YELLOWWOOD, AND THE
  KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE                                               129

  Common Locust. Honey Locust. Yellowwood.
  Kentucky Coffee tree. Laburnum. Judas tree.

  XI. THE LINDENS, THE LIQUIDAMBER, AND THE
  SASSAFRAS                                                          141

  Linden, Basswood. European Linden. Liquidamber,
  Sweet Gum. Hamamelis. Sassafras.

  XII. THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE, THE CATALPA,
  THE AILANTHUS, AND THE ARALIA                                      153

  Swamp Magnolia, Sweet Bay. Umbrella tree.
  Cucumber tree. Tulip tree. Catalpa. Ailanthus,
  Tree of Heaven. Angelica tree, Hercules’
  Club.

  XIII. THE APPLE TREE, PEAR TREE, MOUNTAIN ASH,
  CHERRY TREE, AND THE SHAD BUSH                                     167

  Common Apple tree. Common Pear tree. Mountain
  Ash, or Rowan tree. Wild Black Cherry.
  Choke Cherry. Pin Cherry. Peach tree. Shad
  Bush. Service Berry, June Berry.

  XIV. THE WILLOWS AND POPLARS                                       177

  White Willow. Weeping Willow. Black Willow.
  Aspen, American Aspen. Large-toothed Aspen.
  Balm of Gilead, Balsam Poplar. Cottonwood,
  Necklace, or Carolina Poplar. Lombardy Poplar.
  White Poplar.

  XV. THE LARCH                                                      187

  American Larch. Tamarack or Hackmatack.
  European Larch.




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                    PAGE

  Swamp White Oak. _Quercus platanoides_                  _Frontispiece_

  Cross section of a tree. (Colored plate)                             4

  Horsechestnut. _Æsculus hippocastanum_                              14

  Horsechestnut shoot                                                 16

  Section of a Horsechestnut bud. (Colored plate)                     18

  The Maples. (Colored plate)                                         20

  Sugar Maple. _Acer saccharum_                                       22

  Trunk of a young Sugar Maple                                        23

  Red Maple. _Acer rubrum_                                            24

  Trunk of a young Red Maple                                          25

  Silver Maple. _Acer saccharinum_                                    26

  Moosewood Maple. _Acer pennsylvanicum_                              28

  Norway Maple. _Acer platanoides_                                    30

  Sycamore Maple. _Acer pseudo-platanus_                              32

  The Ashes. (Colored plate)                                          34

  American Ash. _Fraxinus americana_                                  36

  Walnuts and Hickories. (Colored plate)                              44

  Butternut. _Juglans cinerea_                                        46

  Trunk of a Butternut                                                47

  Black Walnut. _Juglans nigra_                                       48

  Trunk of a Black Walnut                                             49

  Shagbark Hickory. _Hicoria ovata_                                   50

  Trunks of Shagbark Hickories                                        51

  Mockernut Hickory. _Hicoria alba_                                   52

  Bitternut Hickory. _Hicoria minima_                                 54

  Pignut Hickory. _Hicoria glabra_                                    56

  Canoe Birch. _Betula papyrifera_                                    58

  Gray Birches. _Betula populifolia_                                  60

  Black Birch. _Betula lenta_                                         62

  Yellow Birch. _Betula lutea_                                        64

  Red Birch. _Betula nigra_                                           66

  European White Birch. _Betula alba_                                 68

  Hop Hornbeam. _Ostrya virginiana_                                   70

  Hornbeams. _Carpinus caroliniana_                                   72

  The Beech and Chestnut. (Colored plate)                             76

  Beech trees. _Fagus americana_                                      78

  Trunk of a young Beech                                              80

  Chestnut. _Castanea dentata_                                        82

  The Oaks. (Colored plate)                                           83

  White Oak. _Quercus alba_                                           84

  Trunk of a White Oak                                                86

  Mossy-cup Oak. _Quercus macrocarpa_                                 88

  A young Post Oak. _Quercus minor_                                   90

  Black Oak. _Quercus velutina_                                       92

  Red Oak. _Quercus rubra_                                            94

  Trunk of a Red Oak                                                  96

  Pin Oak. _Quercus palustris_                                        98

  The American and Slippery Elms. (Colored plate)                    100

  American Elm. _Ulmus americana_                                    102

  Young Cork Elm. _Ulmus racemosa_                                   106

  English Elms. _Ulmus campestris_                                   108

  Scotch Elm. _Ulmus montana_                                        110

  Hackberry. _Celtis occidentalis_                                   112

  Buttonwood stem and bud. (Colored plate)                           116

  Buttonwood. _Platanus occidentalis_                                118

  Trunk of a Buttonwood                                              119

  Tupelo. _Nyssa sylvatica_                                          120

  Red Mulberry. _Morus rubra_                                        122

  White Mulberry. _Morus alba_                                       124

  The Locusts. (Colored plate)                                       128

  Common Locust trees. _Robinia pseud-acacia_                        130

  Honey Locust. _Gleditsia triacanthos_                              132

  Kentucky Coffee tree. _Gymnocladus dioicus_                        134

  Linden, Liquidamber, and Sassafras. (Colored plate)                140

  American Linden. _Tilia americana_                                 142

  Liquidamber. _Liquidambar styraciflua_                             144

  Sassafras. _Sassafras sassafras_                                   146

  Trunk of a Sassafras                                               148

  Magnolia and Tulip tree. (Colored plate)                           152

  Tulip tree. _Liriodendron tulipifera_                              156

  Catalpa. _Catalpa speciosa_                                        158

  Ailanthus. _Ailanthus glandulosa_                                  160

  Hercules’ Club. _Aralia spinosa_                                   162

  Mountain Ash. _Pyrus americana_                                    166

  A young Black Cherry tree. _Prunus serotina_                       170

  White Willows. _Salix alba_                                        176

  Aspens. _Populus tremuloides_                                      180

  American Larch. _Larix americana_                                  186

  European Larch. _Larix europæa_                                    188




INTRODUCTION


When Miss Huntington told me last year that she was going to
write a book about the trees in their winter aspects, knowing how
conscientiously she had studied her subject and how successful she had
been in imparting the results of her observation to others, I felt sure
that she would do a useful and excellent piece of work, and that her
book would be of real assistance to all persons who want to gain some
knowledge of the trees which they pass in their daily walks.

The promise of the book is now fulfilled, and nothing is left for the
introductor to do but to call attention in a general way to the beauty
of trees in winter and to the pleasure and profit of studying them at
this season of the year, as well as when their branches are clothed
with leaves or covered with flowers or fruits.

To the real lover of trees they are equally beautiful and interesting
at all seasons of the year; and no one knows trees well who cannot
distinguish the different species as easily and surely in winter as
in spring or summer. Almost every tree has some special and peculiar
beauty which is seen to the best advantage in winter. The fine spray
of the beech is seen only at this season of the year, and there are
few more beautiful objects in nature than the delicate branches of our
New England beech trees seen against the clear blue sky of a brilliant
winter day. The sturdiness of the oak is best realized in winter,
for at other seasons its massive limbs are often hidden under their
covering of leaves. The birch is far more graceful and attractive in
winter than at any other period; and there is nothing more stimulating
to the lover of nature than to stand on a bright winter’s day and look
up into the marvellous structure of one of the great elm trees which
are the pride of New England. The bark of most trees appears more
beautiful in winter than at other seasons of the year because the eye,
undisturbed by the contemplation of the foliage, can then most easily
take in all the details of its varied texture and wonderful colors.

For the student of trees searching for accurate knowledge it is as
important to study trees in winter as in summer. The differences in
the various families of trees, once these are understood, are marked
enough to make family relationships easy to recognize at this season
of the year. Nor will it be found difficult, once the characters
peculiar to each kind of tree are fixed in the mind of the observer, to
determine the various species; and these winter characters are often
more constant and stable than characters derived from the flowers, the
shape of the leaves, or from the size and shape of the fruits, on which
dependence is usually placed for the identification of trees.

Each species of tree has its peculiar habit, which is best seen in
winter and which it usually retains under normal conditions. The
character of the bark rarely changes much on individuals of the same
age, although the bark of old trees is usually very different from
the bark of young trees of the same species; and the color of the
branchlets and the form and size of the winter buds generally afford
certain means of determining closely related trees.

In each kind of tree there is, in addition to its general habit, which
with a little practice is frequently sufficient to make the recognition
of a particular species easy, some special character which enables the
student to confirm his determination and to distinguish a particular
species of oak or hickory or poplar from every other.

A knowledge of trees, the ability at least to recognize and identify
them, adds vastly to the pleasures of life. One who knows trees well
meets them like old friends; each season invests them with fresh charm,
and the more we study and know them the greater will be our admiration
of the wonderful variety and beauty which they display in winter.

  C. S. SARGENT.

 ARNOLD ARBORETUM, November, 1901.




  CHAPTER I

  THE STUDY OF TREES
  IN WINTER




Chapter I

THE STUDY OF TREES IN WINTER


Outside my window the trees in a little wood stand leafless. Everything
which made this wood a delight in June, the contrast of light and
shade among the leaves, the varying tones of green in broken sunlight,
the warmth and color and summer freshness, has gone, but the trees
themselves, in all their wealth of foliage were never so beautiful
as now. The massive moulding of their trunks, the graceful curves of
their branches, the fine tracery of their little bare twigs, now clear
against the sky and again lost in a tangled network of intersecting
branches,—the whole beauty of their symmetry, their poise, strength,
and delicacy is revealed as it is never revealed in summer.

Attracted first by the obvious grace of the forms of trees as we see
them from our windows in winter, we discover that a closer study of
the details of bare twigs and buds in the woods discloses unsuspected
beauty in texture, form, and color. Each tree has definite traits of
its own which distinguish it from every other tree, and by tracing
individual characteristics in the branches, trunk, stems, buds, and
leaf-scars we are able to identify every tree with certainty.

[Sidenote: Trunk and Branches]

By observing the shapes and general outlines of trees in winter we
are able to recognize them at a distance. This study of tree forms
adds much to the pleasure of a railroad journey or a winter’s drive
in the country, and accuracy is acquired by constant practice when we
walk in the woods and fields and can verify the name of each tree. In
this way we become familiar with the common trees, and learn to know
the predominating trees of the forests through which we pass, often
recognizing a rare species the distance of a field away.

[Illustration: TREE WITH A DELIQUESCENT TRUNK]

[Illustration: Cross section of a tree trunk, showing the rings of
annual growth, the medullary rays, the dark heartwood, the lighter
sapwood and the bark.]

There are two distinct plans of branching in trees. When the main trunk
extends upward to the tip, as it does in the larch and other conical
trees, it is said to be _excurrent_, and when the main stem divides
into many more or less equal divisions, as we find it in the American
elm and other spreading trees, it is said to be _deliquescent_,—the
latter form is the most common one among our deciduous trees.

[Illustration: TREE WITH AN EXCURRENT TRUNK]

The inner structure of these dicotyledonous trunks is seen when we
examine the cross section cut of a felled tree. In the centre is the
heartwood, the durable wood of commercial value, the cells of which
are hard and dry; next it the soft sapwood, the living part of the
tree containing cells filled with sap; then the cambium layer, the
zone of growing cells, and outside of this the bark. Each year new
cells are formed in the cambium layer, the inner ones making new wood,
the outer ones new bark, and by counting these annual rings of growth
the approximate age of the tree is found. In young trees there is
a conspicuous central portion of pith which remains after the tree
matures, as long as the heartwood is sound. The lines radiating from
the centre to the circumference are called medullary or pith rays
and form the “silver grain” of the wood. As the size of the trunk
increases, the bark unable to expand, cracks in fissures or peels in
layers, and is pushed off by the tremendous growing power from within.
The heartwood is not a living part of the structure and often trees
live for years without it,—hollow shells with a normal amount of
vitality so long as the roots, the cambium layer and the buds are not
injured.

Branches grow from the axillary or lateral buds on the stem, continuing
their growth every year by the development and unfolding of new buds,
both terminal and lateral. When the growth is carried on by the
terminal buds, the tree is more apt to be regular in outline than
when these are injured or killed and lateral buds develop the growth
instead. Branches vary in showing an upright, drooping, or horizontal
habit of growth, as we see them in the Lombardy poplar, weeping willow
and tupelo, and within these divisions there are other contrasts of
rigidity and flexibility, with differences of color and texture as well.

Apart from the general shape of the tree, the bark on the trunk and
branches is a constant help in identification. It is hard and smooth on
some trees, like that of the hornbeam and beech, fissured into ridges
like the sugar maple on others, it sometimes flakes off in rough plates
like those of the shagbark hickory, and again in thin, brittle strips
like those of the hop hornbeam, the bark peels off laterally as in
the canoe birch, and occasionally becomes ridged and corky as we find
it on the branches of the liquidamber and cork elm. Very often the
color of the bark is distinctive as is that of the green stems of the
sassafras and moosewood maple and the white, brown, pink, and yellow
trunks of different birches. The taste and odor of the bark are also
characteristic of certain species, as, for instance, the unpleasant,
bitter taste of the black cherry, the mucilaginous taste of the
slippery elm, and the aromatic fragrance of the stems of the mockernut
hickory. The little dots on young bark are called _lenticels_, they
are openings for admitting air to the inner tissues. Lenticels are
conspicuous in the bark of the birches.

The presence of thorns on the trunk and branches of certain trees helps
us to distinguish them from others, and the clusters of dry fruit which
remain hanging on some trees through the winter are another means of
identification.

[Sidenote: Stems and Twigs]

Stems and twigs vary from the finest, lightest sprays to the most
coarsely moulded ones,—from the delicate twigs of the hop hornbeam to
the stout shoots of the horsechestnut;—like larger branches their tips
either ascend, droop, or grow at right angles from the stem, and may be
smooth, downy, or rough to the touch.

The pith in cross sections of twigs shows different forms and is a
means in itself of distinguishing some trees. It is usually circular,
but in some species it takes the form of a pentagon or a star. In
a vertical section we sometimes find it in horizontal plates, like
the chambered pith of the walnuts. The color is usually white, but
sometimes we find it pink, yellowish, green, red, and brown.

It is interesting to find that the history of a tree for several
years past can be told by studying the scars along the bare stems.
The annual growth each year is marked by a circle of scars around the
stem, which was left by the scales of the buds when they opened in the
spring, and these scars mark each season’s growth for successive years
along the stem.

[Sidenote: Leaf-scars]

Besides these circles of scars, there are scars on each side of the
stem which were left by the leaves when they fell in the autumn. These
leaf-scars differ distinctly in various species and may be round,
narrow, triangular, oval, heart-shaped, or horseshoe-shaped according
to the species of the tree. They are either flat upon the stem or on a
projection, they are sometimes concave and again convex. They may be
opposite each other on the stem, as those of the horsechestnut, maples,
and ashes, or the arrangement may be alternate, as that of hickories,
walnuts and oaks. The places on the stem where the leaf-scars appear
are called _nodes_, and the spaces between the nodes are called
_internodes_.

Occasionally stipule scars are found on the stems,—inconspicuous scars
left by stipules, the leaf-like bodies found at the base of leafstalks
on some trees,—and sometimes we find the scars of fruit stalks.

[Sidenote: Bundle-scars]

[Illustration: BUNDLE-SCARS]

Bundle-scars are the scars of the little fibres, the vascular bundles
which fastened the leaves to the stems in summer. They are found on
the leaf-scars and usually take their shape more or less. On the large
leaf-scars they can be seen clearly, but on delicate twigs where the
leaf-scars are small it is well to use a magnifying glass.

[Sidenote: Buds]

In our climate the buds of trees are formed in the summer during
the season’s growth. The bud at the tip of the stem is called the
_terminal_ bud, the buds in the axils of the leaf-scars are called
the _axillary_ or _lateral_ buds. Buds contain complete branches
in miniature which develop in the spring into a new crop of twigs.
By opening a bud in winter the little leaves can be seen and often
a cluster of flowers, packed away from the cold in marvellous warm
wrappings.

As a rule the terminal bud carries on the growth of the tree and the
lateral buds furnish the side branches. Flowers are found in both
terminal and lateral buds, but sometimes they are enclosed in buds by
themselves which open before the leaves come out in the spring, like
those of the red maple and American elm,—these are called _flower_
buds. Occasionally we find two or three lateral buds together called
_accessory_ buds,—_superposed_, if placed one above another as they are
in the butternut; _collateral_, if side by side as in the red maple.
When several buds are crowded together one bud usually remains latent.
Latent buds are sometimes caught in the growing bark of the tree and
remain undeveloped for years, breaking out at length perhaps up and
down the sides of the trunk as we see them in “feathered elms.” These
abnormal and irregular buds are called _adventitious_ buds.

The winter buds of trees may be large or small, they may be slender,
flat, oval, pointed or round, hidden or exposed, they may be smooth,
downy, sticky, or rough, covered with scales or naked, and they may
differ in color from pale yellow to an inky black.

From the great outlines of the trees against the sky to the little
scales of the buds on the stems we marvel to find here as in all
nature, order, law, consistency out of infinite variety.




  CHAPTER II

  THE HORSECHESTNUT

[Illustration: HORSECHESTNUT

_Æsculus hippocastanum_

 Page 17
]




Chapter II

THE HORSECHESTNUT

Family Hippocastanaceæ


This a small family consisting of one well-known cultivated
species,—the horsechestnut,—and four belonging to the Western and
Southern States,—the various large and small buckeyes.

The horsechestnut is so well known and its winter characteristics so
clearly marked that I have chosen it first for description, although no
species of the family is found growing wild in the Northeastern States.

[Sidenote: Horsechestnut

_Æsculus hippocastanum_]

_A large tree with a pyramidal head. The bark of old trees splits off
in small square pieces, and in young trees it is smooth. Very coarse
twigs and large brown buds covered with a gummy substance. Opposite
leaf-scars._

The horsechestnut has little grace or beauty of outline in winter. Its
branches are stiff, the twigs are coarse, ending bluntly with large
terminal buds, and the general shape too compact to be pleasing. The
buds and recent shoots are particularly interesting however, as every
scar is sharply defined and the buds are so large we can see the
inner structure perfectly. In the accompanying illustration we see a
two-year-old shoot with a large terminal bud and two lateral buds below
the ring of scars left by the scales of the terminal bud of the year
before. The bundle-scars are plainly seen on the leaf-scars, and above
one of the leaf-scars there is a lateral bud ready to develop into a
lateral branch when it opens in the spring. The circle of scars at the
base of each lateral shoot was left by the scales of the lateral bud
of the year before. There are one or two small undeveloped buds at the
top of the leaf-scars which would carry on the growth of the branch
if anything happened to injure the vigorous buds at the tips of the
stems. The dots on the bark are the lenticels. By opening the bud with
a knife we find beneath the sticky gummy substance and the numerous
layers of scales a complete branch in miniature. The little leaves
are carefully packed in downy wool to keep out the dampness and cold,
and in their turn they protect the delicate pink spike of flowers. A
German naturalist once counted sixty-eight flowers on one of these
undeveloped spikes in the bud, and with a microscope he discovered the
pollen of the stamens.

[Illustration: HORSECHESTNUT SHOOT

 Page 16
]

The horsechestnut came originally from Southeastern Europe and was
introduced into gardens about the middle of the sixteenth century.
Its wood has no commercial value. The generic name, _Æsculus_, comes
from _esca_, food, the ancient name of an oak with edible acorns; it
was probably given to this tree on account of its large chestnut-like
fruit. _Hippocastanum_, from _hippos_, a horse, _castanea_, a chestnut,
alludes to the fruit which is made into horse medicine in Turkey.

The Ohio buckeye (_Æsculus glabra_) is a shrub or low tree found west
of the Alleghanies. Its terminal bud is frequently lacking, and the two
upper lateral buds grow large and take its place. Its buds and stems
resemble those of the horsechestnut, but the two species would never be
confused.

[Illustration: Enlarged longitudinal section of the bud of a
horsechestnut, showing two folded, undeveloped leaves and an
undeveloped spike of flowers.]




  CHAPTER III

  THE MAPLES

[Illustration: 1. Sugar Maple. 2. Silver Maple. 3. Red Maple. 4.
Moosewood. 5. Mountain Maple. 6. Norway Maple. 7. Sycamore. 8 A and B.
Ash-leaved Maple, showing the varying color of the stems.]




Chapter III

THE MAPLES

Family Aceraceæ


Maples have long been famous for beauty of blossom in the early spring,
and richness of foliage in the late summer and autumn; but a study of
the twigs and buds after the leaves have fallen, the varying colors
of buds and stems, the delicacy of twigs and branches, and grace of
outline as trees demonstrates effectively the unusual beauty of the
maples in winter.

The family name _Acer_ comes from the Latin word for sharp, which was
originally derived from _ac_, a Celtic word meaning a point. The name
was given to this genus because the wood was much sought after in
ancient times for the heads of pikes and lances.

Among some forty species of maple there are six native species, if the
ash-leaved maple is included in this genus. Two species from Europe,
the Norway and sycamore maples, are planted commonly throughout New
England.

All the maples have opposite leaf-scars.

[Sidenote: Sugar or Rock Maple

_Acer saccharum_]

_The general shape is erect, with smooth, clean branches. In old trees
the bark breaks away in long, shallow fissures with curling ridges,
giving the trunk a ploughed appearance. The buds are narrow, brown,
and sharp-pointed. Delicate pinkish leaves folded inside the bud.
Leaf-scars small and opposite; also the twigs branch opposite each
other._

Among the different characteristics of this tree in winter, two
stand out conspicuously as unfailing means of identification,—the
sharp-pointed brown buds and the rough furrowed trunk with smooth
places between the fissures. When young it can be distinguished at a
distance by its erect habit of growth and general shapeliness, the main
trunk often extending up into the tree unbroken by divisions.

[Illustration: SUGAR MAPLE

_Acer saccharum_

 Page 22
]

[Illustration: TRUNK OF A YOUNG SUGAR MAPLE

 Page 22
]

The sugar maple is typically American, and is especially associated in
our minds with the farming and country life of New England. It is found
in all the Northeastern States growing wild and extensively cultivated.
Maple sugar is made from the sap of this tree in the early spring. A
clear, bright day and a westerly wind succeeding a frosty night are
most favorable to the flow of sap, according to Emerson. A hole
is bored in the trunk of the tree, and the sap flows for about three
weeks. It is collected daily in buckets, and then boiled into syrup.
A sugar maple should not be tapped before it is twenty-five or thirty
years old, but after that age it may be tapped annually as long as it
lives. The wood of this tree is hard and smooth, and is much used for
furniture and the interior finishing of houses. Occasionally a tree is
found where the fibres of the wood are contorted irregularly into round
points called bird’s eyes. The cause of this peculiar bird’s-eye maple
is unknown, and the theory that the grain is diverted by the tapping
of woodpeckers for the sweet sap is an unsatisfactory explanation, for
some trees are thickly covered, while others do not have a single spot.

The Latin name, _Acer saccharum_—sugar maple—came from the Arabic,
_Soukar_.

[Sidenote: Red or Swamp Maple

_Acer rubrum_]

_A low tree, with a rounded head, smooth gray bark, reddish twigs
dotted with brown, and small, round red buds with smooth scales. When
old the bark cracks and peels off in long, slender flakes. Small
leaf-scars opposite each other on the stem. The flowers come before the
leaves, from the round flower buds clustered around the stem._

Even in the middle of winter the red maple is true to its distinctive
characteristic of color, and one marvels to find so much red in its
buds and twigs. The gray trunks are in fine contrast, and accentuate
the color, and the curving tips of the branches, with their delicate
twigs and graceful outlines, give the trees great beauty.

The red maple is one of the very first trees to bloom in the early
spring, and then its color is conspicuous, for, as Lowell says, it
“crimsons to a coral reef.” The flowers are sweet scented, and the
carrying of pollen is done on a wholesale plan over the tree by little,
inconspicuous insects, which carry the pollen dust from flower to
flower.

[Illustration: RED MAPLE

_Acer rubrum_

 Page 24
]

[Illustration: TRUNK OF A YOUNG RED MAPLE

 Page 25
]

In the autumn this tree is one of the first to turn, and its brilliant
red leaves in the low swamp lands, beginning often the last of August
or early September, invariably startle one with a swift premonition
of winter. “How early the fall has come this year!” some one usually
says, and no one realizes it is just the habit of early maturity
peculiar to that particular red maple. It is a tree closely associated
with Thoreau, for we read that he spent much time in extracting sugar
from its sap, against the wishes of his more practical-minded father,
who could not understand why his son should spend time and money
over such an experiment, when he could buy better and cheaper sugar at
the store.

The wood, although it is close-grained and firm, is not so much used as
that of the sugar maple, owing to the fact that it decays when exposed
to alternate moisture and dryness. There are several varieties of the
wood. The curled maple, one of the most attractive, has wavy fibres
which catch the light like watered silk, and it is much used in cabinet
work. The sap is only half as rich in sugar as that of the sugar maple.

The Latin name, _Acer rubrum_,—red maple,—came from the Celtic word
_rub_, signifying red.

[Sidenote: White or Silver Maple

_Acer saccharinum_]

_This tree is found growing wild in wet places throughout New England,
and it is also often cultivated. The trunk is low and divided into
spreading branches that form a spacious head. The branches sweep down
and turn up with curving tips. Smooth, red buds like those of the red
maple. It blossoms before the leaves are out, like the red maple._

It is always a delight to find this tree growing naturally where it
has not been planted, for, owing to its habit of growing near flowing
streams with clear, sandy bottoms, one rarely comes across it. It is a
tree to look for on a canoeing trip, and when one discovers its long,
drooping branches hanging over the stream, the feeling of isolation is
complete; a silver maple on a river bank accentuates the sense of being
in the country, just as the notes of the hermit thrush accentuate the
sense of remoteness in the woods.

In winter there are two distinct characteristics by which one
may distinguish the silver maple from the red which it closely
resembles,—the curving tips of the lower branches which sweep down and
curve up in a pronounced way unlike the red maple, and the manner in
which the bark peels off from the old trunks, in long pieces which are
free at either end and attached in the middle, while the bark of the
red maple splits up and down the trunk without shagging in strips.

The wood of the silver maple is soft and perishable and is seldom used.

The former name of this tree was _Acer dasycarpum_, but it has been
changed to _Acer saccharinum_, the old name for the sugar maple,—_Acer
saccharum_.

[Illustration: SILVER MAPLE

_Acer saccharinum_

 Page 27
]

It is found growing wild along river banks from New Brunswick to
Florida, and it is frequently planted in cities and towns.

[Sidenote: Striped Maple; Moosewood

_Acer pennsylvanicum_]

_A small tree, with smooth green shoots and a light green bark striped
with white. The leaf-scars are opposite, and encircle the stem, and are
conspicuously ridged, with two raised lines above. Smooth bud-scales,
silver white leaves folded within the bud._

The moosewood is a beautiful little tree at all times, but in winter
when its large leaves have fallen and the wonderful coloring of its
trunk and stems is no longer concealed by foliage, one can fully
appreciate its color, delicate branches and smooth stems. The trunk is
an exquisite shade of green, smooth, with occasional stripes of white,
and the stems and buds are also smooth and a rich rose in color.

This tree is too small for practical use, but its æsthetic qualities
should cause it to be more generally planted in our parks and gardens
than it is.

The name moosewood was given to it by the country people in Maine, as
the moose in the woods invariably strip it for the sweet juice in the
tender young shoots in winter, when there is little for them to eat.

The Latin name _Acer pennsylvanicum_—Pennsylvanian maple—was given to
it by Linnæus.

The moosewood is found throughout the North Atlantic States growing in
rich woods under taller trees.

[Sidenote: Mountain Maple

_Acer spicatum_]

This is a shrub about eight feet high, found commonly in the mountains
and hills of New England, and like the moosewood seldom found growing
out of the forest. It is easily distinguished by its gray bark and pink
stems covered with a delicate gray bloom, and the clusters of dried
fruit left hanging on the stems.

_Acer spicatum_—spiked maple—refers to the spike-like clusters of
flowers.

[Sidenote: Ash-leaved Maple; Box Elder

_Acer negundo_]

_A small or medium-sized tree with yellowish green or reddish brown
smooth stems and opposite V-shaped, narrow leaf-scars. The buds are
gray and downy and covered with two pairs of scales._

This tree is found wild in Vermont and Pennsylvania, southward and
westward in lowland woods, and is more or less cultivated throughout
New England.

[Illustration: MOOSEWOOD MAPLE

_Acer pennsylvanicum_

 Page 27
]

It is not long-lived and has small practical value, as the wood is
not strong, and the sap yields only a small quantity of sugar.

The Latin name, _negundo_, is meaningless and its origin is unknown.

[Sidenote: Norway Maple

_Acer platanoides_]

_A tall tree, with a round head and closely fissured bark. The buds are
large, round, and a dull reddish brown color. Coarse twigs and opposite
leaf-scars. Distinctive characteristic is the white juice which comes
after cutting off a bud._

It is particularly interesting to open the buds of this tree, and to
see how carefully the leaves are protected. After removing the outer
scales of the terminal bud with a knife, one discovers a pair of scales
covered with soft brown hair as thick as sealskin fur and the same
color. Within this warm covering there are still another pair of inner
scales with fur a little darker and thicker than that of the first
pair, and within these are the little leaves in embryo. In some buds
one finds a tiny flower cluster instead, so small it can scarcely be
seen, but perfect in every detail,—the most protected of flowers. A
discovery like this makes one wonder if the dispensation of coverings
is erratically bestowed, for why should we find a rugged, stalwart
tree like the Norway maple with its buds luxuriously protected from
the cold, while a slender, delicate tree like our moosewood has only
a pair of scales for a bud-covering? There must be hidden vitality in
the little moosewood, for in spring, when the leaves come out, they are
as vigorous and beautiful as those of the Norway maple; perhaps, after
all, it is just a matter of nationality; the Norway maple came from
Europe and has kept the traditional custom of wearing warm clothing in
winter, and the moosewood has lived without superfluous raiment, like
an Indian in the woods.

Sugar has been made from the sap of the Norway maple, but it is
produced in small quantity. The wood is easily worked, and is used in
Europe for various small purposes.

_Acer platanoides_ means platanus-like maple, and refers to an
imaginary resemblance to the plane tree.

[Sidenote: Sycamore Maple

_Acer pseudo-platanus_]

_A tall tree, with a spacious head. The bark breaks off in thin plates.
Coarser twigs than those of the other maples, leaf-scars opposite, and
large round buds. Distinctive characteristic is its green buds, which
are green all winter._

This is the “sycamore tree” of Europe, and it is found here commonly
planted in gardens and along roadsides.

[Illustration: NORWAY MAPLE

_Acer platanoides_

 Page 29
]

It is distinguished from all other maples in winter by its unvarying
green buds, and the manner in which the bark of old trees breaks off in
thin, small, square pieces.

It is a favorite Scotch tree and was much planted about old estates
in Scotland. Over two hundred years ago, the powerful barons in the
West of Scotland used these sycamores for hanging their enemies and
refractory vassals on, and these trees were called dool, or grief
trees. Loudon tells the romantic histories of several dool trees which
were still standing in 1844.

The wood is used in Europe for toys and other small articles, and
experiments have been made with the sap, and sugar has been obtained in
small quantities.

The name _pseudo-platanus_—false plane—was given to it on account of a
fancied resemblance to the plane tree.

[Illustration: SYCAMORE MAPLE

_Acer pseudo-platanus_

 Page 30
]




CHAPTER IV

THE ASHES

[Illustration:

  1. Red Ash.   2. White Ash.   3. Black Ash.   4. European Ash.
]




Chapter IV

THE ASHES

Family Oleaceæ


In winter there is little to attract us in ash trees beyond a certain
bold strength of trunk and limb. There is no grace or delicacy whatever
in the branches, the twigs are coarsely moulded, and the buds are thick
and leathery. The popular prejudice existing against ash trees in
summer, when the contrast of their light foliage and heavy trunks makes
it less deserved, is fully warranted in winter; but if the ash is ugly,
the wood of few trees is as generally useful, and its literary history
dates back to the “Odyssey” and to the Eddas of Norse mythology.

The generic name, _Fraxinus_, comes from the Latin _phraxis_
(separation), and probably alludes to the wood of the European species
which splits easily. There are about fifteen different species in the
United States, three of which are found commonly in New England. The
green ash, which used to be considered a distinct species, is now
thought to be a variety of the red ash.

All the ashes have opposite leaf-scars.

[Sidenote: White or American Ash

_Fraxinus americana_]

_A large tree with a straight trunk. Bark furrowed with irregular
ridges, the hollows forming diamond shapes frequently. Buds smooth,
thick and hard like leather, and a rusty brown color. Twigs smooth,
without down. Leaf-scars opposite, and the stems are flattened at the
nodes. Cross-shaped branching of the twigs against the sky._

[Illustration: AMERICAN ASH

_Fraxinus americana_

 Page 36
]

The white ash is a tree which we find frequently along roadsides and
in the woods everywhere in New England. The characteristics which
distinguish it from other trees in winter are the close diamond-shaped
fissures of the bark, the rusty brown buds, and often the old clusters
of paddle-shaped fruit hanging on the tree. On some ash trees black,
berry-like excrescences are found hanging in dry clusters on the ends
of the branches. These are not clusters of fruit, as might at first
be supposed, but the diseased and undeveloped remains of the panicles
of staminate flowers which have been injured by mites,—curious freaks
resembling oak-apples and the outgrowths of other insect poisoned
plants. Occasionally these berry-like clusters have been gathered as
seeds, by mistake, instead of the true fruit, a mistake which does
not seem remarkable when the fruit-like appearance of the clusters is
considered.

The wood of the white ash is heavy, tough, and strong, and is much used
for agricultural implements, tool handles and oars, for the interior
finish of houses and in the construction of carriages. Emerson tells
of an ash which was felled in Granville many years ago, the wood of
which furnished three thousand rake stalks. The tree from which I took
the following photograph, stands on a farm in Sterling, Massachusetts,
and measures over fourteen feet in circumference, five feet from the
ground. This trunk illustrates the massive strength which gives the ash
its one æsthetic quality.

[Sidenote: Red or Downy Ash

_Fraxinus pennsylvanica_]

_This tree resembles the white ash, but is distinguished from it by the
down on the recent shoots. It is a smaller tree than the white ash,
more spreading in shape. The twigs are less coarse and branch more
frequently, with less space between the buds,—shorter internodes,—on
shoots of the same age. Buds inconspicuous, smaller and blacker than
those of the white ash. Bark closely furrowed, like that of the white
ash. Leaf-scars opposite._

The red ash is much less coarsely moulded than the white ash, and in
its leafless season, particularly, the contrast between its branches
and those of the white ash is plainly seen. The fissures in the bark of
the red ash seem a little finer and nearer together than those of the
white ash bark on trees of the same age. The soft down on the recent
shoots remains through the winter; and this, with the finer twigs,
which branch more frequently, and the smaller, darker buds, makes the
tree easily distinguished from the white ash in winter,—more easily
even than in summer.

The staminate flowers of the red ash are afflicted by mites in the same
way as those of the white ash, producing unsightly clusters which hang
on the tree all winter.

The wood is much less valuable than that of the white ash.

[Sidenote: Black Ash

_Fraxinus nigra_]

_A slender tree, 40 to 70 feet high. Trunk dark gray, often disfigured
with knobs. The buds are black, and the young shoots greenish. Coarse
twigs; opposite leaf-scars._

The black ash is distinguished from the white and red ashes by its
darker buds and by having a less pinched, flattened appearance at the
nodes on the stem. It grows throughout New England in swamps, in wet
woods, and in moist, muddy ground near rivers. In the woods its trunk
is found frequently without branches to a great height, and Emerson
calls it the most slender deciduous tree to be found in the forest. It
is sometimes seventy or eighty feet high, with a trunk scarcely a foot
in diameter.

The wood of the black ash is heavy but not strong. It is used for
fences, for the interior finish of houses, and, after being separated
into thin strips, it is used in making baskets and the bottoms of
chairs. Its sap was an old remedy for earache, obtained by holding a
green branch before the fire.

The specific name, _nigra_, refers to the color of the buds.

[Sidenote: European Ash

_Fraxinus excelsior_]

_A large tree, with a lofty, spreading head and short, thick trunk. The
bark is ash-colored when old, and dark gray when young. Very black buds
distinguish it from the American species. Opposite leaf-scars._

The European ash is planted frequently along roadsides and in our parks
and gardens. It is indigenous to Northern, Central, and Southern
Europe. Its jet black buds distinguish it from other ash trees. In
the chapter called “A Visit to an old Bachelor,” in Mrs. Gaskell’s
“Cranford,” Mary Smith tells us how she was talking to Mr. Holbrook in
the fields, and how he quoted poetry to himself and enjoyed the trees
and clouds and glimpses of distant pastures, and how he suddenly turned
sharp round and asked, “Now, what color are ash buds in March?”

“Is the man going mad? thought I. He is very like Don Quixote. ‘What
color are they, I say?’ repeated he vehemently. ‘I am sure I don’t
know, sir,’ said I, with the meekness of ignorance. ‘I knew you didn’t.
No more did I—an old fool that I am!—till this young man comes and
tells me. Black as ash buds in March. And I’ve lived all my life in
the country; more shame for me not to know. Black: they are jet black,
madam.”

The “young man” he refers to is Tennyson, and the quotation, “Black as
ash buds in the front of March,” is a simile used in “The Gardener’s
Daughter,” and it shows how acute Tennyson’s powers of observation
were, and how true his descriptions of nature.

The buds of the ash open later in the spring than those of other
trees, and the leaves unfold very slowly. Tennyson also noted this
characteristic:—

    “Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love,
     Delaying as the tender ash delays
     To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?”

The rare fitness of this simile might pass unheeded if we did not study
trees first and poetry afterwards.

In Europe ash seeds were used for medicine. They were called _lingua
avis_ by the old apothecaries, on account of a fancied resemblance to
the tongues of birds; young ash seeds were also pickled and used in
salads. Evelyn says the wood “is of all others the sweetest of our
forest fuelling, and the fittest for ladies’ chambers.”

The horsechestnuts, the maples, and the ashes are the three genera of
large trees which have opposite leaf-scars.




CHAPTER V

THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES

[Illustration:

  1. Butternut.   2. Black Walnut.   3. Pignut Hickory.   4. Mockernut
  Hickory.   5. Shagbark Hickory.   6. Bitternut Hickory.
]




Chapter V

THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES

Family Juglandaceæ


Few trees are more lofty and majestic than certain species of walnuts
and hickories. They are stately in summer, but in winter, when the
foliage has gone and every branch and twig is thrown in black relief
against the sky, their beauty is truly imposing.

Both walnuts and hickories are valuable timber trees, and the nuts of
several species are sweet and edible.

Two genera of this family are found in America,—_Juglans_ and
_Hicoria_. Of the first genus there are two species native in the
Northeastern States,—the butternut and the black walnut.

[Sidenote: Butternut

_Juglans cinerea_]

_A low, spreading tree, branching a short way up the trunk. Gray
bark, slightly fissured, the clefts not running together. Recent
shoots downy, with a fringe of hair over the leaf-scar. Leaf-scars
conspicuous, alternate, the bundle-scars horseshoe (U) shaped. Light
brown buds destitute of scales. Terminal bud encloses pistillate
flowers, which are fertilized by the staminate flowers enclosed in the
pineapple-like bud over the leaf-scars. These staminate flowers hang in
one long catkin, which drops off after shedding the pollen in spring.
The superposed buds (two or three over the leaf-scars) contain the side
branches. Pith light brown and chambered,—by cutting a twig lengthwise
this can be seen,—a characteristic of the Juglans family._

[Illustration: BUTTERNUT

_Juglans cinerea_

 Page 46
]

[Illustration: TRUNK OF A BUTTERNUT

 Page 47
]

Among all the native trees, the butternut is perhaps the most
interesting for winter study. The naked buds, the irregular leaf-scars,
with horseshoe bundle-scars, the superposed buds containing the
lateral branches and the queerly marked buds of the staminate flowers,
the chambered pith, and the little fringes of down on the stems,
every structural detail of this tree is interesting and unusual. The
butternut is one of the few trees among the _Juglandaceæ_ which is not
tall and beautiful in outline. It is a low tree, with wide-spreading,
rather straggling branches, frequently ill shapen and uncouth in
appearance. It is usually associated in our minds with country lanes,
and growing by the walls and fences bordering open pastures
and farm lands, and in these surroundings it seems pleasing and
appropriate; but when we find it planted in parks and cultivated
grounds it seems commonplace and insignificant. It is found in all
the New England States, in New York, and in Pennsylvania. Very large
specimens grow in the valley of the Connecticut River.

The wood of the butternut is light brown in color, it is light, soft,
and easily worked, and is much used for furniture, gunstocks, and for
the interior finish of houses. The inner bark is used medicinally, and
a dye is made from the bark and nutshells. An excellent pickle is made
from the young nuts, and the kernels are sweet and edible, although
rather rich and oily. Professor Gray tried the experiment of making
sugar from the sap of the butternut. He found that it took four trees
to yield nine quarts of sap (one and a quarter pounds of sugar), the
amount that one sugar maple yields.

The generic name, _Juglans_, comes from _Jovis glans_, the nut of Jove,
in reference to the excellence of the fruit, and the specific name,
_cinerea_ (ash-colored), probably alludes to the color of the bark.

[Sidenote: Black Walnut

_Juglans nigra_]

_A large tree, 50 to 120 feet high, with spreading branches and rough
bark, darker in color than that of the butternut. The buds are gray
instead of light brown like those of the butternut, and they are
shorter. The twigs are smooth in winter, without hair, and the pith is
chambered. Alternate, conspicuous leaf-scars. Characteristic difference
between the two trees is that the fringe of hair over the leaf-scar in
the butternut is absent in the black walnut._

The black walnut is a striking contrast to the butternut. It is tall
and erect, with a broad, spacious head and vigorous, wide-spreading
branches. The bark is much darker and rougher than that of the
butternut, and the buds are smaller, and gray rather than yellowish in
color, like those of the other species.

[Illustration: BLACK WALNUT

_Juglans nigra_

 Page 48
]

[Illustration: TRUNK OF A BLACK WALNUT

 Page 49
]

The wood is heavy, strong, and durable, and dark brown in color. It
takes polish well and is much used in cabinet making, boat-building,
interior house finishing, and for gunstocks and coffins. A valuable
wood in many ways, but the passing of the fashion for black walnut
furniture is not to be regretted. It has been cut most recklessly in
our forests during the last twenty-five years, and already it has been
almost exterminated in the Mississippi Basin. Individual trees are
now sold where there used to be whole tracts of black walnut forests.
In Tennessee last year, dealers were buying stumps of old walnut trees
which had been left when the trees were first cut, in the early days
of the lumber trade. Each stump brought more money than the whole tree
originally sold for.

Its fruit is edible, and an oil is made from its kernels. A kind of
bread has also been made from the kernels of these nuts, and the husks
are used as a dye.

The black walnut is found growing wild in the Northeastern States, but
it is more common west than east of the Alleghanies.

The English walnut, _Juglans regia_, originally came from Persia,
and is sometimes cultivated here. An interesting cross between the
English walnut and our native butternut is found on the north side of
Houghton’s Pond in the Blue Hills, Massachusetts. Only a few of these
hybrids are known to exist, and all of them are said to grow in the
vicinity of Boston.

[Sidenote: Shagbark; or Shellbark Hickory

_Hicoria ovata_]

_A tall, stately tree, 70 to 90 feet high; unmistakable on account
of its rough, flaking bark, which shags off in large plates.
Yellowish brown buds, with two outer dark scales, which also shag
characteristically. Coarse twigs; alternate leaf-scars. The husk of
the nut splits and breaks off._

This is a tree peculiar to Northeastern America, and one of the
most rugged, magnificent specimens to be found anywhere in the same
temperate climate. It is especially adapted for broad treatment in
landscape gardening, and should be planted where there is plenty of
room for its full development, and where one can admire its lofty
proportions and symmetry. It is one among many trees, which is seen at
its best in winter unhampered by foliage, and then its naked boughs
are so inky black, that it seems as if it were etched against the sky.
These very dark colored branches are characteristic of the hickories,
and help one to distinguish the trees at a distance. The rough bark
shagging off in curving plates, and the buds with the same shagging,
curving outer scales are the distinctive characteristics of the
shagbark in winter.

[Illustration: SHAGBARK HICKORY

_Hicoria ovata_

 Page 50
]

[Illustration: TRUNKS OF SHAGBARK HICKORIES

 Page 51
]

The wood is heavy, hard, tough, and close-grained, and it is used for
agricultural implements, axe handles, wagon stock, walking sticks, and
baskets. In tensile strength and in the weight of compression, a block
of hickory is as strong as wrought iron of the same length and weight.
No other American wood burns with such brilliancy or gives out so
much heat as the shagbark. The fruit of this tree is edible and sweet,
and the nuts have greater commercial value than those of any other
hickory.

The generic name, _hicoria_, is of Indian origin and comes from
_powcohicora_, the name of an oily emulsion made from the pounded
kernels of mockernuts by the Virginian Algonkins. _Ovata_ (egg-shaped)
refers to the shape of the leaves.

The shagbark is found from Southern Maine to Florida and westward to
Central Kansas. The forests of Indiana, once the centre of the hickory
trade, are now exhausted. The hickories are confined to Eastern North
America alone, and are a genus of rare and very valuable trees.

[Sidenote: Mockernut; or Whiteheart Hickory

_Hicoria alba_]

_A tall tree 60 to 100 feet high, with a lofty head. Bark smooth,
with close, wavy furrows,—a distinctive characteristic of the tree.
Large, hard, round buds, without the dark outer scales peculiar to
the shagbark, but with downy, yellowish brown scales. Coarse twigs;
alternate leaf-scars. Nut somewhat hexagonal, with a very thick shell,
and a hard, thick husk._

The mockernut is one of the most interesting of the hickories in
winter. Its bark has a peculiar wavy appearance, entirely unlike any
other member of the family. The hollows are close together in sinuous,
shallow furrows, and the bark is so smooth over these fissures that
it looks as if the ridges were trying to grow over and close up the
hollows,—the effect is that of a thin, silk veil drawn over the trunk.
The twigs are large and heavily moulded, with large oval buds, but they
produce a pleasing effect of strength, instead of seeming ugly and
coarse, like those of the horsechestnut. The curves and irregularities
the stem takes in growing, and the general alternate plan of branching
save the mockernut from being rigid and upright like the horsechestnut.

The mockernut is easily distinguished from every other hickory by its
peculiar bark, its smooth, large buds, and coarse stems.

[Illustration: MOCKERNUT HICKORY

_Hicoria alba_

 Page 52
]

Its wood is used for the same purposes as that of the shagbark and is
equally valuable. Its nut is large and sweet, and if the tree were
put under cultivation, it would probably equal that of the shagbark
in commercial value. As it is now, however, the shell is too thick,
hard, and difficult to crack, and the kernel too small in proportion
to the shell to make it marketable. The experiment of cultivating the
mockernut to improve its fruit would be an interesting one, and
certainly both the nuts of the mockernut and shagbark deserve as much
attention as the English walnut.

Both the specific names,—the Latin _alba_, and the English
white-heart—refer to the color of the wood. This tree is found in New
England and also in the West and South.

[Sidenote: Bitternut Hickory

_Hicoria minima_]

_A large tree, with a light, granite-gray bark. Slender twigs, the
recent shoots orange-green and dotted. Alternate leaf-scars. Buds
long, curved, flattened, and pointed, the lateral ones shorter and
more round than the terminal buds; all are orange-yellow in color,—the
distinguishing characteristic of the tree. The nuts are bitter._

If the characteristic of the bitternut’s flattened, orange buds is
remembered, this tree can be distinguished not only in winter, but at
every other season of the year. The hickories are constantly confused,
and the fact that they often hybridize complicates matters still more.
Such an unfailing means of identification as these yellow buds is,
therefore, a great help, and as there are always one or two lateral
buds lying dormant along the stem, after the buds have opened in the
spring, and as new buds are formed by the middle of the summer, there
is scarcely a lapse of time when they fail to distinguish the tree.
The bitternut is the most graceful of all the hickories. It has a
smooth, tapering trunk and delicate twigs.

Its wood is heavy, hard, tough, and close-grained, and is used for
the yokes of oxen, for hoops and fuel. The nuts are so bitter that
squirrels refuse them as food.

The specific name, _minima_ (the smallest), refers to the branches
and foliage of the tree, which are more delicate than those of other
hickories. The range is the same as that of the shagbark and mockernut.

[Sidenote: Pignut Hickory

_Hicoria glabra_]

_A large tree, 70 to 80 feet high, with a tapering trunk and smooth
gray bark, which does not shag. The buds are yellowish brown, and
smaller than those of other hickories, with no black outer scales like
those of the shagbark, and smaller than the mockernut buds. The buds
are either round, or egg-shaped. Delicate twigs; alternate leaf-scars.
The nut has a thick shell and poor kernel; the husk does not split all
the way down as it does with the shagbark._

[Illustration: BITTERNUT HICKORY

_Hicoria minima_

 Page 53
]

If it were possible for trees to have negative characters, the pignut
would be eminently negative. In fact, its distinguishing characteristic
is that it has no one distinctive feature to identify it in
winter, as all the other hickories have. Its bark is not wavy like
the mockernut, and it does not shag like the shagbark; its buds are
not yellow like the bitternut, nor large like the mockernut, nor has
it black outer scales like the shagbark; its nuts are neither bitter
nor sweet,—and yet these very negative qualities are a sure means of
identification. One knows the pignut in much the same way that David
Harum knew he had bought a horse, “the only thing to determine that
fact was that it wa’n’t nothin’ else.” All praise, however, to the
outline of the pignut against a winter sky. The tracery of its twigs
and branches is delicate and graceful, and it looks as if it were
drawn with the blackest India ink. Michaux calls the pignut one of the
largest trees in the United States, and it certainly compares well with
the three other native hickories in its general bearing, for it is as
stately and beautiful in outline as they, in spite of its negative
characteristics in details.

The wood is like that of other hickories and it is used for the same
purposes. The nuts vary much in shape and size. Some of them are
oval, others broader than they are long, others perfectly round, and
the sizes vary as much as the shapes. The nuts are not marketable,
although they are not unpleasant to the taste and afford squirrels a
supply of food for winter.

The specific name, _glabra_ (smooth), refers to the shoots and leaves,
which are smoother than those of other hickories.

The range of the pignut is the same as that of other members of the
genus; it is found throughout New England and in the West and South.

[Illustration: PIGNUT HICKORY

_Hicoria glabra_

 Page 54
]




CHAPTER VI

THE BIRCHES, HOP HORNBEAM, AND HORNBEAM

[Illustration: CANOE BIRCH

_Betula papyrifera_

 Page 61
]




Chapter VI

THE BIRCHES, HOP HORNBEAM, AND HORNBEAM

Family Betulaceæ


The birches are a family of exceedingly graceful and attractive trees,
and charm us quite as much in winter by the color of their stems and
the delicacy of their twigs, as they do in summer by the fresh green of
their foliage. Like other trees, birches vary in appearance according
to the place where they grow. If they are shaded by other trees in the
woods their trunks are tapering and tall and free from branches, but
when they grow in open fields and the lateral branches develop, their
general outline is bushy and far less attractive; unlike other trees,
birches are improved by not having full development.

The birch has been known from the earliest ages, and it is found in
Europe, Asia, and North America.

There are distinguishing characteristics in the details of buds and
stems, but the color and texture of the bark on the trunk and branches
of the different species are the most obvious and certain means of
identification in winter.

There are in all six native species in New England, and one from Europe
which is planted in our parks and gardens.

[Sidenote: Canoe, Paper or White Birch

_Betula papyrifera_]

_A large, graceful tree, 60 to 75 feet high, with wonderfully white
bark splitting into thin, tough layers. Branches thicker, buds larger,
catkins larger than those of other birches, and the upper part of the
twigs is hairy. The buds are sticky and greener inside than those of
other birches,—less silvery and soft. The leaf-scars are alternate._

[Illustration: GRAY BIRCHES

_Betula populifolia_

 Page 62
]

In winter, as at every other season of the year, few trees surpass
the canoe birch for beauty and delicacy. No other tree has a bark so
shiningly white, and even the snow is unable to dim its purity. We
usually think of this tree as being fragile and delicate, especially
when we recall it as it grows along the edge of woodlands where the
shade of other trees has forced it to grow slender and tall in reaching
for the light. The canoe birch is really a large tree, however, and
often grows to an enormous size among the northern hills where it
seems to thrive best. The feminine characteristics associated with this
tree in our minds—“Most beautiful of forest trees, the Lady of the
Woods,” etc.—receive a curious shock when we come suddenly upon a huge
old birch growing in a clearing in the woods, for all the world like a
middle aged and corpulent matron among the younger trees.

The wood of the canoe birch is light, but it is hard and strong. It
is used for making shoe lasts and shoe pegs, spools, wood pulp, and
for fuel. The Indians use it for making sledges, paddles, the frames
of snowshoes, and the handles of hatchets. They also use the bark for
making canoes, wigwams, and baskets, and they make a drink from the sap
of the tree.

The generic name, _Betula_, probably comes from the Celtic name for the
birch, _betu_, or it may possibly have come from the Latin _batuere_,
in reference to the birch rods with which the Roman lictors drove back
the crowds of people. The specific name, _papyrifera_, refers to the
paper-like bark which peels off in thin lateral strips.

This birch is found in the mountains of New England and generally
throughout the Northern and Northwestern States.

[Sidenote: American Gray or White Birch

_Betula populifolia_]

_A small, slender tree, 15 to 30 feet high, with an erect trunk,
It grows in poor soil and is found growing commonly along sandy
roadsides. Several shoots spring from the trunk near the ground. Bark
close fitting, with a chalky white surface. Black triangular spaces
below each branch. The ends of the twigs are very rough to the touch.
Alternate leaf-scars._

This little birch is perhaps the least interesting member of a most
attractive family. It is found commonly growing along the sandy banks
of country roads and in waste, barren places where pitch pines and
blueberry bushes and scrub oaks are found. It is invariably associated
with sterility in our minds, and seems to demand nothing of the soil on
which it grows, adapting itself immediately to its surroundings, and
thriving where other trees would die.

[Illustration: BLACK BIRCH

_Betula lenta_

 Page 63
]

Although the bark is white and might be confounded with that of the
canoe birch at first sight, the trees can easily be told apart. The
gray birch has a close-fitting bark which is dirty white in color, with
triangular black blotches under the branches, it is exceedingly chalky
to the touch and never peels off as it grows old, while the bark of
the canoe birch peels off in thin lateral strips, is clear white in
color, and seldom shows any dark blotches on the trunk, The bark of the
recent shoots of the gray birch is rough to the touch, and that of the
canoe birch is smooth and sticky where the buds join the stem.

Its wood is soft, light, and neither strong nor durable. It is used for
wood pulp, shoe pegs, spools, barrels, and for fuel.

The specific name, _populifolia_ (poplar-leaved), refers to the leaves
which quiver in the wind and show light under surfaces like the aspens.
The gray birch is found throughout the Northeastern States.

[Sidenote: Black or Sweet Birch

_Betula lenta_]

_A tall, round-headed tree. The branches twist in different directions,
but are pendulous and graceful. The young shoots are brown, dotted with
white, and smooth. The bark is smooth, dark brown, and resembles that
of the garden cherry. The buds are conical and pointed. The twigs have
an aromatic taste. Alternate leaf-scars._

Few trees deserve greater appreciation than the black birch and few
receive as little from people in general. It is always beautiful, but
in winter when the smooth golden brown stems are bare and the sun
strikes it squarely, it glows to the tip of the smallest branch with a
wealth of radiant, living color.

The black birch is easily distinguished by the dark color of its bark,
which is smooth on young trees and cracks into rough square plates on
old trees, but which never peels off in strips. Its gray stems have a
sweet, spicy taste, which is also a means of identifying the tree.

The wood is heavy, strong, and hard, and its surface after being
polished is like satin. It is much sought after for furniture and is
excellent for fuel. An oil made from the wood is used medicinally and
as a flavoring extract, and a sweet beer is made by fermenting the
sugary sap.

The specific name, _lenta_ (pliant), refers to the flexible stems
and branches of this tree. The black birch is found in rich woods
throughout the Northeastern States.

[Sidenote: Yellow Birch

_Betula lutea_]

_A beautiful straight tree, 50 to 90 feet high. Distinguished from the
black birch by its yellowish or silver-gray bark, which, unlike the
brown bark of the black birch rolls back and peels off in thin, filmy
strips from the trunk. The bud scales overlap each other. Alternate
leaf-scars. Delicate twigs with an aromatic taste, not as sweet_ _as
the black birch. The catkins are larger round than those of the black
birch._

[Illustration: YELLOW BIRCH

_Betula lutea_

 Page 65
]

This is in every way a worthy sister tree of the black birch, and the
rich yellow of the trunk, but partially revealed through the gray,
shaggy, outer layers of the bark, is quite as beautiful as the rich
red-browns of the black birch bark. Thoreau felt the charm of yellow
birches. In his journal, Jan. 4, 1853, he says: “To what I will call
Yellow Birch Swamp, E. Hubbard’s in the north part of the town, ...
west of the Hunts’ pasture. There are more of these trees in it than
anywhere else in the town that I know. How pleasing to stand near a new
or rare tree; and few are so handsome as this: singularly allied to the
black birch in its sweet checkerberry scent and its form, and to the
canoe birch in its peeling or fringed and tasselled bark. The top is
brush-like, as in the black birch. The bark an exquisite ... delicate
gold color, curled off partly from the trunk with vertical clear or
smooth spaces, as if a plane had been passed up the tree. The sight of
these trees affects me more than California gold. I measured one five
and two-twelfths feet in circumference at six feet from the ground. We
have the silver and the golden birch. This is like a fair flaxen-haired
sister of the dark complexioned black birch, with golden ringlets.
How lustily it takes hold of the swampy soil and braces itself. In the
twilight I went through the swamps, and the yellow birches sent forth a
yellow gleam which each time made my heart beat faster. Sometimes I was
in doubt about a birch whose vest was buttoned, smooth and dark, till I
came nearer and saw the yellow gleaming through, or where a button was
off.”

The yellow birch is one of the most valuable timber trees of the North.
The wood is heavy, hard, and strong, and is used for making furniture,
the hubs of wheels, and boxes. Few hard woods of a light color make as
attractive flooring as polished yellow birch.

The specific name, _lutea_ (yellow), refers to the color of the wood
and bark of the trunk. The yellow birch is found throughout the
Northeastern States.

[Sidenote: Red or River Birch

_Betula nigra_]

_A medium-sized tree found on the edges of streams. Long, graceful,
sweeping upper limbs, with small, pendulous lower branches. The bark is
reddish, very shaggy and loose, flaking off and rolling back in thin
strips. Alternate leaf-scars. Twigs reddish brown and pliant._

[Illustration: RED BIRCH

_Betula nigra_

 Page 67
]

The red birch is easily distinguished from all the other birches by
its reddish, loosely peeling bark, which gives the trunk an unkempt,
shaggy, and torn appearance. The outer bark separates into flakes which
are loose at one end and adhere to the trunk at the other, and these
projecting strips look like a fringe. The lower branches often bend
down towards the ground in a straggling, irregular fashion, while the
upper branches are free and sweeping. It should not be inferred from
this description that the red birch is lacking in beauty, for it is a
most attractive tree. Its general outline is picturesque, and the soft
red color of the peeling epidermis of the bark in the upper branches
has a very pleasing effect. The red birch is the only semi-aquatic
species among the birches, and its drooping branches hanging over the
water add much to the beauty of our streams and rivers.

Its wood is light but strong, and is used for furniture, wooden ware,
and yokes.

The specific name, _nigra_ (black), was given it by Linnæus,
the celebrated Swedish botanist,—it seems to have no particular
significance.

The red birch is found growing on the banks of the Nashua and Merrimac
Rivers and beside smaller streams in Massachusetts, but it grows more
frequently along river banks in the South than in the North.

A small shrub (_Betula pumila_), the dwarf birch, found in rocky
pastures in Western Massachusetts, Connecticut, and in the South and
West, completes the list of our six native birches.

[Sidenote: European White Birch

_Betula alba_]

_A tree from Europe, extensively cultivated in this country. White,
chalky bark. Long, slender, down-sweeping branches. Small buds.
Alternate leaf-scars._

The slender, drooping branches of the European white birch are so long
and pliant that the slightest breeze sets them swaying in one direction
from the trunk, like a shower of rain driven by the wind. The birch
does not lose its pendulous grace in mere limp dejection, like most of
the weeping varieties of trees that gardeners love to propagate, but
it holds its head high and the slender branches droop down,—a striking
contrast to the weeping willow and other lachrymose specimens of
horticultural art.

There have been constant allusions to this tree in English literature.
Perhaps the most descriptive is one of Sir Walter Scott’s which refers
to the slender, pendulous boughs,—

[Illustration: EUROPEAN WHITE BIRCH

_Betula alba_

 Page 69
]

    “Where weeps the birch with silver bark
      And long dishevelled hair.”

From an artistic point of view much has been said about these trees. In
the “Sylvan Year,” Philip Gilbert Hamerton calls the stem of the birch
“one of the masterpieces of Nature.” “Everything,” he says, “has been
done to heighten its unrivalled brilliance. The horizontal peeling of
the bark, making dark rings at irregular distances, the brown spots,
the dark color of the small twigs, the rough texture near the ground,
and the exquisite silky smoothness of the tight white bands above,
offer exactly that variety of contrast which makes us feel a rare
quality like that smooth whiteness as strongly as we are capable of
feeling it. And amongst the common effects to be seen in all northern
countries, one of the most brilliant is the opposition of birch trunks
in sunshine against the deep blue or purple of a mountain distance in
shadow.”

Miss Jekyll, in “Wood and Garden,” says that the tints of the stem give
a precious lesson in color. “The white of the bark,” she says, “is here
silvery white and there milk white, and sometimes shows the faintest
tinge of rosy flush. Where the bark has not yet peeled off, the stem
is clouded and banded with delicate gray and with the silver-green
of lichen. For about two feet upward from the ground, in the case of
young trees of about seven to nine inches in diameter, the bark is dark
in color, and lies in thick and extremely rugged and upright ridges,
contrasting strongly with the smooth white skin above. Where the two
join, the smooth bark is parted in upright slashes, through which the
dark rough bark seems to swell up, reminding one forcibly of some of
the old fifteenth-century German costumes, where a dark velvet is
arranged to rise in crumpled folds through slashings in white satin.”

The wood is used in Europe for fuel and for making furniture. It
is rather curious to find that the birch has been celebrated as an
instrument of chastisement since early Roman times. Gerard says that in
his time “schoolmasters and parents do terrify their children with rods
made of birch;” and Shenstone, in the “Schoolmistress,” has a pathetic
little account of the fears of small boys as they watched the wind
waving the branches of a birch tree growing by the schoolhouse,—

    “For not a wind might curl the leaves that blew,
     But their limbs shuddered, and their pulse beat low;
     And, as they looked, they found their terror grew,
     And shaped it into rods and tingled at the view.”

[Illustration: HOP HORNBEAM

_Ostrya virginiana_

 Page 71
]

The European birch is found throughout the North of Europe, and grows
in every kind of soil, both wet and dry,—the Earl of Haddington called
it, with quaint humor, “an amphibious plant,” and after two hundred
years this is still descriptive of its habits.

It is perhaps unnecessary to say that the specific name, _alba_,
alludes to the color of the bark.

[Sidenote: Hop Hornbeam; Ironwood

_Ostrya virginiana_]

_A small, slender tree, 30 to 50 feet high. The bark is light, and
scales off in thin flakes, and is seldom more than a quarter of an inch
thick. Small, acute buds; alternate leaf-scars; delicate twigs. Small
catkins, usually three together, pointing upwards. Hop-like fruit,
often remaining on the tree through the winter._

There is but one native hop hornbeam in New England, and it is an
extremely interesting little tree. It grows under other trees in the
forest, and is easily overlooked, usually being mistaken for a young
elm. Of all trees the hop hornbeam is the most retiring in its habits,
and takes much the same place among trees that the hare does among
animals, or the violet among flowers, living a secluded life in wild
places, where the woods partially conceal its identity.

Its outline against the sky in winter is most delicate and pretty, the
twigs are very slender, and are tipped with the three little pointing
fingers of the catkins, and the whole tree produces a most pleasing
effect. Although the hop hornbeam frequents the woods, it never makes
even a small area its own. It is always found mixed with other trees,
and I have never seen even a little grove of hop hornbeam trees growing
alone.

The wood is very strong, hard, heavy, tough, and durable, and is used
for fence posts, the handles of tools, and small articles.

The generic name, _Ostrya_, comes from the Greek _ostryos_ (a scale),
in reference to the scaly catkins of the fruit. _Virginiana_ is the
specific name for the North American hop hornbeam as distinguished from
the European species, which it closely resembles.

The hop hornbeam is found in rich woods from Nova Scotia to Northern
Florida, and westward to Eastern Kansas.

[Sidenote: Hornbeam; Blue Beech

_Carpinus caroliniana_]

_A tree or tall shrub 10 to 25 feet high. Bark smooth and dark gray,
tough like a horn, and close-fitting. The buds are oval. Delicate
twigs, in flat, spreading layers. Alternate leaf-scars. Fruit in
clusters,—leaf-like bracts, holding little nuts._

[Illustration: HORNBEAMS

_Carpinus caroliniana_

 Page 73
]

The hornbeam, like the hop hornbeam, is a small tree and is found
growing under larger trees in the woods. It is readily distinguished
from the hop hornbeam by its smooth, dark bark, the hornlike appearance
of which instantly suggests its name. There is but one native species
in New England, and it is much smaller than its sister tree from Europe
of the same name. The European hornbeam has long been used for making
hedges, and in Germany the hornbeams are planted in such a manner that
every two plants intersect each other in the form of a St. Andrew’s
cross. At the point where the two plants cross each other the bark is
scraped off and the hornbeams are bound together closely with straw.
The two plants grow together in a knot and send out horizontal shoots
in a few years, making an impenetrable hedge. The hornbeam was much
used in formal gardens for labyrinths, arcades, and groves, and as
hedges for geometric designs known as “the star” and “the goose-foot.”

The wood, like that of the hop hornbeam, is hard, heavy, strong, and
close-grained. It is used for small articles, like the handles of tools.

The generic name, _Carpinus_, comes from the Celtic _car_ (wood),
_pinda_ (head), meaning that the wood was used for making the yokes of
cattle. The specific name, _caroliniana_, was used to distinguish the
American from the European species.

The hornbeam is found growing on the banks of streams and in moist
woods throughout New England, and in the South and West.




CHAPTER VII

THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

[Illustration: The Chestnut and the Beech.]




Chapter VII

THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

Family Fagaceæ


Although the beech, chestnut, and oaks are divided into three separate
genera, they all belong to the family _Fagaceæ_. It is an interesting
family in winter and deserves careful study, particularly the oaks,
which have always been more or less confusing at first sight.

There is one native beech and one native chestnut, and there are eleven
oaks in the Northeastern States.

[Sidenote: American Beech

_Fagus americana_]

_A beautiful, spreading tree 60 to 100 feet high, with a clean,
close-fitting, smooth, gray bark. Buds narrow and sharp-pointed, with
many overlapping scales. Twigs smooth, slender, and reddish brown, with
alternate leaf-scars. Fruit a prickly burr inclosing two triangular,
sharp-ridged nuts, the burr hanging on the trees well into the winter._

The beech is not so graceful as the elm, nor so lofty as the pine,
nor so stalwart as the oak, but there is not a tree in the woods so
distinctly lovable. In every detail the beech has a dainty, lady-like
beauty, and among the leafless trees of the winter woods it is as
fair as a flower, with its clean gray bole, its polished brown stems,
and its slender, pointed, lance-like buds. There is no other tree
with which the beech may be confused, and its characteristics are so
pronounced and unvarying that there is little difficulty in recognizing
it immediately in passing. When it has grown up partly shaded by other
trees it has a lofty bearing, but when it has developed in open ground
it is round-headed and spreading in shape. The beech trees from which
the following photograph was taken were once shaded by other trees,
and show this in the height they have attained and the absence of
spreading, lateral branches.

[Illustration: BEECH TREES

_Fagus Americana_

 Page 78
]

The wood is hard, strong, and very close-grained and is used for making
chairs, shoe lasts, the handles of tools, and for fuel. In old trees
where the heartwood predominates the wood is red, and in younger trees
where the sapwood is more conspicuous the wood is white, and these
differences in color gave rise to the popular belief among woodcutters
that there are two species of beech. Michaux accepted this theory,
which has since become obsolete. The nuts are sweet and edible, and are
sold in Canada and some of the Western and Middle States.

The generic name, _Fagus_, comes from the Greek _phago_ (to eat), in
allusion to the nuts, which have always been used as food.

The beech is found from Nova Scotia to Florida and west to Texas.

[Sidenote: European Beech

_Fagus sylvatica_]

_A large tree with spreading branches and a smooth, gray trunk. Buds
narrow and sharp-pointed. Twigs slender, smooth, and reddish brown in
color, with alternate leaf-scars._

Although the beech stands alone in having no other tree like it, yet
it is extremely difficult to tell the American beech from the European
species which is planted commonly in our parks and gardens. The bark of
the European beech is a darker gray in color, its buds are grayer than
those of the American, and the inner scales of the bud have a tendency
towards being more hairy along their edges; for the rest we must trust
to our intuition in telling the trees apart, unless we are in the woods
and know that there the only indigenous beech is the American.

From the time of Virgil the praises of the beech have been sung in
both poetry and prose. Passienus Crispus, the orator, who married the
Empress Agrippina, was so fond of it that “he not only delighted to
repose beneath its shade, but he frequently poured wine on its roots,
and used often to embrace it.” Evelyn and Cook recommended it, Boutcher
thought that it “hardly had an equal,” Mathews called it “the Hercules
and Adonis” of the sylva of Great Britain, and among the English poets
Beaumont and Fletcher, Leigh Hunt, Gray, Campbell, and Wordsworth all
loved and admired it for its rare beauty and vigor. Gilpin, however,
does not join this chorus of praise; in his “Remarks on Forest Scenery”
he calls it “an overgrown bush,” and explains at some length his
reasons for thinking that it lacks picturesque beauty.

In Europe the wood has been used for more purposes than in America, and
it also ranks high as fuel. In France oil is made from beechnuts, used
in lamps and for cooking. The specific name, _sylvatica_, is from the
Latin which means belonging to the woods.

[Illustration: TRUNK OF A YOUNG BEECH

 Page 80
]

The purple beech is a variety of this tree, which has been propagated
from the original sport found in a German forest over a hundred years
ago. Plants from the seeds of the purple beech have a tendency
to revert to the original green, and to insure its peculiar colored
foliage gardeners perpetuate it by layers. It is a highly artificial
tree, and unless it is carefully placed in appropriate surroundings its
effect is far from pleasing.

[Sidenote: Chestnut

_Castanea dentata_]

_One of the largest of our forest trees. The bark is dark hard, and
rugged, with coarse ridges on old trees. Light brown buds. Alternate
leaf-scars. Recent shoots are coarse and channelled with two grooves
running down from the base of each leaf-scar, closely set with white or
gray dots. Fruit ripe in October._

At all times a giant among trees, the chestnut seems perhaps most
remarkable in winter when the massive trunk and lofty branches can be
fully appreciated. There is much beauty in the bark of this tree, the
fissures sweep boldly up and down the trunk with broad, smooth spaces
between the furrows and give a most pleasing impression.

It is interesting to find that the chestnut is one of the exceptions
in nature to the rule that every tree has an unvarying mathematical
arrangement of leaves on the stem. This regular distribution of leaves
on the stem to economize space and light is called phyllotaxy, and
different trees follow various systematic arrangements. When the leaves
or leaf-scars are alternate on the stem, as they are in those of the
chestnut, the arrangement is spiral and one leaf follows another up the
stem in ranks of two, three, five, or more in definite order according
to the kind of tree. In the chestnut, however, the phyllotaxy is
frequently variable in different twigs of the same tree, and it follows
an unruly, wayward leaf arrangement.

The wood of the chestnut is light, soft, and not strong, but it is used
for making cheap furniture. It is also made into rails, posts, and
railroad ties, as it is durable when used in contact with the soil.
The nuts are sweet and edible and have great market value. The trees
bear fruit when they are very young, and some Western farmers find that
orchards of these trees bring better returns than the same amount of
land in farm products.

The chestnut is closely allied to the sweet or Spanish chestnut of
Europe. The nuts of the American species are sweeter than those of the
Spanish chestnut, but they are much smaller. From a French experiment
it was found that the kernel of the chestnut yields sixteen per cent of
good sugar.

[Illustration: CHESTNUT

_Castanea dentata_

 Page 82
]

[Illustration:

  1. Red Oak.   2. Scarlet Oak.   3. Black Oak.   4. Pin Oak.
  5. Swamp White Oak.   6. White Oak.   7. Mossy-cup Oak.
  8. Post Oak.   9. Chestnut Oak.
]

The generic name was taken from Castanea, a town in Thessaly, and the
specific name, _dentata_ (having teeth), refers to the serrations of
the leaf. The chestnut is found throughout the Northeastern States.

[Sidenote: Oaks

_Quercus_]

There are in all nearly three hundred different oaks which have been
described by botanists, and fifty of these are found in North America,
exclusive of Mexico. The oaks are large trees of temperate climates,
and both in Europe and America few trees have the same varied and
general usefulness. The extraordinary strength in the great, horizontal
branches, their breadth and lateral sweep, and the rugged boldness
of the trunk have long associated the oak with all that stands for
strength, duration, and unswerving vitality. An oak never seems out of
place; no matter whether we find it growing in unbroken forests, on
a country estate, in a little garden, or by the roadside, it always
harmonizes with its surroundings and adds to the composition of the
landscape.

Oaks are divided into two groups, the white oaks and the black oaks.
In New England there are eleven native oaks, six white oaks and five
black. The white oak, the swamp white, the mossy cup, the chestnut, the
dwarf chestnut, and the post oak belong to the first group, and the
black oak, the red, the scarlet, the pin, and the bear or scrub oak
belong to the second group.

The oak is distinguished from all other trees by its acorn.

The general characteristics of the oaks in winter are as follows:—

The upper lateral buds cluster at the top of the twig.

The buds have a tendency towards being five-sided in shape.

The bud scales are close and overlapping.

The leaf-scars project from the stem.

The bundle-scars are scattered over the leaf-scar.

The pith is five-angled. By cutting a twig across, the pith can be seen
in the centre in the form of a five-rayed star.

The leaves very often remain on oaks through the winter.

The following characteristics distinguish the white oaks from the black
oaks:—

The bark of the white oaks is lighter in color than that of the black
oaks, and it flakes off in strips instead of breaking away in coarse
ridges, as it does in the black oaks.

[Illustration: WHITE OAK

_Quercus alba_

 Page 85
]

The acorns of the white oaks mature in one year, those of the black
oaks take two years to ripen, so that these young acorns are found
on the branches of the black oaks in winter.

The leaves of the white oaks have rounded lobes, and the lobes of the
black oak leaves are tipped with a sharp bristle point.

The generic name, _Quercus_, comes from the Celtic _quer_ (fine)
and _cuez_ (a tree), or possibly it may be derived from the Greek
_choiros_, a pig, because in Europe pigs formerly fed on the acorns of
oak trees.

[Sidenote: White Oak

_Quercus alba_]

_A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high, with a trunk often six feet in
diameter. The bark is light gray; the twigs smooth and light gray; the
recent shoots light reddish or grayish brown; alternate leaf-scars.
Small, round buds, smooth and short, about as long as they are wide.
Acorns in a shallow, rough cup, often sweet and edible._

The white oak seems to figure in one’s earliest associations with the
woods in winter. The sound of the withered leaves rustling in the wind
is peculiarly suggestive of cold weather and dreariness, and invariably
strikes the keynote of the woods on a bleak December day. Towards the
end of winter the leaves are blown away or fall off, and then the
beautiful ramifications and stalwart limbs of the trees are fully
revealed. I have often noticed in the country that when one large, old
white oak is found growing in an open pasture, there are usually five
or six more of the same size and age within a short distance. This may
be accounted for by the fact that in the early New England days these
trees were in great demand for ship-building, and farmers waited for
the most promising trees to reach maturity before selling them. On some
farms these oaks happened to escape the axe, and have not only outlived
the men who spared them, but stand for landmarks now, long after the
farms themselves have been deserted and forgotten.

The wood of the white oak is very heavy and hard, and durable in
contact with the soil. It is used in the construction and interior
finish of buildings and in ship-building, for making carriages,
cabinets, agricultural implements, baskets, and for fences and railroad
ties. It also makes excellent firewood.

The specific name refers to the light color of the wood and bark in
contrast with that of the black oaks. It is found from Southern Maine
to Northern Florida and westward.

[Sidenote: Swamp White Oak

_Quercus platanoides_]

_A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high, common in swamps and where the soil
is moist. The bark shags off along the branches, and the trunk is
more deeply fissured than that of the white oak. The twigs are
coarser than those of the white oak, often shorter in length, and the
stems are rounder. Short, thick-set buds and alternate leaf-scars.
Acorns set in a shallow cup, often mossy-fringed at the margin; the nut
is sweet and edible._

[Illustration: TRUNK OF A WHITE OAK

 Page 86
]

When once the swamp white oak’s peculiarities are known it is seldom
confused with any other oak, even in winter. Its unkempt appearance,
the peeling away of the bark along the branches, and its generally
straggling habit of growth distinguish it quite as much in the winter
as at any other season of the year; it is at all times the untidy
member of the oak family. The branches begin very low down on the trunk
of this oak, and one can distinguish the tree from a distance in this
way. Emerson says that in warm and sheltered situations it is a neat
and beautiful tree, but that when it is too much exposed to the east or
north wind it shows the effect by its ragged appearance; as one sees
the tree generally through Southeastern New England one deduces from
its appearance that the prevalent winds are those from the east and
north.

The wood is heavy, hard, strong, and tough, and is used for the
same things that that of the white oak is used for, and is not
distinguished from it commercially.

The specific name, _platanoides_ (platanus-like), comes from the
generic name of the plane tree or buttonwood, and refers to the bark
of the young trees, which, like that of the buttonwood, separates and
curls off in large thin flakes along the branches.

The swamp white oak grows in low, wet ground throughout the
Northeastern States.

[Sidenote: Mossy Cup, Overcup or Bur Oak

_Quercus macrocarpa_]

_A large tree, sometimes 160 feet high. The bark is corky, with corky
ridges along the twigs. The buds are like those of the swamp white oak,
but the scales are more pointed. Often the dried stipule or a piece of
it is left, as it is persistent in this species. Alternate leaf-scars.
The acorn is almost entirely enclosed in a thick cup with a mossy
fringed border._

The curious corky ridges along the twigs distinguish the mossy cup oak
at all seasons of the year, and its aspect in winter is unusual and
picturesque, owing to this peculiarity.

[Illustration: MOSSY CUP OAK

_Quercus macrocarpa_

 Page 88
]

The branches are irregular, the buds are small, and the acorns are
large and enclosed for more than half their length in a cup covered
with prominent scales and bordered with a thread-like fringe. Michaux
says that these threads do not appear when the tree is in the midst
of a forest or when the summers are not very warm.

The wood of the mossy cup oak is even more valuable than that of the
white oak. It is heavy, strong, hard, tough, close-grained, and durable
in contact with the soil. It is used for the same purposes as that of
the white oak.

One can easily trace the family resemblance between the mossy cup oak
and the cork tree of Southern Europe, which yields the cork of commerce.

The specific name, _macrocarpa_, comes from two Greek words meaning
large fruit, and refers to the cups and acorns. The mossy cup oak is
found in the West and in certain localities in New England. It is found
on the banks of the Penobscot River in Maine, on the shores of Lake
Champlain in Vermont, and among the Berkshire Hills, near Stockbridge,
and on the banks of the Ware River in Massachusetts.

[Sidenote: Chestnut or Rock Chestnut Oak

_Quercus prinus_]

_A middle-sized or small tree usually, although it is sometimes 100
feet high. The bark does not flake. The buds are pointed,—an exception
for the white oaks. The buds are long in proportion to their width.
There is no pubescence on the bud, the edges of the scales are
bleached and have turned gray, the centres remaining a rich reddish
brown. Smooth, glossy twigs, move apt to be ridged than those of the
white oak. Alternate leaf-scars. The acorn is covered nearly halfway
with a thick cup. The kernel is sweetish and edible._

The chestnut oak is distinguished in winter by its beautiful smooth
bark and by its pointed buds, entirely unlike those of the other white
oaks. It sometimes grows to be a large tree, but in New England it is
usually middle-sized or small.

The wood is heavy, hard, strong, and close-grained, and is used for
making fences, railway ties, and for fuel. The bark is rich in tannin,
and is used for tanning leather.

The specific name was derived from the Greek, and was the ancient name
for an oak tree.

The chestnut oak is found on the banks of the Saco River and near Mount
Agamenticus in Southern Maine, among the Blue Hills and in rich woods
in Massachusetts, and it becomes more common as one goes south.

[Illustration: A YOUNG POST OAK

_Quercus minor_

 Page 91
]

The dwarf chestnut, or chinquapin oak (_Quercus prinoides_), is the
smallest member of the oak family in New England, and seldom grows
to be more than two or three feet high. It is found in Massachusetts
and in the South and West.

It is a small shrub of no commercial value, although its little
branches are rich in tannin. The specific name, _prinoides_, means
prinus-like, the name of the chestnut oak, and refers to the general
resemblance between the two species.

[Sidenote: Post or Rough Oak

_Quercus minor_]

_A medium-sized tree, 40 to 50 feet high. Buds and twigs stumpy and
thick set with short branching. Buds very round and rusty. Twig
persistently rough, alternate leaf-scars, the bark is hard and rough.
Acorn enclosed in a deep, saucer-shaped cup._

The branches of the post oak are so thick set, short, and crooked that
this oak is seldom confused with any other. It rarely grows to be
more than twenty-five or thirty feet high, and the many low, crooked
branches, crowded together at the base of the trunk, give, as Emerson
says, the effect of the top of a tree whose trunk is under ground. The
leaves of the post oak are often held through the winter, and they
are so stiff, rough, and abundant that they are, in themselves, a
distinguishing mark. The specimen in the Arnold Arboretum, from which
the accompanying photograph was taken, holds its leaves later in the
spring than any of the other oaks.

The wood is heavy, close-grained, hard, and durable, but it is
difficult to season. It is used in the construction of houses, in the
manufacture of carriages, and for cooperage, fencing, railway ties, and
for fuel.

The specific name, _minor_ (smaller), refers to the height of this oak
as compared with that of the larger members of the family.

The post oak is found from Southern Massachusetts—on Cape Cod, on the
islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Naushon—to Northern Florida and, in
certain localities, west to Eastern Kansas.

[Sidenote: Black Oak

_Quercus velutina_]

_A large tree, 70 to 80 and (rarely) 150 feet high. Bark thick, rough,
and dark. Twigs smooth, with a bitter taste. Alternate leaf-scars. Buds
very downy, sharp-pointed, and large. The acorns are set in a deep,
conspicuously scaly cup. The kernel is bitter._

[Illustration: BLACK OAK

_Quercus velutina_

 Page 92
]

The black oak is distinguished by its rough, dark outer bark and rich
yellow inner bark (which is seen when a small cut is made with a
penknife), and its downy pointed buds. On young trees as well as old
ones, the bark is very rough at the base of the trunk, and this
roughness extends upwards in old trees.

The round, thin, brittle balls found on black oaks and known as
oak-apples are produced by an insect which injures the leaf by
puncturing it and depositing an egg. This causes irritation and an
abnormal growth, from which the apple is formed. The grub which lives
inside this excrescence becomes a chrysalis in the autumn, and changes
to a fly in the spring, when it gnaws its way out by making a little
hole through the shell.

The wood of the black oak is heavy, hard, and strong, but not tough,
and it is liable to check in drying. The bark is rich in tannin, and
it makes a yellow dye,—quercitron,—obtained from the inner bark. Used
medicinally the bark is an astringent.

The specific name, _velutina_, was taken originally from the Latin word
_vellus_, meaning shorn wool, and was applied by botanists to this tree
on account of the fleecy character of the recent stems and leaves. The
black oak is found growing throughout New England and in the South and
West.

[Sidenote: Red Oak

_Quercus rubra_]

_A large tree, 60 to 150 feet high. The bark is fissured in long
clefts, with broad, smooth places between, giving the trunk a fluted
column effect. Large, sharp-pointed buds, with close scales. The red
oak buds resemble to some extent those of the chestnut oak, but there
is a fine hair on the scales of the red oak buds, while the scales of
the chestnut oak buds are bleached and have no hair. Where the base of
the bud joins the stem the buds of the red oak are more constricted
than those of the chestnut oak, and the chestnut oak buds seem more
sessile. Alternate leaf-scars. Acorn set in a shallow cup of fine
scales._

The red oak is a lofty, wide-spreading tree of great beauty. “No other
oak,” Emerson says, “flourishes so readily in every situation, no other
is of so rapid growth, no other surpasses it in beauty of foliage
and of trunk; no oak attains, in this climate, to more magnificent
dimensions; no tree, except the white oak, gives us so noble an idea of
strength.”

It is perhaps, of all the black oak group, the easiest to distinguish
in winter on account of the smooth spaces between the fissures of the
bark on its trunk, and its pointed buds, which are much less downy than
those of the black oak.

The wood is heavy, hard, and strong, but it is not particularly
valuable. It is used in the construction and interior finish of houses
and for making cheap furniture.

[Illustration: RED OAK

_Quercus rubra_

 Page 94
]

The specific name, _rubra_, was given to it on account of the rich, red
midrib and veins of the leaves.

It is the oak which is found farthest north, and it grows in all kinds
of soil from Nova Scotia southward to Northern Georgia. The red oak was
one of the earliest American trees introduced into Europe.

[Sidenote: Scarlet Oak

_Quercus coccinea_]

_A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high. The bark is grayish and not deeply
furrowed. Slender twigs, with small, alternate leaf-scars. Small buds,
the tips being half as hairy as those of the black oak, while the bases
are smooth. The acorn is one-half or more enclosed in a coarsely scaled
cup. Its kernel is bitter._

The scarlet oak is the most brilliant member of the oak family. In
summer its leaves are a shining green, in autumn they turn more
glowingly red than those of any other oak, and in winter its buds and
stems are smooth, and show more color than those of the other members
of the genus. Its outline is less spreading in shape than those of oaks
generally, and the bark of the trunk is not so coarsely furrowed as the
black oak’s, nor so smooth as that of the red oak.

The wood is heavy and hard, and is used for the same purposes as red
oak.

The specific name, _coccinea_ (of a scarlet color), refers to the hue
of the foliage in the autumn.

The scarlet oak is found growing throughout the Northeastern States and
also in the South and West.

[Sidenote: Pin Oak

_Quercus palustris_]

_A small or medium-sized tree in New England, although it reaches the
height of 120 feet in the forests of the West. It is excurrent in
growth. In its youth the branches are rigid and horizontal, and have a
tendency to droop stiffly towards the ground. The branches and twigs
are persistent, some of the twigs often becoming small, stiff, pin-like
spurs, which are a distinctive characteristic of the tree. The buds are
small and the twigs slender. Alternate leaf-scars. The acorn is half an
inch long, in a shallow, saucer-shaped cup with thin scales._

[Illustration: TRUNK OF A RED OAK

 Page 95
]

The outline of the pin oak is not in the least like that of any other
oak after its leaves have fallen; for while most oaks are distinguished
by their far-reaching lateral branches which divide a short distance at
the trunk, the pin oak carries its main stem to the top of the tree,
and the lateral branches grow from the trunk, forming a pyramidal
head. In the forests where it grows in swamps and wet places, it loses
this shape, but even then the branches are characteristically rigid
and grow near together. The pyramidal shape of this tree, its small,
delicate buds and branches, and the pin-like twigs, from which it takes
its name of pin oak, make it easily recognized as we see it growing in
our parks and gardens.

The wood is hard and strong, where the tree is found growing commonly,
and is used in the construction of houses and for shingles and
clapboards.

The specific name is from the Latin _paluster_, an adjective
meaning swampy or boggy, and has reference to the moisture-seeking
characteristics of the tree.

The pin oak is found growing on the banks of the Connecticut River in
Massachusetts, but it occurs more commonly in the South and West.

The scrub or bear oak (_Quercus pumila_) is a dwarfed, straggling bush,
three to ten feet high, and found on sandy, barren, and rocky hills
from Maine to Carolina. Its specific name, _pumila_ (dwarf), was given
to it on account of its size and crooked manner of growth.

[Illustration: PIN OAK

_Quercus palustris_

 Page 96
]




CHAPTER VIII

THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY

[Illustration: The Slippery Elm and the American Elm.]




Chapter VIII

THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY

Family Ulmaceæ


The members of this family are found in Europe, Asia, and North
America. Two genera, the elm (_Ulmus_) and the hackberry (_Celtis_),
are found in the Northeastern States.

The elms are remarkable for the massive strength of their trunk and
limbs and for the light delicacy of their small branches and twigs as
we see them against the sky in winter. The American and English elms
particularly are really more beautiful in winter than in summer, when
the contrast between the little twigs and the little branches is hidden
by the leaves. The elms are all long-lived trees and grow rapidly. They
bear transplanting and pruning better than any other tree, and grow on
almost any kind of soil. If it were not for the attacks of insects, to
which the elms seem peculiarly liable, no trees would be more deserving
of cultivation. Perhaps no other tree is so strongly associated in
our minds with the beautiful old valley towns and hillside villages
of New England, and to the elms they largely owe their beauty. Three
indigenous elms are found in the Northeastern States, the American,
slippery, and cork elms, and two from Europe, the English and the
Scotch or Dutch elms, are planted commonly in our gardens and parks.

[Sidenote: American or White Elm

_Ulmus americana_]

_A large spreading tree, with graceful, drooping branches. Smooth brown
twigs; alternate leaf-scars. The terminal and lateral buds are the same
size; the flower buds are larger. The flowers come before the leaves in
the early spring, and the fruit, a small round samara, ripens later in
the spring._

The American elm stands absolutely alone among trees for its especial
kind of beauty. No other tree combines such strength and lofty
stateliness with so much fine work and delicacy. Its trunk divides a
short distance from the ground into many large, spreading branches,
which stretch up high into the air and support the waving, drooping,
curving twigs and small branches.

[Illustration: AMERICAN ELM, LANCASTER, MASS.

_Ulmus americana_

(From a photograph by Mr. Eli Forbes)

 Page 102
]

It is interesting to find how many distinct shapes the American elm
takes. These are so varied that many people think that each form is
a separate species, but they are all different types of the same tree.
The Etruscan vase is one of the most familiar shapes of this elm. Its
trunk divides a short way from the ground into several equally large
branches, and the top of the tree is flat, with down-sweeping lateral
branches. The beautiful Lancaster elm, from which the accompanying
photograph was taken, belongs to this Etruscan vase form. Another
well-known shape is the plume, which may be either single or compound.
In these trees the single trunk or two or three parallel limbs rise to
a great height without branches, and these spread into one or two light
waving plumes. Many of these plume elms are found in the Berkshire
Hills and throughout New England where the woods have been cut away and
the elms have been left standing. The oak form, still another shape
the elm occasionally takes, is broad and round-headed, with heavy
lateral branches which extend in a horizontal direction in a manner
very suggestive of the white oak. This is not so common as the vase
and plume elms, and only occurs when the tree has grown in an open
situation with plenty of air and light. A fine specimen of this tree
stands near the Pratt house, in Concord, Massachusetts. “Feathered”
elms are those which have a growth of little twigs along the trunk
and branches. They may feather any of the different forms already
described, and they come from latent buds which may have been dormant
for years before opening.

“The white elm,” Professor Charles S. Sargent says, “is one of the
largest and most graceful trees of the Northeastern States and
Canada. It is beautiful at all seasons of the year,—when its minute
flowers, harbingers of earliest spring, cover the branches; when in
summer it rises like a great fountain of dark and brilliant green
above its humbler companions of the forest or sweeps with long and
graceful boughs the placid waters of some stream flowing through
verdant meadows; when autumn delicately tints its leaves; and when
winter brings out every detail of the great arching limbs and slender
pendulous branches standing out in clear relief against the sky.

“The elm trees which greeted the English colonists as they landed on
the shores of New England seemed like old friends from their general
resemblance to the elm trees that had stood by their cottages at home;
and as the forest gave way to cornfields many elm trees were allowed
to escape the axe, and when a home was made a sapling elm taken from
the borders of a neighboring swamp was often set to guard the rooftree.
These elm trees, remnants of the forest which covered New England
when it was first inhabited by white men, or planted during the first
century of their occupation, are now dead or rapidly disappearing;
they long remained the noblest and most imposing trees of the Northern
States, and no others planted by man in North America have equalled the
largest of them in beauty and size.”

The wood is heavy, tough, and difficult to split. It is used for making
the hubs of wheels and for flooring, cooperage, and boat-building.

The generic name, _Ulmus_, comes from ulm or elm, the Saxon name of
the tree, the specific name explains itself. The American elm is found
from Newfoundland to Florida and as far west as the eastern base of the
Rocky Mountains.

[Sidenote: Slippery or Red Elm

_Ulmus pubescens_]

_A medium-sized tree, 45 to 60 feet high. The twigs are gray and
bristled, unlike the smooth twigs of the white elm. Alternate
leaf-scars, which are more conspicuous than those of the white elm. The
buds are larger and rounder than those of the white elm; they are soft
and downy, and are covered with reddish brown hairs. The inner bark is
very mucilaginous._

Country boys know the slippery elm for its sweet mucilage, just as they
know the shagbark for its nuts, the sassafras for its aromatic roots,
and the spruce for its gum; and this mucilaginous characteristic is a
certain means of determining the tree.

In form it is less drooping than the white elm and it is also much
smaller. The hairy buds give the whole tree a reddish color in spring,
and from this it probably takes the name of red elm; the slippery
elm is a more characteristic name however, as few trees have such a
slippery inner bark. These hairy brown buds are among the prettiest to
be found on any trees in winter. Compared with the smooth, hard buds
on many trees, they are what soft, long-haired Angoras are to ordinary
cats.

The wood is strong, hard, and close-grained and is used for making
posts, railroad ties, and agricultural implements. The inner bark is
used for inflammatory diseases and externally for poultices.

The specific name, _pubescens_ (down or soft hair), refers to the
pubescence on the buds and leaves and along the recent shoots.

[Illustration: YOUNG CORK ELM

_Ulmus racemosa_

 Page 107
]

The slippery elm is found in certain localities throughout the
Atlantic States, it is not common in Eastern Massachusetts.

[Sidenote: Cork or Rock Elm

_Ulmus racemosa_]

_A large tree, 80 to 100 feet high, known by the peculiar corky ridges
along the branches. Alternate leaf-scars. The recent twigs and the
scales of the bud are fringed with downy hair._

In New England the cork elm is found in the northwestern part of New
Hampshire and in Southern Vermont. It is rare in Massachusetts, and
would probably be found only in the western part of the State growing
wild. Neither Michaux nor Emerson has described the cork elm. Nuttall
says that it was discovered in the State of New York by a Mr. Thomas,
and he gives the tree the name “Thomas’s elm,” which has fortunately
not been retained.

The wood is tougher and of somewhat finer grain than that of the white
elm, and in the “Silva of North America,” Professor Sargent says: “The
value of the wood of the rock elm threatens its extinction; and most
of the large trees have already been cut in the forests of Canada, New
England, New York, and Michigan. The rock elm is sometimes planted as
a shade tree in the region which it inhabits naturally, and although
it grows rather more slowly than the white elm, it is a handsome and
distinct ornamental tree which planters have too generally neglected.”

The specific name, _racemosa_ (cluster-flowered), refers to the flowers
which grow in a raceme.

It is found in New England, its range extending southward and westward.

[Sidenote: English Elm

_Ulmus campestris_]

_A tall tree, more upright in growth than the American elm. The
branches are less spreading and more erect than those of the American
species. In this climate it is often distinguished by the little tufts
of dead twigs on the tree. The bark is darker and coarser than that of
the American elm; the buds and twigs differ very little from those of
our species._

[Illustration: ENGLISH ELMS

_Ulmus campestris_

 Page 108
]

The English elm is found planted frequently throughout New England,
and there are many fine specimens in Massachusetts, especially in
the country about Boston. According to Emerson, they were originally
said to be imported and planted by a wheelwright for his own use in
making the hubs of wheels, for which purpose the wood of the English
elm is superior to any other. At all events, there are many beautiful
specimens growing near old colonial houses, and sometimes they are
found growing by stone walls at some distance from the house, back of
farm buildings and barns, as was the group from which I took the
following photograph.

The American elm is more graceful than the English elm, which, on
the other hand, is more stately; both trees are unusually beautiful,
although representing such different types of beauty. In the “Autocrat
of the Breakfast-Table,” Dr. Holmes contrasts the English and American
elms growing on Boston Common. “Go out with me into that walk which we
call the Mall,” he says, “and look at the English and American elms.
The American elm is tall, graceful, slender-sprayed, and drooping as if
from languor. The English elm is compact, robust, holds its branches
up, and carries its leaves for weeks longer than our own native tree.
Is this typical of the creative force on the two sides of the ocean or
not?”

In England the elm has been planted from the time of the Romans, though
Dr. Walker thinks that it was brought over at the time of the Crusades.
The elm was planted by the Romans as a prop for grape vines, and in the
South of Italy it is still used for that purpose. In “Paradise Lost”
Milton refers to this when he describes how Adam and Eve spent their
time in the Garden of Eden. Among various other occupations,

                              “They led the vine
    To wed her elm; she spoused about him twines
    Her marriageable arms; and with her brings
    Her dower, the adopted clusters to adorn
    His barren leaves.”

Columella tells us that vineyards with elm trees as props were named
_arbusta_, the vines themselves being called _arbustivæ vitæ_, to
distinguish them from others raised in more confined situations. Once
in two years the elms were carefully pruned to prevent their leaves
from overshadowing the grapes; this was considered of great importance,
and we have a better understanding of Virgil’s reproach to Corydon, who
neglected both his elms and vines, when we realize this:—

    “Semiputate tibi frondosa vitis in ulmo est.”
    (Your vine half pruned upon the leafy elm.)

In Ovid, Vertumnus alludes to the mutual dependence of the elm and the
vine when he assures Pomona of the advantages of a happy marriage:—

    “‘If that fair elm,’ he cried, ‘alone should stand
     No grapes would glow with gold, and tempt the hand;
     Or if that vine without her elm should grow,
     ’T would creep a poor neglected shrub, below.’”

The specific name, _campestris_, comes from the Latin word meaning
belonging to a plain or field.

[Illustration: SCOTCH ELM

_Ulmus montana_

 Page 111
]

[Sidenote: Scotch, Dutch, or Wych Elm

_Ulmus montana_]

_A medium-sized tree, 50 to 60 feet high. The bark is smooth and green.
The branches are spreading and somewhat drooping. The buds are not
downy like those of the slippery elm._

The Scotch elm, like the English elm, is extensively cultivated in the
parks and gardens about Boston, and it is frequently planted along
roadsides. It is less upright and tall than the English elm, its
average height being about forty feet, and it has a more spreading head.

The Scotch elm, according to Gerard, had various uses in ancient
times. Its wood was made into bows, and its bark, which is so tough
that it will strip or peel off from the wood from one end of a bough
to the other without breaking, was made into ropes. Its wood was
not considered so good for naves as that of the English elm, though
in Scotland it is used by ship-builders, the block and pump maker,
the cartwright and cabinet maker. Loudon says in his “Arboretum et
Fruticetum Britannicum”: “In many parts of the country, the wych elm,
or witch-hazel, as it is still occasionally called, is considered a
preservative against witches; probably from the coincidence, between
the words ‘wych’ and ‘witch.’ In some of the midland counties, even to
the present day, a little cavity is made in the churn to receive a
small portion of witch-hazel, without which the dairymaids imagine that
they would not be able to get the butter to come.”

The specific name, _montana_, from the Latin word meaning living on
mountains, was given to this tree because it is found growing, not only
in the plains and valleys, like _Ulmus campestris_, but also in the
remote highlands where it finds a foothold and flourishes on the steep
slopes of the mountains.

[Sidenote: Hackberry, Sugarberry, Nettle Tree

_Celtis occidentalis_]

_A small tree, 20 to 50 feet high, with slender, wide-spreading
branches. The terminal buds are lacking, the lateral ones are flattened
and pointed and somewhat hairy. The twigs are dark grayish brown with
white chambered pith inside the stems. The leaf-scars are semi-oval
with three bundle-scars and alternate in arrangement. The fruit is
reddish, turning dark purple; it is round and berry-like and about the
size of a currant._

[Sidenote: HACKBERRY

_Celtis occidentalis_

 Page 112
]

The hackberry grows wild in Massachusetts, but it is found rarely and
is generally mistaken for an elm. It grows commonly in lowland woods
in Western New York and the Middle States, and it can be identified
both in winter and summer by the white chambered pith, which is
found by cutting a stem of recent growth. The dried fruit, which hangs
on the stems through the winter, is also another means of recognizing
the tree,—this berry-like fruit can be seen in the photograph which
I took as late in the deciduous season as April thirteenth. It is a
round-headed tree with a short trunk and usually a broad spread of
branches, but in the basin of the Ohio River it grows to be a tall and
stately tree.

The wood is heavy and coarsely grained, and is used for fences and for
making cheap furniture.

The generic name, _Celtis_, is the ancient Greek name for the lotus
berry; and the specific name, _occidentalis_ (belonging to the west),
designates its American origin.




CHAPTER IX

THE BUTTONWOOD, THE TUPELO, AND THE MULBERRIES

[Illustration: The Buttonwood, showing the hollow base of the leafstalk
which covers the bud until the leaf falls.]




Chapter IX

THE BUTTONWOOD, THE TUPELO, AND THE MULBERRIES

Families Platanaceæ, Cornaceæ, and Moracæ


There is but one genus in the family _Platanaceæ_, and but one species
in the genus found growing in the Northeastern States, the buttonwood,
or sycamore.

[Sidenote: Buttonwood, Sycamore, or Plane Tree

_Platanus occidentalis_]

_A large tree, 80 to 100 feet high, with an irregular, picturesque
outline. The bark breaks off in thin, brittle plates at the base of
the trunk, and higher up it is smooth, an olive green color, and
covered with white blotches. The buds are subpetiolar,—that is, they
are covered over by the base of the leafstalk through the summer,
and concealed entirely until the leaf drops off. The leaf-scar is in
the shape of a ring around the bud, with prominent bundle-scars; the
arrangement of the leaf-scars is alternate. Stipule scars are found on
the stems in some places. The buds are conical, smooth, and brown, and
are covered by one scale. The fruit hangs on the tree all winter,—a
large, dry ball made up of hundreds of seeds._

Like everything which has a definite individuality, the buttonwood is
a tree which people either like or dislike strongly. It is certainly
picturesque, and its subpetiolar buds alone make it unusually
interesting, whether one admires it or not from an æsthetic point of
view. These buds are entirely concealed through the summer by the
hollow bases of the leafstalks which fit over the buds like candle
extinguishers, and leave scars in circles after they have fallen.

Its bark has little expansive power, the tissue is rigid and cannot
stretch with the growing power from within, and it splits and is thrown
off easily. In connection with this, Dr. Holmes says in “The Autocrat
of the Breakfast-Table”:—

[Illustration: BUTTONWOOD

_Platanus occidentalis_

 Page 118
]

[Illustration: TRUNK OF A BUTTONWOOD

 Page 119
]

“The buttonwood throws off its bark in large flakes, which one may find
lying at its foot, pushed out, and at last pushed off, by that tranquil
movement from beneath, which is too slow to be seen, but too powerful
to be arrested. One finds them always, but one rarely sees them fall.
So it is our youth drops from us—scales off, sapless and lifeless, and
lays bare the tender and immature fresh growth of old age.”

Bryant says in his poem, “To the Green River”:—

    “Clear are its depths where its eddies play,
     And dimples deepen and whirl away,
     And the plane tree’s speckled arms o’ershoot
     The swifter current that mines its root.”

Gray calls the buttonwood our largest tree, and Emerson alludes to it
as “the largest, grandest, and loftiest deciduous tree in America;”
while Gilpin says that “no tree forms a more pleasing shade than the
occidental plane.”

The wood takes a good polish and is used for making furniture, ox
yokes, and for the interior finish of houses.

The generic name, _Platanus_, comes from the Greek word for broad,
and has reference to the wide-spreading leaves and branches of the
tree. The specific name, _occidentalis_, was given to the sycamore as
distinctive from _Platanus orientalis_, the oriental plane tree of
Europe. The oriental plane is planted occasionally in this country, and
may be distinguished from our native species by its broader head and by
the fruit, which frequently hangs in clusters instead of singly on the
tree.


The _Cornaceæ_ or dogwood family contains two New England genera. Among
many species of shrubs, two trees deserve especial notice, the tupelo
and the flowering dogwood.

[Sidenote: Tupelo, Pepperidge, Sour Gum Tree

_Nyssa sylvatica_]

_A medium-sized tree, with horizontal branches and often with an
excurrent trunk. Dark gray furrowed bark. Grayish brown twigs, with
alternate ridged leaf-scars and three bundle-scars at the top of the
leaf-scar. Small, brown buds, with overlapping, hairy scales. The fruit
is a small, bluish black drupe, ripe in the autumn._

The tupelo at all seasons is a striking tree, and is easily
distinguished even at a distance by its flat, rigid branches, growing
in horizontal layers from the main trunk. It varies much in shape,
according to its surroundings in youth. When it has grown up among
other trees in the woods it is erect and tall, and when it has stood by
itself in open ground it is low and broad, and almost always carries
its main trunk well into the top of the tree.

The wood is heavy, tough, and hard to work, and the fibres intertwine
so closely that it is very difficult to split. It is used in making the
hubs of wheels and ox yokes.

[Illustration: TUPELO

_Nyssa sylvatica_

 Page 120
]

The generic name, _Nyssa_, is the Greek name of a nymph, and was
given to the tupelo on account of its habit of growing in wet places,
on the borders of ponds, and in low, moist woods. The specific name is
frequently given to plants and trees, and comes from the Latin word
which means belonging to the woods.

It is found from Maine to Florida and westward, and stands the winds
from the sea well when it grows along the coast, apparently losing
little of its vigor.

[Sidenote: Flowering Cornel, Flowering Dogwood

_Cornus florida_]

_A small tree or shrub, 12 to 40 feet high, with a dark, rough bark.
The recent shoots are gray and covered with down. The leaf-scars
are small and opposite each other on the stem. The flower buds are
conspicuous._

The flowering cornel can be distinguished by its flower buds alone
in winter, if by nothing else. They are small and round with long
curving tips, and in shape they look something like the paper torpedoes
children play with on the Fourth of July. This is the only native
tree in our climate, besides the maple and ash, which has opposite
leaf-scars.

The confusion existing in some minds between the flowering dogwood of
the woods and the poison dogwood of the swamps casts an undeserved
shadow over the name of the former. If the poison dogwood were always
called poison sumac and the _Cornus florida_, flowering cornel, this
unfortunate confusion would soon end.

The wood is strong, hard, and close-grained, and takes polish
exceedingly well. It is used in turnery, for the handles of tools, and
occasionally for engravers’ blocks. The bark is bitter and is used as
an astringent and tonic, especially in the treatment of fevers. The
Indians made a scarlet dye from the bark of the roots.

The generic name comes from the Latin _cornus_, a horn, and refers to
the hardness of the wood, and the specific name, _florida_ (abounding
in blossoms), alludes to the remarkable white flowers of this cornel,
which open in June.

The flowering dogwood is found from Eastern Massachusetts to Central
Florida and westward, and grows under large trees in rich woods.


The _Moracæ_ are a small family with but one native representative in
the North, the red mulberry. The white mulberry from China has been so
widely cultivated and naturalized in the United States, that it is seen
more commonly than the native species.

[Illustration: RED MULBERRY

_Morus rubra_

 Page 123
]

[Sidenote: Red Mulberry

_Morus rubra_]

_A small tree, 15 to 60 feet high. The bark is rough, with long
furrows. The twigs are a light greenish brown and the leaf-scars are
oval, hollow, and alternate in arrangement. The bundle-scars form a
closed chain around the leaf-scar. A milky juice comes if the stems are
cut on warm days in winter. Very smooth buds._

The red mulberry is not particularly attractive in winter. In open
situations its branches are wide spreading without being graceful, and
it is broadly erect in shape without being stately. It grows to be a
much larger tree in the South than it does in the North.

The wood is soft and light, but very durable, and it is used for fences
and cooperage, and in the South for boat-building. The fruit is edible,
with an agreeable acid flavor.

The generic name, _Morus_, is probably derived from the Celtic word
_mor_, meaning black, in reference to the color of the fruit. The
specific name, _rubra_, is given to this species because the mulberries
are dark red instead of white, like those of _Morus alba_.

The red mulberry is found growing wild in Western Massachusetts, south
to Florida and westward. It is frequently planted in gardens for its
fruit.

[Sidenote: White Mulberry

_Morus alba_]

_A small tree, with a rough bark, small, round brown buds, and small
projecting alternate leaf-scars with clearly defined bundle-scars. The
buds are smaller and more rounded than those of the red mulberry. It
is easily distinguished from the red mulberry by its more numerous and
slender shoots._

Professor Charles S. Sargent says that no other tree furnishes
employment, directly and indirectly, to so large a number of the human
race, or has been so carefully studied from the cultural point of view,
and no other tree has given rise to such a voluminous literature as the
white mulberry.

[Illustration: WHITE MULBERRY

_Morus alba_

 Page 124
]

It was introduced here from China about 1830, and it has been widely
cultivated and naturalized throughout the United States. The Chinese
were the first to cultivate the mulberry for feeding silkworms, and
they are said to have discovered the art of making silk 2700 years
B. C. According to Loudon the discovery is due to the keen powers of
observation of the Empress Si-ling-chi, who watched the labors of
silkworms on wild mulberry trees, and who first applied their silk
to use. It is interesting to associate the making of silk with an
empress who loved nature and used her eyes two thousand years and
more B. C. From China the art passed into Persia, India, Arabia, and
finally (350 B. C.) into Greece. In 1440 A. D. the white mulberry was
introduced into upper Italy, and during the reign of Charles VII. the
first white mulberry was planted in France. In 1609 the silkworm was
introduced into Great Britain by James I., and at the same time he sent
over mulberry trees and silkworms to America, and tried to induce the
colonists in Virginia to cultivate silkworms instead of raising tobacco.

The wood has been used for making wine casks in Europe, and is highly
valued on account of the supposed violet flavor it gives to white
wines. The bark is used for making bast for mats, and linen also has
been made out of it. The fruit of the white mulberry is insipid and
tasteless.




CHAPTER X

THE LOCUSTS, THE YELLOWWOOD, AND THE KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE

[Illustration: The Common Locust and the Honey Locust.]




Chapter X

THE LOCUSTS, THE YELLOWWOOD, AND THE KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE

Family Leguminosæ


The _Leguminosæ_ are a large order of plants including many different
genera,—from the little clover by the wayside to the honey locust
trees, 140 feet high. The trees of the different genera are all
distinguished by their pod-like fruit,—the name _Leguminosæ_ being
given to this family on account of the leguminous or bean-like pods
which enclose the seeds.

They are interesting to study on account of the buds, which differ in
structure from the hidden buds of the locusts enclosed in the stem, to
the subpetiolar buds of the yellowwood, concealed under the leafstalks
through the summer, but conspicuous in winter after they have fallen.

[Sidenote: Common Locust

_Robinia pseud-acacia_]

_An irregular growing, slender tree, 70 to 80 feet high, with very
rough, deeply furrowed, often yellowish-looking bark. Slender twigs,
with inconspicuous thorns. Small, alternate triangular leaf-scars,
somewhat raised in the centre. The buds are superposed between the
thorns, and are entirely hidden by the leaf-scars. Fruit a pea-shaped
pod, four or five inches long._

The common locust is one of the few trees which is decidedly more
attractive in summer than in winter. The delicate texture and tender
green of the leaves and the pendulous racemes of white fragrant flowers
make the whole beauty of this tree, and in winter it seems rough,
straggling, and uncouth in its habit of growth, and utterly devoid of
either strength or grace. The common locust glories in a wealth of
summer sweetness and color, but in winter the absence of poise and
symmetry in its branches and its colorless stems make it seem shapeless
and dead.

The wood is heavy and strong, and durable when it is placed in contact
with the soil. It is used in ship-building and for posts. The bark is a
tonic used in homœopathic remedies.

[Illustration: COMMON LOCUST TREES

_Robinia pseud-acacia_

 Page 130
]

The name, _Robinia_, was given to this genus in honor of Jean Robin, a
French botanist, and the gardener of Henry IV. of France. The specific
name, _pseud-acacia_ (false acacia), arose from the supposition
that this tree was a species of the Egyptian acacia from its prickly
branches and pinnate leaves, which are like those of that tree. It was
called “locust tree” by English missionaries who collected it first and
fancied that it was the tree that nourished John the Baptist in the
wilderness.

It was one of the first American trees to attract attention in Europe,
and it has been extensively cultivated there.

The locust is not a native of New England, but it grows wild south of
Pennsylvania and it is widely naturalized throughout the United States
east of the Rocky Mountains.

The clammy locust (_Robinia viscosa_) is a small tree or shrub easily
distinguished from the common locust by its stems and young branches,
which are clammy and sticky to the touch. It is a native of the
mountains of North Carolina, and it has been extensively cultivated as
far north as Eastern Massachusetts.

The specific name, _viscosa_, is from the Latin adjective meaning full
of birdlime, sticky, and refers to the peculiar clamminess of the stems.

_Robinia hispida_, the rose acacia, is an ornamental shrub cultivated
in gardens and found growing wild from Virginia southward. The specific
name, _hispida_ (bristly), refers to the long bristles on the
branches, leaves, and pods which distinguish this shrub from the other
species of the genus.

[Sidenote: Honey Locust

_Gleditsia triacanthos_]

_A large tree with a smooth dark bark, cracking in thick lateral plates
on old trees. Long, branching thorns growing in clusters out of the
trunk and on the branches. Smooth, shining brown twigs and prominent
U-shaped, alternate leaf-scars. There are no terminal buds, and the
lateral ones are superposed, inconspicuous, rounded, and partly
concealed in the stem. The fruit is a large, pea-like pod, often
hanging on the trees through the winter._

[Illustration: HONEY LOCUST

_Gleditsia triacanthos_

 Page 132
]

The honey locust is a beautiful tree with a large trunk and wide,
loosely spreading branches. It is particularly interesting in winter on
account of the apparent absence of buds along the stems. But for the
rich brown color of the stems they might be thought dead until a cut
with a knife in the stem over the leaf-scars shows the little tender
buds tucked away out of sight. It is interesting, too, to find thorns
which are long enough to have little thorns branching from them. A
straight thorn seems formidable enough even on a rose stem, but a thorn
some ten inches long with eight thorns branching from it, each varying
from half an inch to two inches long, and this but one of a cluster
of thorns, keeps the trunk of the honey locust sacred from climbing
boys and from browsing cattle. The honey locust is more effective than
a barbed wire for fencing. The fruit is in the form of a flat, crooked
reddish brown pod from seven to eighteen inches long. These pods are
often twisted, and are carried easily by the wind over the top of the
snow, and young locusts are propagated in this way at a great distance
from the parent tree. Beer has been made by fermenting the inner
pulp of fresh pods, but it is more of an experiment than a customary
practice.

The wood of the honey locust is hard, strong, and durable when it is
placed in contact with the soil; it is used for posts and rails and for
making the hubs of wheels.

The generic name, _Gleditsia_, was given to it in honor of Gleditsch, a
German botanist; and the specific name, _triacanthos_ (three-thorned),
refers to the branching thorns.

The honey locust is not native in New England, although it is found
growing commonly. Young trees spring up from the seeds of cultivated
trees, and in this way it has spread and increased its range. It
is found growing wild from Pennsylvania south and west. There are
thornless varieties of this tree which are often cultivated.

[Sidenote: Yellowwood

_Cladrastis lutea_]

_A small tree, 20 to 50 feet high, with a smooth dark gray bark. The
stems are smooth and brown, with light colored conspicuous leaf-scars
in a circle around the subpetiolar buds. The buds are brown and very
hairy, each scale being covered with soft brown hairs. Pod-like fruit,
about two inches long._

The clean, smooth bark of the yellowwood, its delicate branches and
rich brown stems make this tree attractive in winter, in spite of
the fact that, like the locust, its greatest beauty is in its sweet
pendulous flowers and bright green leaves. The yellowwood is one of the
few trees which have subpetiolar buds, and the prominent leaf-scars
encircling the bud show that the base of the leafstalk covered it until
the leaf fell off in the autumn.

[Illustration: KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE

_Gymnocladus dioicus_

 Page 135
]

The wood is used for making gunstocks and for fuel, and it also yields
a yellow dye, from which it takes its specific name, _lutea_,—yellow.
The generic name, _Cladrastis_, comes from two Greek words meaning
brittle branches, and was given to the tree on account of its fragile
branches, which are easily broken by the wind. The yellowwood,
or virgilia as it is sometimes called, is extensively cultivated
in gardens and it is found growing wild in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Professor Sargent says that it is one of the rarest and most local
trees of North America.

[Sidenote: Kentucky Coffee Tree

_Gymnocladus dioicus_]

_A large tree, 50 to 80 feet high, with rough bark. Large cane-like,
smooth, gray shoots somewhat roughened by prominent lenticles. Large
U-shaped, alternate leaf-scars with three or five bundle-scars. No
terminal bud, the lateral buds are (two or three) superposed, they are
inconspicuous, very silky to the touch, deep set and surrounded by an
incurved rim of the bark. Large, wide, thick pods, 5 to 10 inches long._

The Kentucky coffee tree is entirely destitute of small spray, and in
winter its thick, cane-like stems, without any perceptible buds, give
it a singular appearance of rigid bluntness. A more striking contrast
than the flat, fine sprayed branches of the hop hornbeam and the stout,
upright stems of the Kentucky coffee tree could not be imagined. The
early settlers in Kentucky made a drink from the seeds of this tree,
which they considered equal to coffee, but later when communication
with the seaport towns was established they gave up this drink for
real coffee, and the seeds have never been used since for that purpose,
although the tree has retained its name.

The wood is heavy, but not very strong. It is occasionally used in
cabinet making and for posts and rails.

The generic name comes from two Greek words meaning naked branch, and
has reference to the stout branches without spray; and the specific
name comes from two Greek words meaning of two households, and refers
to the male and female flowers which are found on separate trees. The
Kentucky coffee tree is found growing wild from New York southward and
westward, and it is occasionally cultivated in gardens and parks.

There are one or two other trees belonging to this family which are
found planted in gardens. Of these the laburnum (_Laburnum vulgare_),
a small tree 10 to 20 feet high, is perhaps the most familiar. It came
originally from Switzerland, and has been cultivated in our gardens for
its beautiful yellow flowers, “rich in streaming gold.” Another member
of the family cultivated for its flowers and found wild from New York
south and west is the redbud or Judas tree (_Cercis canadensis_). It is
a small tree with no terminal buds, and with spreading, oval flower
buds along the stems, which open before the leaf buds in the spring,
and cover the branches with deep-pink flowers.




CHAPTER XI

THE LINDENS, THE LIQUIDAMBER, AND THE SASSAFRAS

[Illustration: 1. The Linden. 2. The Liquidamber. 3. The Sassafras.]




Chapter XI

THE LINDENS, THE LIQUIDAMBER, AND THE SASSAFRAS

Families Tiliaceæ, Hamamelidaceæ, and Lauraceæ


The _Tiliaceæ_ are a tropical family with a single genus, the linden,
as a representative in our climate. There are two species found wild
south of New York besides the common linden, the small leaved basswood
and the white basswood, but the common linden and the European linden
are the two trees found commonly in New England.

[Sidenote: Linden; Basswood

_Tilia americana_]

_A tall tree, 60 to 80 feet high, frequently excurrent. The bark is
rather smooth with shallow, close furrows, and the twigs are smooth,
with a good deal of color. The leaf-scars are alternate, and the buds
are smooth and red, the terminal one often being absent._

The main trunk of the linden frequently extends upwards undivided
through the crown to the tip of the tree, with small branches growing
from the trunk all the way up. This excurrent characteristic of the
linden is especially marked in young trees which have grown in open
situations, but even when the trunk has divided into large branches,
or has grown in the forest shaded by other trees, and has lost its
excurrent shape, the small branches growing directly out of the trunk
distinguish it from other trees. The color in the young stems and
buds is another means of its identification, and in early spring the
deepening color in the twigs from the rising sap, shows that the linden
is almost as responsive as the willow to warm rains and sunshine.

The wood is soft and white and close-grained. It is used for carving
in the interior finish of houses, and for making wooden ware and cheap
furniture. Sugar has been made from the sap, and the inner bark is made
into a coarse cordage and matting, and in Europe a coarse cloth is made
from it.

The Latin generic name probably comes from _ptilon_, the Greek word for
a feather, in allusion to the feather-like bracts on the clusters of
the flowers. The specific name, _americana_, was given to our native
linden to distinguish it from the European species.

[Illustration: AMERICAN LINDEN

_Tilia americana_

 Page 142
]

The linden is found growing wild in rich woods from New Brunswick to
Georgia and as far west as Kansas.

The European lindens, or as they are called in England “lime trees,”
may be distinguished from our linden by their twigs, which are more
numerous and more slender than those of our species. The linden has
long been a favorite tree for formal effects, both in Europe and in
this country. “The French,” Du Hamel says, “growing tired of the
horsechestnut for avenues, adopted the lime for that purpose, in the
time of Louis XIV., and accordingly the approaches to the residences
of the French, as well as the English gentry of that date are bordered
with lime trees.” Since the day of the modern school of landscape
gardening the linden is not nearly so much planted as it used to be.

A successful experiment has been tried in Germany of making table oil
from the seeds of this tree. A paste like chocolate has also been made
from the fruit, but it does not keep. The family name of Linnæus, the
famous botanist, was originally derived from _linn_, the Swedish name
for the linden, a large tree having always stood by the old family
homestead.

The European lindens are not so well suited to our climate as our
native basswood, but it seems to be more generally planted in our city
streets, in spite of this fact.

       *       *       *       *       *

The _Hamamelis_ family is a small order of trees and shrubs with two
genera in the United States,—the _Hamamelis_ and _Liquidambar_; each
genus has but one species.

[Sidenote: Liquidamber; Sweet Gum

_Liquidambar styraciflua_]

_A large tree, 30 to 150 feet high, with deeply furrowed bark. The
twigs are covered with corky ridges. The leaf-scars are alternate. The
buds are reddish in color and smooth. The pith is in the form of a
pentagon when the twig is cut across. The fruit is a round, dry, open,
rough catkin hanging on the tree through the winter._

[Illustration: LIQUIDAMBER

_Liquidambar styraciflua_

 Page 144
]

The liquidamber is at all times beautiful, and in winter the broad,
corky wings along the twigs give it a singular appearance, adding much
to one’s interest in the tree. It is unusual to find so much color in
corky ridged stems as in those of the liquidamber. The stems of the
cork elm and the mossy cup oak have these peculiar corky layers, but
neither of them have smooth, polished stems between the broken ridges,
nor such radiant color as those of the liquidamber. When this tree
grows in open situations its trunk divides a short distance from
the ground, and the branches form a pyramidal head. In moist Southern
forests, however, where the liquidamber grows to be very tall, its
trunk is straight, a uniform size in diameter, and often undivided into
branches to the height of seventy or eighty feet. Michaux describes
a liquidamber which he found growing in a swamp in Georgia, which
measured fifteen feet and seven inches in circumference at five feet
from the ground, and these trees sometimes grow to be over 150 feet
high when the conditions are favorable to their growth.

The wood is heavy and close-grained and is used in cabinet making, for
fruit boxes, and for the outside finish of houses. Professor Sargent
says that the future supply of the wood is reasonably certain from the
fact that the real home of this tree in those parts of the country
where it attains its greatest development is in deep swamps, always
inundated every year during several weeks at a time, and incapable of
being drained and cultivated. The generic name, _Liquidambar_, from
_liquidus_ (liquid), _ambar_ (amber), was given to this tree by Linnæus
in reference to the fragrant juice which exudes from its stems. It is
sometimes collected and used as an ointment in medicine. The flow of
resinous balsam increases according to the warmth of the climate in
which the liquidamber is found. The specific name, _styraciflua_, from
the Latin word _styrax_ (storax), also alludes to this juice, storax
being a resinous gum.

The liquidamber is found growing in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and
from there southward to Florida and westward. It grows well in gardens
in the neighborhood of Boston; but it is liable to suffer after severe
winters throughout Eastern New England.

The witch-hazel (_Hamamelis virginiana_) is a small tree or shrub,
10 to 30 feet high, with a smooth brown bark and flat branches,
covered through the winter with woody fruit capsules. It is found on
the borders of moist woods throughout New England and its profusion
of yellow thread-like flowers in the bare November woods make it a
striking object in autumn. The combination on a single tree, at the
same time, of blossoms and ripe fruit is unusual in any climate, and
the witch-hazel is the only example of it in the Northeastern States.
Linnæus gave it the Greek name _hamamelis_, which means bearing flowers
together with the fruit.

[Illustration: SASSAFRAS

_Sassafras sassafras_

 Page 147
]

The Indians were the first to use the bark for curing inflammations,
and its medicinal virtues have long been recognized, in spite of the
fact that chemists consider that it has no active medicinal properties.
On the slopes of some of the southern mountains the witch-hazel becomes
a small tree, although we are accustomed to find it a rather straggling
shrub in our New England woods.

       *       *       *       *       *

The _Lauraceæ_ are an order of aromatic trees and shrubs found chiefly
in the tropics; of trees there is a single genus of a single species
found in New England,—the sassafras.

[Sidenote: Sassafras

_Sassafras sassafras_]

_A tree common in rich woods. It is 15 to 100 feet high, with a rough
bark and twisted branches. Green twigs, smooth and sweet scented, with
an aromatic mucilaginous juice. Large buds; semi-oval, semicircular,
alternate leaf-scars. The flowers come a little before the leaves
unfold. The aromatic fragrance is strongest in the bark of the roots._

Few trees are more interesting in winter than the sassafras. The
color of their smooth, bare stems is an exquisite shade of green, the
terminal buds are large for the size of the slender twigs and tiny
leaf-scars, and the delicious, aromatic taste and fragrance when the
twigs are broken are most unusual. The branches often have a curious
spirally twisted appearance, a corkscrew effect, which with the rough
bark of the trunk give the tree an ancient weather-beaten aspect when
it is comparatively young. The sassafras was one of the first American
trees which became known in Europe. In the middle of the sixteenth
century the French in Florida were told by the Indians about its
curative properties, and from that time it was sought after,—sassafras
roots having formed a part of the first cargo exported from
Massachusetts. J. C. Loudon, an English writer on trees sixty years
ago, had an original theory, that the discovery of America was largely
due to the sassafras. “It was its strong fragrance smelt by Columbus,”
he says, in the third volume of his “Arboretum,” “that encouraged him
to persevere when his crew mutinied, and enabled him to convince them
that land was near at hand.”

[Illustration: TRUNK OF A SASSAFRAS

 Page 148
]

Thoreau in his walks through the winter woods about Concord in February
says: “When I break off a twig of green-barked sassafras, as I am
going through the woods now, and smell it, I am startled to find it as
fragrant as in summer. It is an importation of all the spices of
Oriental summers into our New England winter, very foreign to the snow
and the oak leaves.” This Oriental spiciness may be partly accounted
for by the fact that our sassafras is related to the camphor and
cinnamon trees of the tropics.

The wood is soft and brittle, but it has durability when placed in
contact with the soil, which makes it useful for posts and rails. It
is also used for ox yokes and cooperage. Oil of sassafras, which is
distilled from the bark of the roots, is used for perfuming soap.
This tree is confined to eastern North America, and deserves far more
attention than has been given it by landscape gardeners,—it is a
beautiful tree as well as an individual one.

_Sassafras_ was a popular name used by the French in Florida, and it
has become both its generic and specific name.




CHAPTER XII

 THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE, THE CATALPA, THE AILANTHUS, AND THE ARALIA

[Illustration: The Magnolia and the Tulip-tree.]




Chapter XII

THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE, THE CATALPA, THE AILANTHUS, AND THE ARALIA

Families Magnoliaceæ, Bignoniaceæ, Simaroubaceæ, and Araliaceæ


The magnolia family is made up of trees and shrubs belonging mainly
to the tropics, but it has two genera in the Northeastern States,—the
magnolia and the tulip tree. They are particularly interesting in
winter on account of the buds which are covered with stipules forming
bud-scales and which protect the undeveloped leaves until they open in
the spring.

There are six species of magnolia in the United States, but only one is
found growing wild in New England. The tulip tree is the only species
in the genus _Liriodendron_ and it is found only in eastern North
America and western China.

[Sidenote: Swamp Magnolia; Sweet Bay

_Magnolia glauca_]

_A shrub or slender tree, 4 to 30 feet high, with light brown bark.
The recent shoots are a bright green, and like the buds they have a
tendency towards downiness. Alternate leaf-scars._

This magnolia is found growing more or less commonly in swamps from New
Jersey to Florida, but it is rare in the north. Over a hundred years
ago it was discovered growing wild in Essex County, Massachusetts, by a
minister of Ipswich, the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, and it is still found in
the swamps near Gloucester. It is a low shrub in the north, but in the
south it grows to be a slender tree. The wood which is soft and light
is occasionally used in the south for making broom handles. The roots
of the swamp magnolia are very fleshy, and they used to be eaten by
beavers. The early settlers in Pennsylvania called it the “beaver tree”
and baited their traps to catch beavers with pieces of the roots.

The name was given to the genus in honor of Pierre Magnol, a professor
of botany at Montpellier in the seventeenth century, the specific name,
_glauca_ (glaucous) refers to the bloom on the under side of the leaves.

The umbrella tree (_Magnolia tripetala_) is found much more commonly in
parks and gardens than our native swamp magnolia, and it seems a better
representative of the genus for illustration. In the south it grows
to be thirty or forty feet high. The bark is light gray in color and
covered with small, blister-like excrescences. The branches are stout,
and green in color turning to brown. The buds are large and smooth and
covered with a purplish, glaucous bloom, and the leaf-scars are clearly
defined. This magnolia grows in deep, rich moist soil, and is nowhere
common. It is more frequently cultivated than any of the other species.

The name, _tripetala_, was given to it by Linnæus, and refers to the
three conspicuous sepals of the flowers. The English name alludes to
the spreading umbrella-like arrangement of the leaves.

The cucumber tree (_Magnolia acuminata_), a large tree 50 to 90 feet
high, grows wild in western New York and southward, and is often
cultivated. Its leaf buds are silky. The specific name refers to the
pointed apex of the leaves.

[Sidenote: Tulip Tree

_Liriodendron tulipifera_]

_A very large tree, 80 to 150 feet high, The bark is dark and smooth,
with small shallow furrows. The twigs are light purplish brown,
with a grayish bloom, and the leaf-scars are oval and alternate in
arrangement. The terminal bud is covered by two stipules. There are
stipule-scars on the stems. The fruit is a pointed, open, dry cone,
often remaining on the trees through the winter._

The tulip tree is one of the largest and tallest trees in our American
forests. It has long been admired for its beauty in the summer, and
a study of its winter buds and stems discloses the fact that it is
equally interesting and beautiful when its foliage has gone. The buds
are peculiar in structure. Each leaf within the bud is protected by
a pair of stipules, and in the spring, when the buds open, a leaf
slowly uncurls from its two folded stipule coverings and another bud
is seen beneath, wrapped in stipules. This bud unfolds and in its
turn discloses another. The process is as fascinating to watch as the
opening of Indian boxes one within another. This characteristic of the
tulip tree in protecting its young leaves makes one associate a very
human, maternal instinct with the tree; it seems of all others the most
careful in protecting its young growth. Sir John Lubbock, in his work
on “Buds and Stipules,” explains that the peculiar squared end of the
tulip tree’s leaf is caused by the singular way it is folded in the bud.

[Illustration: TULIP TREE

_Liriodendron tulipifera_

 Page 156
]

“I long wondered,” he says, “what could be the purpose or the advantage
to the tree of this remarkable shape. One idea which occurred to me
was that the difference of form might enable insects to perceive
the tree at some distance, just as the colors of flowers are an
advantage in rendering them more conspicuous. I then looked closely to
see whether the peculiar forms could in any way be explained by the
position of the leaves on the tree. I believe, however, that the cause
is of a different nature, and has reference to the peculiar character
of the bud. Each young leaf is, as in the family _Magnoliaceæ_
generally, originally enclosed in and sheltered by the stipules of its
predecessor. These are in _Liriodendron_ oval or in form resembling a
shallow dish or spoon, so that when placed face to face they form a
hollow almond-shaped box. Inside this lies the next younger pair of
stipules; and the rest of the space is occupied by the young leaf,
which is conduplicate or folded on itself down the middle, like a
sheet of note paper, and also turned back towards the base of the bud.
This unusual position is probably due to the early development of the
petiole. It seems obvious that the peculiar form of the leaf is due to
the form and arrangement of the bud.”

The wood, which is known as whitewood and yellow poplar, is very
valuable. It is light and easily worked, and is much used for furniture
and in the interior finish of houses. The bark of the wood and branches
is pungent, bitter, and aromatic, and acts on the system as a tonic.
According to Bigelow’s “Medical Botany” it has been used in the
treatment of chronic rheumatism and in intermittent fever.

The generic name comes from two Greek words meaning tulip tree, and
alludes to the tulip-like flowers; the specific name also refers to the
flowers, and means tulip bearing.

The tulip tree is found growing wild in Rhode Island and Vermont,
south to Florida, and westward. It is planted commonly throughout New
England. This tree was found growing in Western China in 1875, and in
1889 specimens were sent to England and it was found to be identical
with the American species.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Hardy Catalpa; Indian Bean

_Catalpa speciosa_]

The family _Bignoniaceæ_ (named for the Abbé Bignon) is an order
of woody plants found abundantly in South America. It has a single
representative genus cultivated in the Northern States and found wild
in the South,—the catalpa. There are two species, the common catalpa
and the hardy catalpa, the latter being the most desirable for planting.

[Illustration: CATALPA

_Catalpa speciosa_

 Page 158
]

_A tall tree, 60 to 80 feet high, with a thick, slightly furrowed bark.
Smooth, gray, coarse, stiff twigs. Oval leaf-scars arranged in whorls_
_of three on the stem, or opposite each other. The buds are short and
inconspicuous, with loose scales, The fruit is in long pods, hanging on
the tree till spring._

The catalpa is an attractive tree in winter on account of the long
slender pods which hang from the tips of the branches, and give the
stout stems a light effect otherwise lacking, for taken alone they are
coarse and bluntly moulded and very rigid. The name catalpa comes from
an Indian word meaning winged head; and as the catalpa has dense, heavy
foliage in summer and suggests solidity rather than the light effect
“winged” conveys to one’s mind, it is just possible that the Indians
referred to its winter aspect when they gave it the name. The buds open
very late in the spring, giving the tree a lifeless appearance long
after other trees are green.

The value of the catalpa as a timber tree is fast becoming recognized.
It grows rapidly, with an average increase of an inch a year in the
diameter of the trunk, and the wood is very durable in contact with the
soil; when used for railroad ties it has been known to remain sound for
over twenty years. Its practical value is shown by the experience of
an Illinois farmer who planted five hundred acres of these trees, and
after eight years’ growth thirteen thousand posts were cut and sold for
thirteen hundred dollars, and the remaining trees were improved rather
than harmed by this thinning out.

The Latin name, _speciosa_ (well-formed), refers to the beautiful
flowers of this tree. The catalpa grows wild in the Middle West, and is
cultivated commonly in parks and gardens in the Northeastern States.

       *       *       *       *       *

The _Simaroubaceæ_ family is a small order of trees and shrubs found
in the South, with one genus in the North, a cultivated and widely
naturalized tree,—the ailanthus from China.

[Sidenote: Ailanthus; Tree of Heaven

_Ailanthus glandulosa_]

_A large tree, with gray bark. Very large, coarse twigs with brown
pith. Large alternate leaf-scars, V-shaped, or heart-shaped, with
numerous bundle-scars. The buds are small, round, and inconspicuous,
and covered with two scales. The terminal buds are lacking. The fruit
is winged, like that of the ash, but its seed is in the centre. The dry
clusters of fruit hang on some trees through the winter._

[Illustration: AILANTHUS

_Ailanthus glandulosa_

 Page 160
]

The ailanthus, like the Kentucky coffee tree, is destitute of small
spray among its branches, but it would never be confused with that
tree on account of its smooth bark, which is a great contrast to the
roughly ridged bark of the Kentucky coffee tree. Its stems are smooth
and thick, and the large leaf-scars are much more prominent than the
buds. Its large, pinnate leaves, often over four feet long, make the
ailanthus decorative in summer, but its coarse stems in winter diminish
its æsthetic value in landscape gardening. It grows very fast at first,
its leading stems sometimes reaching over six feet in a single season;
but after ten or twelve years this rate decreases and it advances with
moderate growth.

In America it is planted only as an ornamental tree, but its wood is
fine-grained, hard, and takes a good polish, and is well fitted for
cabinet making.

The generic name was originally spelled ailantus, and came from
_ailanto_ (tree of heaven), the name of this tree in the Moluccas;
its name was undoubtedly given to it on account of the rapidity of
its growth and the great height it reaches in its native country. The
specific name, _glandulosa_ (glandulous), refers to the margins on the
under side of the leaves.

The ailanthus originally came from China, but it has become naturalized
here, and is planted very commonly in city streets, along country
roads, and in parks and gardens. It was first brought to the United
States by Mr. William Hamilton in 1784.

       *       *       *       *       *

The family _Araliaceæ_, well known by its herb members, the ginseng and
wild sarsaparilla, has one tree-like representative,—the aralia.

[Sidenote: Angelica Tree; Hercules’ Club

_Aralia spinosa_]

_A shrub or low tree, 8 to 30 feet high. Coarse, stout stems, covered
with large prickles. The alternate leaf-scars are narrow and project
from the stem and almost encircle it. The bundle-scars are near
together and conspicuous. The buds are covered with loose scales and
are small for the size of the stems. The white pith in the stems is
conspicuous when they are cut._

Among all trees and shrubs the aralia is unique in winter. Its stout,
club-like stems, thickly beset with prickles, are so large they never
fail to attract attention, and whatever lack of beauty there may be is
overlooked owing to their grotesque aspect. In our Northern gardens
it is only a shrub, but it invariably arouses curiosity and seems to
compel attention more than trees three times its size.

The bark of the root and the berries are occasionally used in medicine
as a stimulant.

[Illustration: HERCULES’ CLUB

_Aralia spinosa_

 Page 162
]

The meaning of the generic name is unknown. The specific name,
_spinosa_, is the Latin word meaning prickly, and alludes to the stems.

Southward from Pennsylvania this curious, ungainly tree is found
growing wild, and as it is hardy in the North it is frequently
cultivated in gardens. It is seen at its best in the rich soil of
the Big Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. There it grows to be thirty
or thirty-five feet high, with wide-spreading branches and a true
arborescent habit.




CHAPTER XIII

 THE APPLE TREE, PEAR TREE, MOUNTAIN ASH, CHERRY TREE, AND THE SHAD BUSH

[Illustration: MOUNTAIN ASH

_Pyrus americana_

 Page 170
]




Chapter XIII

 THE APPLE TREE, PEAR TREE, MOUNTAIN ASH, CHERRY TREE, AND THE SHAD
 BUSH.

Family Rosaceæ


The rose family is a very large order of trees, shrubs, and herbs
belonging to temperate climates. There are numerous genera, including
valuable fruit and ornamental trees which have been cultivated since
the earliest times. Many of the species are so familiar that they
scarcely need description in summer, but in winter the character of
their buds and stems is less easily recognized, and unless the trees
are well grown it is sometimes difficult to identify them.

[Sidenote: Common Apple Tree

_Pyrus malus_]

_A flat-topped tree, 20 to 40 feet high. The bark of the tree scales
off in small, thin, brittle plates. The buds and the stems are small
and somewhat woolly. The leaf-scars are alternate and inconspicuous,
with three bundle-scars._

The low, flat-topped, broad-headed shape of the apple tree is so
characteristic that it may be easily recognized in winter, even when
there is no surrounding orchard to identify it. So strong in one’s
mind is the association of blossoms with these trees, that even a bare
old apple tree against a winter sky suggests the spring,—an apple
tree always seems to be haunted by the ghosts of its pink blossoms.
The literary history of this tree goes back to the mythologies of
the Greeks, the Scandinavians, and the Druids, and it also figures
prominently in early Christian as well as pagan legends. It has been
cultivated for its fruit since prehistoric times, and there are
hundreds of varieties of it in cultivation.

The wood is fine-grained, hard, and a rich reddish brown color. It is
used for small purposes in turnery. The fruit, however, is the most
valuable product of the tree, and cider has been made from it for
hundreds of years. Its native country is uncertain, but it is probably
indigenous to the Northwestern Himalayas and the forests along the
Black Sea. It was introduced into Britain by the Romans, and it is
widely naturalized in the United States.

The generic name, _Pyrus_, is the ancient classical name for the pear
tree, and probably was originally taken from the Celtic word _peren_,
from which the English word was derived. The specific name, _malus_, is
the ancient classical name for the apple tree.

[Sidenote: Common Pear Tree

_Pyrus communis_]

_A pyramidal tree, 30 to 70 feet high. The bark is smooth, and
the branches incline to be thorny, especially when the tree has
escaped cultivation. Smooth stems and small pointed buds. Alternate
inconspicuous leaf-scars, with three bundle-scars._

As distinctive in shape as the apple tree, but in striking contrast
to it, the erect pyramidal head of the pear tree is easily recognized
in winter, and its small, pointed buds and smooth stems offer other
points of difference. Like the apple tree, the pear tree has been in
cultivation for hundreds of years and there are innumerable varieties.
It seems incongruous that so small a tree should live to a great age,
but Bosc alludes to pear trees more than four hundred years old, and
Knight tells of several which date back to the fifteenth century.

The wood is heavy and compact, and is used in Europe by wood engravers
and turners. A drink called perry is made from pears in much the same
way that cider is made from apples. It was considered an antidote to
mushroom poisoning by the Romans, and in England it is still taken,
“after a surfeit of that vegetable,” according to Loudon. The pear tree
is a native of nearly all the elevated regions of Europe and Western
Asia. Like the apple tree it was introduced into Britain by the Romans,
and it is widely naturalized in the United States.

[Sidenote: Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree

_Pyrus americana_]

_A slender tree, or tall shrub, 20 to 30 feet high. Slender spreading
branches with smooth bark. The twigs are downy, becoming smooth and
brownish red in color. Large alternate leaf-scars. The buds are
pointed, reddish in color, and gummy to the touch. The inner scales of
the buds are coated with down. It has bright scarlet berry-like fruit,
which remains on the tree through the winter._

[Illustration: A YOUNG BLACK CHERRY TREE

_Prunus serotina_

 Page 171
]

The mountain ash is seldom associated in our minds with apple and
pear trees, but it belongs to the same genus nevertheless, and has
absolutely nothing in common with the ash tree, as one might suppose.
The American mountain ash is frequently planted as an ornamental tree,
although the European species is more often cultivated than ours. The
buds of the European mountain ash are blunter and more downy than those
of the American, the bark is lighter in color, and the berries are
larger, but apart from these differences the trees can scarcely be told
apart in winter.

_Pyrus sambucifolia_, the elder-leafed mountain ash, is another native
species which grows wild in the mountains of Northern New England and
is found as far north as Greenland and westward. The range of _Pyrus
americana_ is more limited, but it is found from Newfoundland to North
Carolina and westward.

[Sidenote: Wild Black Cherry

_Prunus serotina_]

_A tree or shrub, varying from 15 to 100 feet high. The bark is smooth
on young trees, with conspicuous horizontal lenticels; on old trees
it cracks and breaks off in small, thin, brittle scales. The branches
are slender, rigid, reddish brown in color, and bitter to the taste.
The buds are pointed, a light chestnut brown in color, with closely
overlapping scales. Alternate leaf-scars._

The black cherry may be identified in winter by its bark and by the
disagreeable bitter taste of its stems,—no other tree has a strong,
peculiar, pungent taste like this. The bark of the young trees is
really beautiful, it is so smooth and has such a rich reddish brown
color; in some characteristics it resembles that of the black birch,
but the larger, coarser lenticels distinguish it from that tree.

The black cherry is a valuable timber tree. The wood is light, strong,
and hard, and takes a fair polish. It is used in cabinet making and for
the interior finish of houses. The bark of the branches and roots is
much used in medicine, and the ripe fruit is used to flavor alcoholic
liquors.

The meaning of the generic name, _Prunus_, is unknown, but it is
thought to be of Asiatic origin. The specific name, _serotina_ (late
flowering), refers to the blossoms of this tree, which appear in June,
later than those of other cherries. It is found from Nova Scotia to
Florida, and reaches its greatest size in the Western forests.

_Prunus virginiana_, the choke cherry, and _Prunus pennsylvanica_, the
wild red, bird, or pin cherry, are two small trees found more or less
frequently in the woods throughout the Atlantic States. They are both
distinguished from the black cherry by their red instead of black fruit.

The common sweet cherry (_Prunus avium_), the common peach tree
(_Prunus persica_), and the common garden plum (_Prunus domestica_) all
belong to this genus and are widely cultivated in the United States.
They are small trees with many varieties and are planted for their
fruit.

The cherry was brought from Asia to Italy, and from there it was
rapidly carried to all parts of Europe. The peach came originally from
China, and was brought to Great Britain by the Romans, who got it from
Persia during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. It was carried to
North America by the first settlers at the beginning of the seventeenth
century. The difficulty of raising peaches successfully in the Northern
States is not so much due to the cold weather as to the swelling of the
buds on warm winter days and in the early spring, which are afterwards
destroyed if the thermometer goes below zero. An interesting experiment
of whitewashing peach trees, to prevent the buds from absorbing heat
on sunny days, was tried by Mr. Whitten of the Missouri Experiment
Station, and it was found that whitened buds remained dormant until
April, while unprotected buds swelled perceptibly in February and
March. Eighty per cent of whitened buds passed the winter safely, where
only twenty per cent of unwhitened buds escaped injury by premature
swelling.

[Sidenote: Shad Bush; Service Berry; June Berry

_Amelanchier canadensis_]

_A small tree, 40 to 50 feet high, with smooth brown bark. Slender
twigs. The buds are brown and covered with slightly downy, silky
scales, and the leaf-scars are alternate._

The shad bush is strongly associated with the rich upland woods of
New England, and in the early spring its white flowers are among
the first to appear among the budding trees and shrubs, when the
streams are full and the shad begin to rise. In winter there are
no marked characteristics by which it may be known, apart from its
general resemblance to other genera in the family, and its delicate
twigs, small pointed buds with overlapping scales, and inconspicuous
leaf-scars.

The wood is close-grained, heavy, and exceedingly hard, and is used for
the handles of tools and other small implements.

The generic name, _Amelanchier_, is the Savoy name for the medlar. The
shad bush is found from Newfoundland to Northern Florida and westward.




CHAPTER XIV

THE WILLOWS AND POPLARS

[Illustration: WHITE WILLOWS

_Salix alba_

 Page 178
]




Chapter XIV

THE WILLOWS AND POPLARS

Family Salicaceæ


Among the willows there are so many hybrids and varieties that their
classification is difficult even in summer when an analysis of the
flowers is possible. Most of the species in the Eastern States are
shrubs, and I have chosen the only large tree, the white willow, as a
representative species for study in winter. The genus _Populus_ also
belongs to this family, of which four species grow commonly in New
England.

[Sidenote: White Willow

_Salix alba_]

_A large tree, 50 to 80 feet high, with thick, rough bark and lithe
branches. The twigs are smooth and often yellow in color, and the small
alternate leaf-scars have three bundle-scars. The buds are pointed,
covered with a single scale and placed close against the stems. The
lateral buds are numerous and are usually larger than the terminal
buds._

The white willow is really a native of Europe, but for generations in
New England it has associated itself with country landscapes, and
there is scarcely a marshy meadow or a stream through a pasture with a
water course unmarked by a row of these trees. It seems wonderful that
the buds of willows should survive our cold Northern winters as they
do, for they are covered with a single scale of delicate texture, and
the little undeveloped leaves seem perilously near the cold. The soft
woolly catkins of some species,—“the pussy willows,”—which come before
the leaves, carry their own protection from cold weather, and even in
January, when a few warm days bring them out prematurely, they look
comfortable; but the little leaves with their single coverings never
come out before the right time, and they never appear to have suffered.

The wood is weak and soft, and little use is made of it. The value of
the twigs in basket making has been recognized since early Roman times,
Cato having ranked the _salictum_, or willow field, next in value to
the vineyard and the garden.

The generic name comes from the Celtic words _sal_, near, _lis_, water,
in allusion to its aquatic nature. It grows on all kinds of soil, and
is widely naturalized in the United States.

The weeping willow (_Salix babylonica_) is planted in gardens and may
be distinguished by its very slender, long drooping branches, which in
every limb suggest the sentiment of a hundred years ago. In allusion
to its place among other trees in landscape composition, Mrs. Van
Rensselaer says in “Art Out of Doors”:—

“As soon as we see a weeping willow it almost shouts out its contrast
to the simpler shapes of the trees which determine the general
character of all our landscapes or garden pictures. Yet we see it
everywhere, in every kind of situation.

“In all my wanderings I never once have seen it rightly placed; I never
once have seen it where it did not hurt the effect of its surroundings,
or, at least, if it stood apart from other trees, where some tree of
another species would not have looked far better.”

The black willow (_Salix nigra_) is the only one among our native
willows which grows to a good size, but even this is seldom more than
thirty feet high.

[Sidenote: Aspen; American Aspen

_Populus tremuloides_]

_A medium sized tree, 30 to 60 feet high, with a smooth, greenish
gray bark and tapering trunk. The twigs are slender. The buds are
long, sharp-pointed, with smooth, glossy scales covered with a gummy
substance. Alternate leaf-scars._

The aspen is more conspicuous in summer, when the constant motion of
its trembling leaves attracts our attention, than it is in winter,
although in some trees the smooth, olive-green bark of the trunk is
very attractive, particularly in contrast with the snow. There have
been endless allusions in literature to the European aspen, which
resembles our species. In a simile showing the activity of Penelope’s
maidens, Homer says:—

    “Some ply the loom; their busy fingers move
     Like poplar leaves when zephyr fans the grove.”

Again Spenser uses the same simile:—

                      “His hand did quake
    And tremble like a leaf of aspen green.”

And Sir Walter Scott uses it in the same way to picture quick changes
of facial expression:—

    “With every change his features played,
     As aspens show the light and shade.”

Gerard, in a way scarcely flattering to the sex, compares the leaves
to women’s tongues, “which seldom cease wagging;” but Sir Walter Scott
restores the balance in the lines:—

    “O woman! in our hours of ease
     Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
     And variable as the shade
     By the light quivering aspen made,
     When pain and anguish wring the brow,
     A ministering angel thou.”

[Illustration: ASPENS

_Populus tremuloides_

 Page 180
]

The wood is close-grained, soft, and not strong, but it is made into
pulp and used in the manufacture of paper. The bark is brittle, with a
taste like quinine, but the inner bark is sweet, and in the spring it
is used as food by the Indians.

The generic name, _Populus_, is supposed to have come from the Latin
_arbor populi_ (the tree of the people), because rows of this tree
were always planted in public places about Rome. The specific name,
_tremuloides_, refers to the leaves which tremble continually on
account of their long, flattened, pliable leafstalks. The aspen grows
wild throughout the Northern United States and in the mountains of
Lower California and Mexico.

[Sidenote: Large-toothed Aspen

_Populus grandidentata_]

_A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high, with smooth greenish gray bark. The
buds are conical with somewhat downy scales and spread at right angles
from the stem. Slender twigs and alternate leaf-scars._

This tree is quite distinct from the American aspen, although it is
often confounded with it. It is found much less frequently than the
American aspen.

The wood is close-grained, soft, and light, and is used for making wood
pulp and wooden ware. In old times when it was the fashion for women
to wear high-heeled shoes this wood was used in making heels, as it was
light and best adapted to the purpose.

The specific name, _grandidentata_ (large toothed), refers to the
serrations of the leaf, which are much coarser than those of the
American aspen.

[Sidenote: Balm of Gilead; Balsam Poplar

_Populus balsamifera_]

_A tall tree, 40 to 70 feet high. The bark ts smooth and greenish
gray, often roughly ridged at the base of the trunk. Large buds with
overlapping scales covered with a sticky, yellow, glutinous substance.
Conspicuous alternate leaf-scars._

In the early spring, when the sun has melted the gummy resin which
covers the buds of the balm of Gilead, one can tell the tree
blind-folded by its sweet, pungent perfume, and even in winter the buds
have this same strong, medicinal, aromatic odor which serves as a means
of recognizing the tree.

Pallas says that when grouse and other birds of that family feed on
the buds of the balm of Gilead during the winter, their flesh becomes
imbued with the balsam flavor, which he seems to think adds to the
relish of the meat as food.

This tree grows very fast on almost any kind of soil, and its roots
extend to a great distance. Emerson found a balm of Gilead the roots of
which had passed under a house forty feet wide and thrown up suckers on
the other side.

The wood, like that of other poplars, is soft and light and is used in
making paper pulp, pails, and boxes.

The specific name refers to the balsam on the buds. The balm of Gilead
is found in the Western and Eastern States.

[Sidenote: Cottonwood; Necklace or Carolina Poplar

_Populus deltoides_]

_A large tree, 80 to 100 feet high. The bark is dark gray and more
broken in fissures than that of other poplars. The buds are glossy
and resinous, but have less balsam than those of the other species.
Alternate leaf-scars. Conspicuous five-angled pith in the small stems._

The cottonwood is larger than the other poplars, and in the Mississippi
Valley it sometimes grows to be one hundred and fifty feet high. The
climate of London must be particularly congenial to this tree, for
Emerson alludes to trees there which grew thirty and forty feet in only
seven years. In England it is called the black Italian poplar. The name
necklace poplar comes from the resemblance of the fruit of the catkins
to the beads of a necklace.

The wood is light and soft, and is used for pulp, for making packing
cases, and for fuel.

The specific name, _deltoides_, comes from the Greek, and alludes to
the deltoid or triangular shape of the leaves. The cottonwood grows
wild in Western New England, south to Florida and westward.

Beside these four poplars, the swamp cottonwood (_Populus
heterophylla_) is found growing wild at one place in Connecticut, and
the Lombardy and white poplars are both planted commonly from Europe.

The erect, rigid branches of the Lombardy poplar and its general
narrow, spire-like growth make the outline of this tree so distinctive
that it is easily recognized, even in winter, at a great distance. The
buds are gummy, and the bark of the trunk is deeply fissured. It is a
tall tree, often reaching one hundred and twenty feet high.

The white poplar may be distinguished by its buds, which are not
covered with sticky coating like those of the other members of this
genus, and by the recent shoots, which are downy. It is remarkable in
summer for the thick, white down on the under sides of the dark green
leaves, producing a most pleasing contrast in the foliage when the wind
blows.




CHAPTER XV

THE LARCH

[Illustration: AMERICAN LARCH

_Larix americana_

 Page 187
]




Chapter XV

THE LARCH

Family Pinaceæ


The larch is the only native Northern genus of the pine family which
loses its leaves in winter; all the other native genera are evergreens.
There is one indigenous species, and one from Europe which is
cultivated even more commonly than the American tree.

[Sidenote: American Larch; Tamarack or Hackmatack

_Larix americana_]

_A large tree, 50 to 100 feet high. The bark is rough with small, flat
scales. The stems are pliable, and are covered with knobby buds. The
cones are small, not more than half an inch long._

In Massachusetts the larch does not attain a great height, but in cold
Northern swamps it grows to be a large tree. It is not dependent on
a wet situation, but grows well after being transplanted into upland
soil. Its growth is rapid, and it is often chosen for “quick effects”
in landscape gardening,—a choice which is to be regretted for the most
part, as few trees have so little beauty as the larch.

During a brief interval in the early spring, when the first young
leaves fringe the branches in delicate green, this tree is really
lovely, but after that there is little to attract us in its
stiff, formal outline and dark foliage, and in winter it is most
unprepossessing.

The wood is heavy, hard, strong, and very durable. It is used for the
knees of vessels and ship timbers, for posts, telegraph poles, and
railway ties.

The generic name, _Larix_, comes from the Celtic word _lar_, meaning
fat, and was given to this genus on account of the resin produced by
the tree. The larch is found throughout the Northeastern States.

[Sidenote: European Larch

_Larix europæa_]

_A large tree, 80 to 100 feet high. The branches are more pendulous,
and the cones are twice as large as those of our native species._

The cones of both the American and European larches hang on the
branches through the winter, and as those of the European are an inch
or more long and about as broad, while those of the American are half
that size, the trees are easily distinguished from each other. Even in
the accompanying photographs this difference is discernible.

[Illustration: EUROPEAN LARCH

_Larix europæa_

 Page 188
]

At one time in England the plan of introducing the larch into the
forests bordering the English lakes was under consideration, and this
greatly disturbed the poet Wordsworth, who was keenly alive to the
distressing effects of inharmonious and inappropriate tree planting.
In “A Description of the Scenery of the Lakes,” he points out the
fact that it is impossible for trees which terminate in a spike, like
that of the larch, to blend together and form masses of wood; that if
thousands to tens of thousands are added, the appearance is still the
same, a collection of separate individual trees, obstinately presenting
themselves as such, and which, from whatever point they are looked at,
if but seen may be counted upon the fingers. He goes on to express
his dislike of the larch in the following words “As a tree it is less
than any other pleasing; its branches (for boughs it has none) have
no variety in the youth of this tree, and little dignity even when it
attains its full growth; leaves it cannot be said to have, consequently
it affords neither shade nor shelter. In spring the larch becomes green
long before the native trees, and its green is so peculiar and vivid
that, finding nothing to harmonize with it, wherever it comes forth
a disagreeable speck is produced. In summer, when all other trees
are in their pride, it is of a dingy, lifeless hue; in autumn of a
spiritless, unvaried yellow, and in winter it is still more lamentably
distinguished from every other deciduous tree of the forest, for they
seem only to sleep, but the larch appears absolutely dead.”

Many old stories are in existence concerning the durability and
incombustibility of the wood of this tree. It is said that Julius Cæsar
wished to set fire to a wooden tower before the gates of a castle, in
the Alps, which he was besieging; that he heaped up logs of larch wood
around it, but was utterly unable to make them burn,—“_robusta larix
igni impenetrabile lignum_.” Evelyn, one of the first English writers
on trees, gives an account of a ship made of larch wood and cypress
which was found in the Numidian Sea, twelve fathoms under water, and
which, though it had lain fourteen hundred years submerged, was yet
quite hard and sound.

Exaggerated as these accounts may seem, the fact remains that the wood
is extremely valuable, and what the larch lacks in grace and beauty as
an ornamental tree it makes up in its merits as a useful one. Thus even
among trees there is a just law of compensation.




INDEX




INDEX


  Acacia, rose, 131

  _Acer_, 21
    _dasycarpum_, 26
    _negundo_, 28, 29
    _pennsylvanicum_, 27, 28
    _platanoides_, 29, 30
    _pseudo-platanus_, 30, 31
    _rubrum_, 23, 25
    _saccharinum_, 25, 26
    _saccharum_, 22, 23, 26
    _spicatum_, 28

  _Aceracæ_, 21

  _Æsculus glabra_, 17
    _hippocastanum_, 15, 17

  Ailanthus, 160
    _glandulosa_, 160, 161

  _Amelanchier_, 174
    _canadensis_, 173

  Angelica tree, 162

  Apple tree, 167

  _Aralia spinosa_, 162, 163

  _Araliaceæ_, 153, 162

  Ash, American, 36
    black, 38
    buds, color of, 40
    downy, 37
    European, 39
    excrescences on the, 36
    green, 36
    red, 37
    seeds, 41
    white, 36

  Ashes, 9, 35, 41

  Aspen, 179
    American, 179
    large-toothed, 181


  Balm of Gilead, 182

  Bark, 6, 7
    color of, 7
    taste of, 7

  Basswood, 141
    small leaved, 141
    white, 141

  Beech, 7, 77
    American, 77
    blue, 72
    European, 79
    purple, 80

  _Betula_, 61
    _alba_, 68
    _lenta_, 63, 64
    _lutea_, 64, 66
    _nigra_, 66
    _papyrifera_, 60, 61
    _populifolia_, 62, 63
    _pumila_, 68

  _Betulaceæ_, 59

  Bigelow, 158

  _Bignoniaceæ_, 153, 158

  Birch, 59
    American, 62
    beer, 64
    black, 63
    canoe, 7, 60
    dwarf, 68
    European white, 68
    gray, 62
    paper, 60
    red, 66
    river, 66
    sweet, 63
    white, 60, 62

  Birch, yellow, 64

  Birches, 59

  Bosc, 169

  Boutcher, 80

  Box elder, 28

  Branches, 6, 7, 10

  Bryant, quoted, 119

  Buckeye, Ohio, 17

  Buckeyes, 15

  Buds, 6, 10, 11
    accessory, 11
    adventitious, 11
    axillary, 6, 10
    collateral, 11
    flower, 11
    flowers in the, 10
    latent, 11
    lateral, 6, 10
    scales of, 9
    superposed, 11
    terminal, 6, 10
    winter, 11

  Bundle-scars, 10

  Butternut, 11, 45
    sugar from sap of, 47

  Buttonwood, 117


  Cambium layer, 5, 6

  _Carpinus_, 73
    _caroliniana_, 72, 74

  _Castanea_, 82
    _dentata_, 81, 83

  Catalpa, hardy, 158
    _speciosa_, 158, 160

  _Celtis_, 101
    _occidentalis_, 112, 113

  _Cercis canadensis_, 136

  Cherry, black, 7, 171
    bird, 172
    choke, 172
    pin, 172
    red, 172
    sweet, 172

  Chestnut, 77, 81
    Spanish, 82

  _Cladrastis_, 134
    _lutea_, 134

  Cook, 80

  Cork tree, 89

  _Cornaceæ_, 120

  Cornel, flowering, 121

  _Cornus_, 122
    _florida_, 121, 122

  Cottonwood, 183
    swamp, 184

  Cucumber tree, 155


  Dogwood, 120
    flowering, 121
    poison, 121

  Du Hamel, quoted, 143


  Elm, 101
    American, 5, 10, 101, 102
    cork, 7, 107, 144
    Dutch, 111
    English, 101, 108
    feathered, 11, 103
    Lancaster, 103
    red, 105
    rock, 107
    Scotch, 111
    slippery, 7, 105
    Thomas’s, 107
    white, 102
    wych, 111

  Elms, 101

  Emerson, quoted, 37, 39, 87, 91, 94, 108, 119, 183

  Evelyn, quoted, 41, 80, 190


  _Fagaceæ_, 77

  _Fagus_, 79
    _americana_, 77

  _Fagus sylvatica_, 78, 80

  _Fraxinus_, 35
    _americana_, 36
    _excelsior_, 39
    _nigra_, 38
    _pennsylvanica_, 37

  Fruit, 8


  Gerard, quoted, 70, 111, 180

  _Gleditsia_, 133
    _triacanthos_, 132, 133

  Gilpin, 80, 119

  Gray, quoted, 47, 119

  Growth, 6, 9, 10
    annual rings of, 6

  _Gymnocladus dioicus_, 135


  Hackberry, 101, 112

  Hackmatack, 187

  _Hamamelidaceæ_, 141

  _Hamamelis_, 144, 146

  Hamerton, quoted, 69

  Heartwood, 5, 6

  Hercules’ club, 162

  Hickories, 9, 45

  Hickory, bitternut, 53
    mockernut, 7, 51
    pignut, 54
    shagbark, 7, 49
    shellbark, 49
    white-heart, 51

  _Hicoria_, 45, 51
    _alba_, 51
    _glabra_, 54, 56
    _minima_, 53, 54
    _ovata_, 49

  _Hippocastanaceæ_, 15

  Holmes, quoted, 109, 118

  Homer, quoted, 180

  Hop hornbeam, 8, 71

  Hornbeam, 7, 72

  Horsechestnut, 8, 9, 15, 41, 143

  Horsechestnut buds, 15, 16
    flowers, 16
    leaf-scars, 15
    twigs, 15


  Indian bean, 158

  Internodes, 9

  Ironwood, 71


  Jekyll, quoted, 69

  Judas tree, 136

  _Juglandaceæ_, 45

  _Juglans_, 45, 47
    _cinerea_, 45
    _nigra_, 48
    _regia_, 49

  Juneberry, 173


  Kentucky coffee tree, 129, 135, 160, 161

  Knight, 169


  _Laburnum vulgare_, 136

  Larch, 187
    American, 187
    European, 188

  _Larix_, 188
    _americana_, 187
    _europæa_, 188

  _Lauraceæ_, 141, 147

  Leaf-scars, 9, 10

  _Leguminosæ_, 129

  Lenticels, 8, 16

  Lime trees, 143

  Linden, 141
    common, 141
    European, 141, 143

  Linnæus, 28, 67, 143, 145, 146

  _Liquidambar_, 144, 145
    _styraciflua_, 144, 146

  Liquidamber, 7, 144

  _Liriodendron_, 153, 157
    _tulipifera_, 155

  Locust, clammy, 131
    common, 129
    honey, 132

  Loudon, 31, 111, 124, 148

  Lowell, quoted, 24

  Lubbock, quoted, 156


  _Magnolia acuminata_, 155
    _glauca_, 153, 154
    swamp, 153
    _tripetala_, 154, 155

  _Magnoliaceæ_, 153, 157

  Maple, 21
    ash-leaved, 28
    bird’s eye, 23
    curled, 25
    moosewood, 27
    mountain, 7, 28
    Norway, 29
    red, 10, 11, 23
    rock, 22
    silver, 25
    striped, 7, 27
    sugar, 7, 22
    swamp, 23
    sycamore, 30
    white, 25

  Maples, 9, 21, 41

  Maple sugar, 22, 23

  Mathews, 80

  Medullary rays, 6

  Michaux, 55, 79, 88, 145

  Milton, quoted, 109

  _Moracæ_, 122

  _Morus_, 123
    _alba_, 123, 124
    _rubra_, 123

  Mountain ash, 170

  Mulberry, red, 123
    white, 122, 124


  Nettle tree, 112

  Nodes, 9

  _Nyssa_, 120
    _sylvatica_, 120


  Oak apples, 93
    bear, 97
    black, 92
    bur, 88
    chestnut, 89
    chinquapin, 90
    dwarf chestnut, 90
    mossy-cup, 88, 144
    overcup, 88
    pin, 96
    post, 91
    red, 93
    rock chestnut, 89
    rough, 91
    scarlet, 95
    scrub, 97
    swamp white, 86
    white, 85

  Oaks, 9, 77, 83, 84

  _Oleaceæ_, 35

  _Ostrya_, 72
    _virginiana_, 71, 72

  Ovid, quoted, 110


  Pallas, quoted, 182

  Peach tree, 172
    buds of, 173

  Pear tree, 169

  Pepperidge, 120

  Phyllotaxy, 81, 82

  _Pinaceæ_, 187

  Pith, 6, 8
    color, 8
    form, 8
    rays, 6

  Plane tree, 117

  _Platanaceæ_, 117

  _Platanus_, 119
    _occidentalis_, 117, 119
    _orientalis_, 119

  Plum, 172

  Poplar, balm of Gilead, 182
    balsam, 182
    Carolina, 183
    cottonwood, 183
    Lombardy, 184
    necklace, 183
    swamp cottonwood, 184
    white, 184

  _Populus_, 177, 181
    _balsamifera_, 182
    _deltoides_, 183, 184
    _grandidentata_, 181, 182
    _heterophylla_, 184
    _tremuloides_, 179, 181

  _Prunus_, 172
    _avium_, 172
    _domestica_, 172
    _pennsylvanica_, 172
    _persica_, 172
    _serotina_, 171, 172
    _virginiana_, 172

  _Pyrus_, 168
    _americana_, 170, 171
    _communis_, 169
    _malus_, 167
    _sambucifolia_, 171


  _Quercus_, 83, 85
    _alba_, 85
    _coccinea_, 95, 96
    _macrocarpa_, 88, 89
    _minor_, 91, 92
    _palustris_, 96, 97
    _platanoides_, 86, 88
    _prinus_, 89
    _prinoides_, 90, 91
    _pumila_, 97
    _rubra_, 93, 95
    _velutina_, 92, 93


  Redbud, 136

  _Robinia_, 130
    _hispida_, 131
    _pseud-acacia_, 129, 130
    _viscosa_, 131

  _Rosaceæ_, 167

  Rowan tree, 170


  _Salicaceæ_, 177

  _Salix alba_, 177
    _babylonica_, 178
    _nigra_, 179

  Sapwood, 5

  Sargent, quoted, 104, 107, 124, 135, 145

  Sassafras, 7, 141, 147

  _Sassafras sassafras_, 147, 149

  Scars, 9
    fruit, 9
    leaf, 9
    stipule, 9

  Service berry, 173

  Scott, quoted, 69, 180

  Shad bush, 173

  Shenstone, quoted, 70

  Silkworms, 124, 125

  _Simaroubaceæ_, 153, 159

  Sour gum tree, 120

  Spenser, quoted, 180

  Stems, 8, 9

  Stipules, 9

  Sugar berry, 112

  Sumac poison, 121

  Sweet bay, 153

  Sweet gum, 144

  Sycamore, 117


  Tamarack, 187

  Tennyson, quoted, 40, 41

  Thoreau, 24
    quoted, 65, 148

  Thorns, 8

  _Tilia americana_, 141

  _Tiliaceæ_, 141

  Tree of heaven, 160

  Trees, 3, 4
    age of, 6, 8, 9
    dool, 31

  Trunk, tree, 5
    deliquescent, 5
    dicotyledonous, 5
    excurrent, 5

  Tulip tree, 153, 155

  Tupelo, 7, 120

  Twigs, 8


  _Ulmaceæ_, 101

  Umbrella tree, 154

  _Ulmus_, 101, 105
    _americana_, 102
    _campestris_, 108, 110, 112

  _Ulmus montana_, 111, 112
    _pubescens_, 105, 106
    _racemosa_, 107, 108


  Vascular bundles, 10

  Virgil, quoted, 110

  Virgilia, 135


  Walnut, black, 48
    English, 49

  Walnuts, 8, 9, 45

  Willow, black, 179
    “pussy,” 178
    weeping, 7, 178
    white, 177

  Witch-hazel, 146

  Wood, 5, 6
    silver grain of, 6

  Wordsworth, quoted, 189


  Yellowwood, 129, 134




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  Transcriber’s Notes

  pg 106 Changed: used for imflammatory diseases
              to: used for inflammatory diseases

  pg 179 Changed: the only one anong our native willows
              to: the only one among our native willows