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SWAMP WHITE OAK

Quercus bicolor
STUDIES ef 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

DANA ESTES AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, TOOT
By Kyicut anp MILLET

Copyright, 1910
By Dana Estes & Co.
TO

filp Two Friends

MY MOTHER, ELIZABETH QUINCY HUNTINGTON
AND

JEANNETTE WARREN PAYSON
IN TOKEN OF GRATITUDE AND LOVE

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
CONTENTS

IPREEAGCES tetay (ec hohien atstes wlcvctertcn “dirtr tenets
IINTRODUGLION? @, i- en oe. cg oe We ee ats
ANALYTICAL KEY TO THE FAMILIES OF TREES IN WINTER
CHAPTER

I. THe Srupy or TREES IN WINTER

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

Il. THe Horsecurstnut Cees ere
The Horsechestnut. The Ohio Buckeye.

III. THe Maptes

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

IV. THe ASHES

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

V. THe Watnuts anp HICKORIES . .. .-

Butternut. Black Walnut. Shaghbark or Shell-
bark Hickory. Mockernut or Whiteheart Hick-
ory. Bitternut Hickory. Pignut Hickory.

VI. Tue Bircues, Hop HorneeaM, AND HOoRNBEAM
Canoe, Paper, or White Birch. American, Gray,
or White Birch. Black or Sweet Birch. Yel-
low Birch. Red or River Birch. Dwarf Birch.
European White Birch. Hop Hornbeam, Iron-
wood. Hornbeam, Blue Beech.
vil

Pacge

XV
xvii

Xx1

15

21

35

45

59
CONTENTS

CHAPTER
VII. Tue BEEcu, CHESTNUT, AND Oaks . .-

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 Ex_ms anp THE HACKBERRY Deine hate

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

IX. Tue Burronwoop, THE TUPELO, AND THE
MULBERRIES

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

X. Tue Locusts, THE YELLOWWOOD, AND THE
KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE

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

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

Linden, Basswood. European Linden.  Liquid-
amber, Sweet Gum. Hamamelis. Sassafras.

XII. THE Macnoiia anp TULIP TREE, THE CATALPA,
THE AILANTHUS, AND THE ARALIA

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

Vili

Pace

77

IOI

117

129

141

153
CONTENTS

CHAPTER
XIII. THe APPLE TREE, PEAR TREE, Mountain AsH,
CHERRY TREE, AND THE SHAD BusH .
Common Apple tree. Common Pear tree. Moun-
tain Ash, or Rowan tree. Wild Black Cherry.
Choke Cherry. Pin Cherry. Peach tree. Shad
Bush. Service Berry, June Berry.

XIV. THe WILLows anpD PopLaRS . . . . .

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

XV. “PRE: ARCH 4 4: 6 Rw} & i ce oo

American Larch. Tamarack or Hackmatack.
European Larch.

ix

Pace

167

177

187
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Pace

Swamp White Oak. Quercus bicolor . . . Srontispiece
Cross section of a tree. (Colored plate) . . . . 4
Horsechestnut. .#sculus Hippocastanum . . . . I4
Horsechestnut shoot . . . 1. 1. 1. 1 ee e) 16
Section of a Horsechestnut bud. (Colored plate) . 18
The Maples. (Colored plate) . . . . . . « . 20

Sugar Maple. Acer saccharum . . . «4 6 6 ww) 22
Trunk of a young Sugar Maple. . . . . . «© +) 23
Red Maple. <Acer rubrum . . « . 6 ww ew 24
Trunk of ayoung Red Maple . . . . .. 1.) 2

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) . 2. 2. 1. ee.) 34
American Ash. /vraxinus americana. . . . « « 36
Walnuts and Hickories. (Colored plate) . . . - 44
Butternut. Yuglans cinerea. . . 1 1 2 ee e 46
Trunk of a Butternut ©. . 2. 6. ew ee ew ee
Black Walnut. Suglans nigra. . « « «© © « ~ 48
Trunk of a Black Walnut. . . 2. «© 2 «© «© «© - 649

Shagbark Hickory. Carya ovata . . + © « + «© §0
xi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Trunks of Shagbark Hickories .
Mockernut Hickory. Carya alba
Bitternut Hickory. Carya cordiformis .
Pignut Hickory. Carya glabra
Canoe Birch. Betula papyrifera .
Gray Birches. Betula populsfolia
Black Birch. Betula lenta .
Yellow Birch. Letula lutea :
Red Birch. Betula nigra. . . .
European White Birch. Betula alba
Hop Hornbeam. Ostrya virginiana
Hornbeams. Carfinus caroliniana . :
The Beech and Chestnut. (Colored plate) .
Beech trees. Fagus grandifolia
Trunk of a young Beech.
Chestnut. Castanea dentata
The Oaks. (Colored plate)
White Oak. Quercus alba .
Trunk of a White Oak
Mossy-cup Oak. Quercus macrocarpa .
A young Post Oak. Quercus stellata
Black Oak. Quercus velutina .
Red Oak. Quercus rubra .
Trunk of a Red Oak.
Pin Oak. Quercus palustris eee es
The American and Slippery Elms. (Colored plate)
American Elm. U/mus americana
Young Cork Elm. Ulmus racemosa .
English Elms. Ul/mus campestris .
Scotch Elm. U/mus glabra
xil

Pace

100
102
106
108

Tio
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Hackberry. Celtis occidentalis . ee:
Buttonwood stem and bud. (Colored plate)
Buttonwood. Platanus occidentalis

Trunk of a Buttonwood .

Tupelo. Wyssa sylvatica

Red Mulberry. Morus rubra .

White Mulberry. Morus alba .

The Locusts. (Colored plate) .

Common Locust trees. Robinia Pseudo-Acacia
Honey Locust. Gleditsia triacanthos ;
Kentucky Coffee tree. Gymmnocladus dioica. . . .
Linden, Liquidamber, and Sassafras. (Colored plate)
American Linden. Tilia americana .
Liquidamber. Liguédambar Styracifiua
Sassafras. Sassafras variifolium .

Trunk of a Sassafras . Bo Beas tooa eee
Magnolia and Tulip tree. (Colored plate) .

Tulip tree. Lériodendron Tulipifera .

Catalpa. Catalpa speciosa .

Ailanthus. Az/anthus glandulosa .

Hercules’ Club. Arata spinosa .

Mountain Ash. Pyrus americana ;

A young Black Cherry tree. Prunus serotina .
White Willows. Salix alba

Aspens. Lopulus tremuloides .

American Larch. Larix larcina .

European Larch. Larix decidua .

xiii

PaGE

112

148
152
156
158
160
162
166
170
176
180
186
188
PREFACE

, NHE analytical key of trees in winter
which accompanies the new edition of
this volume is based largely on the

contrasting characters of the buds, leaf-scars,
and stems, and is intended for those who come
in from a walk, or from studying trees out of
doors, and wish to identify the specimens they
have gathered. By following the key step by
step, and carefully comparing the specimens,
the family is determined, and the student re-
ferred to the page where the different species
are described.

I have purposely included certain familiar
trees not indigenous to the Northeastern States,
but ordinarily met with, because it seemed more
useful to help the beginner to know each tree
with which he comes in contact than to make
a classification which follows strictly geograph-
ical lines.

I gratefully acknowledge my thanks to
Professor Sargent for his kind assistance in
compiling the key.

A. O. H.

Jamaica PLAIN, January, 1910.
XV
INTRODUCTION

HEN 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 ob-
servation 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
xvii
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

year; and no one knows trees well who cannot
distinguish the different species as easily and
surely in winter as in spring or summet.
Almost every tree has some special and pecu-
liar 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 sea-
sons 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 accu-

rate knowledge it is as important to study
XVlil
INTRODUCTION

trees in winter as insummer. 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 charac-
ters 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 deter-
xX1x
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

mination 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 in-
vests 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.

(ess: SARGENT.

ARNOLD ARBORETUM, November, Igo1.

XxX
 

Butternut

Te lpAri:
(

Black Walnut

 
ANALYTICAL KEY

TO THE FAMILIES OF TREES IN WINTER

1. LEAF-SCARS OPPOSITE.

A. Buds large, gummy; scales overlapping; leaf-scars
prominent. Horsechestnut.
B. Buds small, not gummy.

Twigs slender.

Twigs glaucous ; bud-scales delicate. Maple.
(Acer, p. 21.)

Recent shoots pubescent ; flower-buds round,
conspicuous, their tips curved. Cornel.
(Cornus, p. 121.)

Twigs stout.

Twigs gray, flattened at the nodes; bud-scales
leathery. Ash. (Fraxinus, p. 35.)

Twigs glaucous; Jeaf-scars often in whorls of

three. Catalpa. (Catalpa, p. 158.)
2. LEAF-SCARS ALTERNATE.

A. Trees with thorns or prickles.
a. Buds superposed, hidden within the stem.
Thorns long and branched ; terminal bud absent.
Honey Locust. (Gleditsia, p. 132.)
Prickles inconspicuous, in the position of stipules.
Common Locust. (odbinia, p. 129.)

_6. Buds not superposed or hidden within the stem ;
stems coarse, covered with prickles; pith con-
spicuous. Hercules’ Club. (4ralza, p. 162.)

Xxi

(4 sculus, p. 15.)
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

2. LEAF-SCARS ALTERNATE (continued).
&. Trees not armed with thorns or prickles.
1. Buds naked (without scales).

Lateral buds superposed ; pith brown, chambered.
Walnut. (Fuglans, p. 45.)

Buds curved, flattened, orange-colored. Bitter-
nut. (The only northern Hickory with naked
buds.) (Carya cordiformis, p. 53.)

Buds acuminate, light brown, enclosed by the de-
ciduous stipules of unfolded leaves ; woody
capsules persistent on the branches. Witch
Hazel. (Hamamelis, p. 146.)

2. Buds with scales.
a. Branch ending in a terminal bud.
Buds covered by numerous scales.
Twigs slender.
Upper axillary buds clustered at the apex
of the twig; pith s5-angled. Oak.
(Quercus, p. 83.)
Upper axillary buds not clustered.
Buds narrow, acuminate, about one inch
long. Beech. (/agus, p. 77.)
Buds acute, chestnut brown, slightly
pubescent, not more than ¥ inch
long. Shad Bush. (Amelanchier,
P- 173-)
Buds light brown; recent shoots chan-
neled in two grooves. Chestnut.
(Castanea, p. 81.)
Buds smooth, dark red ;  stipule-scars
present. Linden. (Tika, p. 141.)

xxii
2

ANALYTICAL KEY

LeaF-SCaRS ALTERNATE (continued).

Buds small, acute, reddish brown; bundle-scars on
leaf-scars borne in a circle; juice milky. Mul-
berry. (Alorus, p. 123.)

Buds ovate ; twigs green, slightly aromatic; pith
thick, mucilaginous. Sassafras. (Sassafras,
P. 147-)

Buds obtuse, dark red, their scales hairy; twigs
with red leaf-scars and stout spur-like branchlets.
Tupelo. (JVyssa, p. 120.)

Buds small, covered by closely overlapping scales ;
twigs slender, with pungent odor ; leaf-scars oval.
Cherry. (Prunus, p. 171.)

Buds acute, orange-brown; twigs furnished with
corky wings ; pith pentagonal in shape. Liquid-
amber. (Liguidambar, p. 144.)

Twigs stout, buds large.

Buds with loosely appressed scales; leaf-scars
conspicuous; stipule-scars absent. Hickory,
except Carya cordiformis. (Carya, p. 49.)

Buds with closely appressed pubescent scales ; leaf-
scars V-shaped, less conspicuous ; stipule-scars
present. Mountain Ash. (Pyrus, p. 170.)

Buds covered by imbricated scales, resinous and
gummy. Poplar. (Populus, p. 179.)

Buds covered by a single scale of two connate
stipules.

Branchlets slender.

Lateral buds often larger than the terminal bud.
Willow. (Salix, p. 177.)

Buds compressed, obtuse; branches purplish
brown. Tulip Tree. (Liriodendron, p. 155.)

Xxili
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

2. LEAF-SCARS ALTERNATE (continued).
Branchlets stout except in Magnolia virginiana ;
buds acute. Magnolia. (Magnolia, p. 153.)
4. Branch without a terminal bud, prolonged by the
growth of an upper axillary bud.
Bud scales numerous (except in Ad/anthus.)
Twigs slender.
Twigs with conspicuous catkin-buds.

Buds slender, elongated, sticky. Birch. (Be-
tula, Pp. 59+)

Buds ovate, elongated. Hop Hornbeam.
(Ostrya, p. 71.)

Buds small, obtuse. Hornbeam. (Carpinus,
Pp. 72-)

Twigs without catkin-buds.

Buds ovate, acute, dark brown; pith not cham-
bered. Elm. (U/mus, p. 101.)

Buds ovate, acute ; pith white, chambered.
Hackberry. (Celtis, p. 112.)

Buds obtuse, chestnut brown, superposed ; flower-
buds oval. Judas Tree. (Cercis, p. 136.)

Twigs stout.

Buds flattened, covered by two outer scales ; pith
chocolate brown. Ailanthus. (Adanthus,
p- 160.)

Bud scales only one; buds ovate. Buttonwood.
(Platanus, p. 117.)
Buds naked (without scales).

Buds axillary, superposed, four together, flat-
tened by mutual pressure into an acuminate
cone ; branchlets slender. Yellowwood.
(Cladrastis, p. 134.)

XXIV
CHAPTER [

THE STUDY OF TREES
IN WINTER
Chapter I

THE STUDY OF TREES IN WINTER

UTSIDE 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,

3
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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.
By observing the shapes and gen-
eral 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 win-
ter’s drive in the

Trunk and
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fields and can
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trees, and learn

TREE WITH A DELIQUESCENT =
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dominating trees
of the forests through which we pass, often
recognizing a rare species the distance of a
field away.
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THE STUDY OF TREES IN WINTER

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 coni- Ni.
cal trees, it-is said to Wy
be excurrent, and when
the main stem divides
into many more or \j
less equal divisions, :
as we find it in wy
the American S
elm and other
spreading trees, q\
it is said to be
deliguescent, —
the latter form
is the most com-
mon one among
our deciduous
trees.

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 com-
mercial 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,

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TREE WITH AN EXCURRENT TRUNK
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 un-
able 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
6
THE STUDY OF TREES IN WINTER

vary in showing an upright, drooping, or hori-
zontal habit of growth, as we see them in the
Lombardy poplar, weeping willow and tupelo,
and within these divisions there are other con-
trasts 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 horn-
beam, 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 moose-
wood 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 mucilagi-
nous taste of the slippery elm, and the aromatic
fragrance of the stems of the mockernut hick-
ory. The little dots on young bark are called

7
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

lenticels, they are openings for admitting air
to the inner tissues. Lenticels are conspicu-
ous in the bark of the birches.

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

Stems and Stems and twigs vary from the

Twigs 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 dis-
tinguishing 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 study-
8
THE STUDY OF TREES IN WINTER

ing the scars along the bare stems. The an-
nual 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.
See Oraaa 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, tri-
angular, oval, heart-shaped, or horseshoe-shaped
according to the species of thetree. 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 hicko-
ries, walnuts and oaks. The places on the stem
where the leaf-scars appear are called odes, and
the spaces between the nodes are called zzéer-
nodes.

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

9
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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.

In our climate the buds of trees
are formed in the summer dur-
ing the season’s growth. The bud at the tip
of the stem is called the ¢erminal bud, the
buds in the axils of the leaf-scars are called
the axzllary or lateral buds. Buds contain
complete branches in miniature which de-
velop 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, —
Io

Bundle-scars

 

BUNDLE-
SCARS

Buds
THE STUDY OF TREES IN WINTER

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 butter-
nut; collateral, if side by side as in the red
maple. When several buds are crowded to-
gether 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 adventzteous 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.

II
 
CHAPTER II

THE HORSECHESTNUT
 

HORSECHESTNUT
AEsculus Hippocastanum

Page 14
Chapter II

THE HORSECHESTNUT

Family Hippocastanacez

r “HIS is 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.

A large tree with a pyramidal
ree cueer head. The bark of old trees
seesecliesgieas splits off tn small square preces,

and in young trees tt ts smooth.

Very coarse twigs and large brown buds cov-

cred 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

15
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

terminal buds, and the general shape too com-
pact 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 per-
fectly. 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
16
 

HORSECHESTNUT SHOOT

Page 16
THE HORSECHESTNUT

counted sixty-eight flowers on one of these
undeveloped spikes in the bud, and with a
microscope he discovered the pollen of the
stamens.

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, Zsculus, 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. A/zppo-
castanum, from hippos, a horse, castanea, a
chestnut, alludes to the fruit which is made
into horse medicine in Turkey.

The Ohio buckeye (4'sculus glabra) is a
shrub or low tree found west of the Allegha-
nies. 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.
 
 

nlarged longitudinal section of the bud of a horse-chestnut, showing two folded

indeveloped leaves and an undeveloped spike of flow
 
CHAPTER III

THE MAPLES
Chapter III

THE MAPLES

Family Aceracez

APLES have long been famous for
M 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 vary-
ing 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.

2e
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

All the maples have opposite leaf-scars.

Sugar or Rock 2% general shape is erect, with
Maple smooth, clean branches. In old

Acer saccharum — types the bark breaks away in
long, shallow fissures with curling ridges, giv-
ng the trunk a ploughed appearance. The buds
are narrow, brown, and sharp-pointed. Deli-
cate 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 dis-
tance by its erect habit of growth and general
shapeliness, the main trunk often extending up
into the tree unbroken by divisions.

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 favor:

able to the flow of sap, according to Emerson.
22
 

MAPLE

SUGAR

Acer saccharum

Page 22
 

MAPLE

TRUNK OF A YOUNG SUGAR

Page 22
THE MAPLES

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 an-
nually 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 tap-
ping 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.
Red or Swamp A low tree, with a rounded head,
Maple smooth gray bark, reddish twigs
RTO 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 oppositeecach other on the
stem. The flowers come before the leaves, from
the round flower buds clustered around the stem.
23
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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.

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*Au-
gust 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 par:
ticular 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,

24
 

RED MAPLE

Acer rubrum

Page 24
 

MAPLE

D

TRUNK OF A YOUNG RE

Page 25
THE MAPLES

who could not understand why his son should
spend time and money over such an experi-
ment, 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 77d, signifying red.
White or Sil. 222 “vee ts found growing wild

ver Maple zz wet places throughout New

Acer saccharinun — Fry land, and it ts also often

cultivated. The trunk ts 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, lke the red maple.

It is always a delight to find this tree grow-
ing naturally where it has not been planted,
for, owing to its habit of growing near flowing

25
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 remote-
ness in the woods.

In winter there are two distinct characteris-
tics by which one may distinguish the silver
maple from the red which it closely resem-
bles, —the curving tips of the lower branches
which sweep down and curve up in a pro-
nounced 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.

It is found growing wild along river banks
‘ 26
 

SILVER MAPLE

Acer sacchartnum

Page 27
THE MAPLES

from New Brunswick to Florida, and it is
frequently planted in cities and towns.
Striped Maple: A small tree, with smooth green

Moosewood shoots and a light green bark
Acer pennsyluanicum 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 wethin 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, deli-
cate 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 zesthetic 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.

27
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

The Latin name Acer pennsylvanicum —
Pennsylvanian maple —was given to it by
Linnzeus.

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

Mountain his is a shrub about eight feet

Maple high, found commonly in the

Aer spicztum ~~ mountains and hills of New Eng-
land, and like the moosewood seldom found
growing out of the forest. It is easily dis-
tinguished 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.

Rea cadea A small or medium-sized tree
Maple; Box wzth yellowzsh green or reddish

= sae brown smooth stems and oppo-

site V-shaped, narrow leaf-scars.
The buds are gray and downy and covered with
two pars of scales.

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

It is not long-lived and has small practical
28
 

MOOSEWOOD MAPLE

Acer pennsylvanicum

Page 27
THE MAPLES

value, as the wood is not strong, and the sap
yields only a small quantity of sugar.

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

Norway Maple 4 éal/ tree, with a round head

Acer platancides and closely fissured bark. The
buds are large, round, and a dull reddish brown
color. Coarse twigs and opposite leaf-scars.
Distinctive characteristic ts 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 won-
der if the dispensation of coverings is errati-
cally bestowed, for why should we find a rugged,
stalwart tree like the Norway maple with its
buds luxuriously protected from the cold, while

29
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 with-
out 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.

Se uamone A tall tree, with a spacious head.

Maple The bark breaks off in thin
‘tcer Pseude-Platanus Ala tes. Coarser twigs than those
of the other maples, leaf-scars opposite, and large
round buds. Distinctive characteristic ts tts
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.

30
Y

{ 7)
Te a

Serta

 

MAPLE

NORWAY

Acer platanoides

Page 29
THE MAPLES

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 resem-
blance to the plane tree.

zr
 

SYCAMORE MAPLE
Page 32 Acer Pseudo-Platanus
CHAPTER IV

THE ASHES

33
Chapter IV
THE ASHES

Family Oleaceze

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
Greek 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

35

[: winter there is little to attract us in ash
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

ereen ash, which used to be considered a dis-
tinct species, is now thought to be a variety of
the red ash.

All the ashes have opposite leaf-scars.

White or A large tree with a_ straight
American Ash trunk. Bark furrowed with ir-
Fraxinus americana yooulay ridges, the hollows form-

ing 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.

The white ash is a tree which we find fre-
quently along roadsides and in the woods
everywhere in New England. The character-
istics 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 resem-
bling oak-apples and the outgrowths of other

a6
 

AMERICAN ASH

Fraxinus americana

Page 36
TEE: ASHES

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 in-
terior 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 fol-
lowing 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 esthetic quality.

This tree resembles the white
Red or Downy

Ash ash, but ts distinguished from
Fraxinus pennsyl- it by the down on the recent
vanica i

shoots. It ts a smaller tree than
the white ash, more spreading in shape. The
twigs are less coarse and branch more jfre-
quently, 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  jfur-
37
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

rowed, like that of the white ash. Leaf-scars
op posite.

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 dis-
tinguished 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.

Black Ash A slender tree, 40 to 70 feet

Fraxinus nigra == igh. 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

38
THE ASHES

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
ereen branch before the fire.

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

European Ash A large tree, with a lojty, spread-

Fraxinus excelsior ing head and short, thick trunk.
The bark is ash-colored when old, and dark gray
when young. Very black buds distinguish it
jrom the American species. Opposite leaj-
scars.

The European ash is planted frequently along
roadsides and in our parks and gardens. It is
indigenous to Northern, Central, and Southern

39
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 ‘Cran-
ford,” Mary Smith tells us how she was talk-
ing 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?”

“Ts 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

40
THE ASHES

very slowly. Tennyson also noted this char-
acteristic: —
«« 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 un-
heeded 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 apothe-
caries, 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.

4I
CHAPTER V

THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES

43
Chapter V
THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES

Family Juglandaceae

EW trees are more lofty and majestic
HK than certain species of walnuts and

hickories. They are stately in sum-
mer, 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 edibie.

Two genera of this family are found in
An erica, —/uglans and Carya. Of the first
gen 1s there are two species native in the North-
easi2rn States,—the butternut and the black
waluut.

Butteniut A low, spreading tree, branching

Juglans cinerea = q short way up the trunk. Gray
bark, slightly fissured, the clejts not running to-
gether. Recent shoots downy, with a fringe of

45
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

hair over the leaj-scar. Leaf-scars conspicuous,
alternate, the bundle-scars horseshoe (U) shaped.
Light brown buds destitute of scales. Terminal
bud encloses pistillate flowers, which are fertil-
ized by the staminate flowers enclosed in the
pineapple-like bud over the leaj-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.

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 Juglanducee
which is not tall and beautiful in outline. It
is a low tree, with wide-spreading, rather strag-
gling branches, frequently ill shapen and un-
couth in appearance. It is usually associated
in our minds with country lanes, and growing

46
 

BUTTERNUT

Juglans cinerea

Page 46
 
 

TRUNK OF A BUTTERNUT

Page 47
 
THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES

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 speci-
mens 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 ex-
cellent 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.

47
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

Black Walnut A large tree, 50 to 120 feet high,

fests eae 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, with-
out hair, and the pith is chambered. Alternate,
conspicuous leaj-scars. Characteristic difference
between the two trees is that the fringe of hair
over the leaf-scar in the butternut 1s 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 yellow-
ish in color, like those of the other species.

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
cofhns. 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.

48
 

BLACK WALNUT

Juglans nigra

Page 48
 

K WALNUT

TRUNK OF A BLAC

Page 49
 

 
THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES

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 Alleghanices.

The English walnut, Juglans regia, originally
came from Persia, and is sometimes cultivated
here. An interesting cross between the Eng-
lish 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.

A tall, stately tree, 70 to go feet
Shagbark ; or 5

Shellbark high; unmistakable on account
Hickory of its rough, flaking bark, which
ee shags off in large plates. Yel-

lowish brown buds, with two outer dark scales,
which also shag characteristically. Coarse twigs;
; 49
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

alternate leaj-scars. The husk oj the nut splits
and breaks off.

This is a tree peculiar to Northeastern
America, and one of the most rugged, mag-
nificent specimens to be found anywhere in
the same temperate climate. It is especially
adapted for broad treatment in landscape gar-
dening, 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.

The wood is heavy, hard, tough, and close-
grained, and it is used for agricultural imple-
ments, 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

50
Wi

‘
J

Sa

 

SHAGBARK HICKORY

Carya ovata

Page 50
= Ce ces Cie tah a = - ’ pedal a
a - ed fi = oe Cece)

 
 

TRUNKS OF SHAGBARK HICKORIES

Page 51
 
THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES

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 former name, /zcorza, was of Indian ori-
gin and came from fowcohzcora, the name of
an oily emulsion made from the pounded ker-
nels 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 hick-
ories are confined to Eastern North America
alone, and are a genus of rare and very valu-
able trees.

MeglemabRGe A tall tree 60 to 100 feet high,

Whiteheart with a lofty head. Bark smooth,

Hickory with close, wavy furrows,—a
Carya alba Siar aye
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 leaj-scars. Nut somewhat hexagonal,
with a very thick shell, and a hard, thick husk.
The mockernut is one of the most interest-
51
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

ing 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.

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 market-
able. The experiment of cultivating the mock-

52
 

MOCKERNUT HICKORY

Carya alba

Page 52
 
THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES

ernut to improve its fruit would be an interesting
one, and certainly both the nuts of the mock-
ernut 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 Eng-
land and also in the West and South.

Bitternut A large tree, with a light, gran-
Hickory ite-gray bark. Slender twigs, the

Caryacrdrms 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 flat-
tened, 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 ly-
ing 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

53
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 former name, #z7zma (the smallest), re-
ferred 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.

Pignut Hickory 4 /arge tree, 70 to 80 feet high

Carya glabra 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.

If it were possible for trees to have negative
characters the pignut would be eminently neg-
ative. In fact its distinguishing characteristic
is that it has no one distinctive feature to iden-

54
 

BITTERNUT HICKORY

Carya cordiformis

Page 54
 
THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES

tify 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 out-
line 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 pig-
nut one of the largest trees in the United
States, and it certainly compares well with the
three other native hickories in its general bear-
ing, 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 market-

55
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

able, 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 fourd
throughout New England and in the West and
South.

56
 

PIGNUT HICKORY
Carya glabra

Page 56
 
CHAPTER VI

THE BIRCHES, HOP HORNBEAM,
AND HORNBEAM

57
 

 

 

 
 

CANOE BIRCH
Betula papyrifera

Page 61
 
Chapter VI

THE BIRCHES, HOP HORNBEAM, AND
HORNBEAM

Family Betulacece

r l “\HE 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 im-

proved 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

59
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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.

epee suc A large, graceful tree, 60 to 75

or White jeet high, with wonderjully white
Birch bark splitting into thin, tough

Se een layers. Branches thicker, buds
larger, catkins larger than those of other birches,
and the upper part of the twigs 1s hairy. The
buds are sticky and greener inside than those
of other birches,—less silvery and sojt. The
leaj-scars are alternate.

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 reach-
ing for the light. The canoe birch is really a
large tree, however, and often grows to an
enormous size among the northern hills where

60
 

GRAY BIRCHES

Betula populifolta

Page 62
 
THE BIRCHES AND HORNBEAMS

it seems to thrive best. The feminine charac-
teristics 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 ma-
tron 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, bet, 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 North-
ern and Northwestern States.

61
SLOUDIES OF TREES“ IN WINTER

ea A small, slender tree, 15 to 30 feet

Gray or White /iigh, with an erect trunk. It
Birch grows in poor soil and is found

Betula populifolia ‘
growing commonly along sandy
roadsides. Several shoots spring from the trunk
near the ground. Bark close fitting, with a
chalky white surjace. 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 interest-
ing 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 sur-
roundings, and thriving where other trees
would die.

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

62
 

BLACK BIRCH

Betula lenta

age 63

P:
 
THE BIRCHES AND HORNBEAMS

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 North-
eastern States.

Black or Sweet 4 Jall, round-headed tree. The

Birch branches twist in different direc-

Betula lenta tions, but are pendulous and grace-

jul. 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

63
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 ex-
cellent 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, Jenta (pliant), refers to
the flexible stems and branches of this tree.
The black birch is found in rich woods through-
out the Northeastern States.

Yellow Birch 4 Jeautiful straight tree, 50 to

Betula lutea go 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,
jilmy strips from the trunk. The bud scales
overlap each other. Alternate leaf-scars. Deli-
cate twigs with an aromatic taste, not as sweet

64
 

YELLOW BIRCIL

Betula lutea

6

Page
 
THE BIRCHES AND HORNBEAMS

as the black birch. The catkins are larger round
than those of the black birch.

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 yel-
low 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 ex-
quisite . . . 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

5 65
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 but-
toned, 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 valu-
able 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, Jutea (yellow), refers to
the color of the wood and bark of the trunk.
The yellow birch is found throughout the
Northeastern States.

Wedior River A medium-sized tree found on

Birch the edges of streams. Long, grace-
Betula vier jul, 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.
66
ho

wea ee

 

RED BIRCH

Betula nigra

Page 67
 
THE BIRCHES AND HORNBEAMS

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 sweep-
ing. It should not be inferred from this de-
scription that the red birch is lacking in beauty,
for it is a most attractive tree. Its general out-
line 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 Linneus, 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

67
STUDIES OF TREES IN “WINTER

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.

Aco pean A tree jrom Europe, extensively

White Birch cultivated in this country. White,

Beiulealbs chalky bark. Long, slender, down
sweeping branches. Small buds. Alternate
leaf-scars.

The slender, drooping branches of the Euro-
pean 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 gar-
deners 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,—

68
 

EUROPEAN WHITE BIRCH

Betula alba

Page 69
 
THE BIRCHES AND HORNBEAMS

«« 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 hori-
zontal 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

69
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 ar-
ranged to rise in crumpled folds through slash-
ings 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 instru-
ment 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 ‘‘Schoolmis-
tress,” 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.”’

7O
 

HOP HORNBEAM

Ostrya virginiana

Page 71
 
THE BIRCHES AND HORNBEAMS

The European birch is found throughout the
North of Europe, and grows in every kind of
soil, both wet and dry,—the Earl of Hadding-
ton 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 spe-
cific name, alba, alludes to the color of the bark.

oa Hews A small, slender tree, 30 10 50
beam, Iron- [eet high. The bark ts light, and
wood scales off in thin flakes, and is sel-

Ostrya virginiana

dom more than a quarter of an
inch thick. Small, acute buds; alternate leaj-
scars; delicate twigs. Small catkins, usually
three together, pointing upwards. Hop-like jruit,
often remaining on the tree through the winter.

There is but one native hop hornbeam in
New England, and it is an extremely interest-
ing 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

71
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

delicate and pretty, the twigs are very slender,
and are tipped with the three little pointing
fingers of the catkins, and the whole tree pro-
duces 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 ostrvos (a scale), in reference to the
scaly catkins of the fruit. Vérgzniana 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.

Homibenis A tree or tall shrub 10 to 25
Blue Beech (feet high. Bark smooth and

Pups eeralinlane— Toa gray, tough like a horn,
and close-fitting. The buds are oval. Delicate
twigs, in flat, spreading layers. Alternate
leaj-scars. Fruit in  clusters,—leaj-like bracts,
holding little nuts.

72
 

HORNBEAMS
Carpinus caroliniana

Page 73
 

 

-

 
THE BIRCHES AND HORNBEAMS

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 form-
al 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

73
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 through-
out New England, and in the South and West.

74
CHAPTER VII

THE BEECH, CHESTNUT AND
OAKS
 
 
Chapter VII
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

Family Fagaceae

\ LTHOUGH the beech, chestnut, and

oaks are divided into three separate

genera, they all belong to the family
Fagacee. 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.

Recent A beautiful, spreading tree 60 to
Beech 100 feet high, with a clean, close-

Fagus grandifoia fi tting, smooth, gray bark. Buds
narrow and sharp-pointed, with many over-
lapping scales. Twigs smooth, slender, and red-
dish 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.

77
STUDIES OF TREES IN 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 pro-
nounced and unvarying that there is little diffi-
culty 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 de-
veloped 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.

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

78
 

BEECH TREES

Fagus grandifolia

Page 78
 
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

there are two species of beech. Michaux ac-
cepted this theory, which has since become ob-
solete. 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.

Wakaness A large tree with spreading
Beech branches and a smooth, gray

Fagus sylvatica = 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

79
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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. Gil-
pin, 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.

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

80
 

NG BEECH

OU

A Y

TRUNK OF

e So

Pag
 
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

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.

Chestnut One of the largest of our forest

Castanea dentata = tyees. The bark is dark, hard,
and rugged, with coarse ridges on old trees.
Light brown buds. Alternate leaf-scars. Re-
cent 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 chest-
nut 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,

6 81
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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.

The generic name was taken from Castanea,

82
 

CHESTNUT
Page 82 Castanea dentata
 
 

White O

 

9. Chestnut Oak

 
 
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

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.

Oaks There are in all nearly three hun-

Quercus dred different oaks which have
been described by botanists, and fifty of these
are found in North America, exclusive of Mex-
ico. The oaks are large trees of temperate
climates, and both in Europe and America few
trees have the same varied and general useful-
ness. 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 sur-
roundings 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

83
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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.

The acorns of the white oaks mature in one
year, those of the black oaks take two years to

84
 

WHITE OAK

uercus alba

2

Page Ss
 
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

ripen, so that these young acorns are found on
the branches of the black oak 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.

White Oak 4 Jarge tree, 60 to 80 feet high,

Quercus alba with a trunk often six feet in di-
ameter. The bark is light gray; the twigs
smooth and light gray; the recent shoots light
reddish or grayish brown; alternate leaj-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 earli-
est 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 key-
note 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 ramifica-
tions and stalwart limbs of the trees are fully
revealed. I have often noticed in the country

85
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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-build-
ing, 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, bas-
kets, antd 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.

Swamp White 4 J/arge iree, 60 to 80 feet high,

Oak common im swamps and where

SO the soil is moist. The bark

shags off along the branches, and the trunk ts
86
¢
H
d

3

 

TRUNK OF A WHITE OAK
Page S6
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

more deeply fissured than that of the white oak.
The twigs are coarser than those oj 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.

When once the swamp white oak’s peculiar-
ities are known it is seldom confused with any
other oak, even in winter. Its unkempt appear-
ance, 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 dis-
tinguish 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 de-
duces 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

87
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

white oak is used for, and is not distinguished
from it commercially.

The former name, p/a¢anoddes (platanus-like),
came from the generic name of the plane tree
or buttonwood, and refers to the bark of the
young trees, which, like that of the button-
wood, separates and curls off in large thin flakes
along the branches.

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

Moxey Cup, A large tree, sometimes 160 feet

Overcup, or  /igh. The bark is corky, with

Bur Oak corky ridges along the twigs.

Quercus macrocarba TH» buds are like those of the
swamp white oak, but the scales are more pointed.
Ojten the dried stipule or a piece of it is lejt, 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.

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

88
 

MOSSY CUP OAK

Duercus macrocarpa

Page 88
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

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.

Chesnucor A middle-sized or small tree

Rock Chestnut usually, although it is sometimes

Oak 100 feet high. The bark does

Quercus Prinus :

not flake. The buds are pointed,

—an exception for the white oaks. The buds

are long in proportion to their width. There is
89
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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, more apt to be ridged than those
of the white oak. Allernate leaj-scars. The
acorn is covered nearly haljway 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.

The dwarf chestnut, or chinquapin oak
(Quercus prinoides), is the smallest member of
the oak family in New England, and seldom

go
 

A YOUNG POST OAK

Quercus stellata

Page go
 
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

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, /rinoides, means prinus-
like, the name of the chestnut oak, and refers
to the general resemblance between the two
species.

Pastor Rough A medium-sized tree, 4o lo 50 feet

Oak high. Buds and twigs stumpy

Rees and thick set with short branch-
ing. Buds very round and rusty. Twig persist-
ently 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 con-
fused with any other. It rarely grows to be
more than twenty-five or thirty feet high, and
the many low, crooked branches, crowded to-
gether at the base of the trunk, give, as Emer-
son 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 speci-
men in the Arnold Arboretum, from which the

9!
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 manufac-
ture of carriages, and for cooperage, fencing,
railway ties, and for fuel.

The former name, #zxor (smaller), referred to
the height of this oak as compared with that of
the larger members of the family.

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

Black Oak 4 /arge tree, 70 to 80 and (rarely)

Quercus velutina 150 feet high. Bark thick, rough,
and dark. Twigs smooth, with a bitter taste.
Alternate leaj-scars. Buds very downy, sharp-
pointed, and large. The acorns are set in a@
deep, conspicuously scaly cup. The kernel is
bitter.

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

gz
 

AK

LACK O
Quercus velutina

I

Page 92
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

rough at the base of the trunk, and this rough-
ness 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 medici-
nally the bark is an astringent.

The specific name, velutina, was taken origi-
nally 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 grow-
ing throughout New England and in the South
and West.

Red Oak A large tree, 60 to 150 feet high,
Quercus rubra The bark is fissured in long clefts,
with broad, smooth places between, giving the

93
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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
ved 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 chest-
nut 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.

94
 

 

RED OAK

Quercus rubra

Page 94
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

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.

Scarlet Oak 4 Jarge tree, 60 to 80 feet high.

Quercus coccinea The bark is grayish and not
deeply furrowed. Slender twigs, with small
alternate leaj-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 ts 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 glow-
ingly 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.

95
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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.

Pin Oak A small or medium-sized tree in

Quercus palustris = 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 oj
the twigs often becoming small, stiff, pin-like
spurs, which are a distinctive characteristic of
the tree. The buds are small and the twigs slen-
der. Alternate leaf-scars. The acorn is halj
an inch long, in a shallow, saucer-shaped cup
with thin scales.

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 car-
ries its main stem to the top of the tree, and
the lateral branches grow from the trunk, form-
ing a pyramidal head. In the forests where it
grows in swamps and wet places, it loses this

96
aj

REISE

cael

 

TRUNK OF A RED OAK

Page 95
 
THE BEECH, CHESTNUT, AND OAKS

shape, but even then the branches are character-
istically 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 isfrom the Latin paluster,
an adjective meaning swampy or boggy, and
has reference to the moisture-seeking character-
istics 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 zliczfolia) is
a dwarfed, straggling bush, three to ten feet high,
and found on sandy, barren, and rocky hills from
Maine to Carolina. The former name, puszla
(dwarf), was given to it on account of its size
and crooked manne? of growth.

97
 

 

 

PNG

AY

 

PIN OAK

s palustris

Quercu

Page 96
 
CuHaptTer VIII

THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY
 
Chapter VIII

THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY

Family Ulmacee

r NAHE members of this family are found
in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Two genera, the elm ( U/mus) and the
hackberry (Ce/¢zs), are found in the Northeast-
ern 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 cultiva-

tion. Perhaps no other tree is so strongly
IOl
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

associated in our minds with the beautiful old
valley towns and hillside villages of New Eng-
land, and to the elms they largely owe their
beauty. Three indigenous elms are found in
the Northeastern States, the American, slip-
pery, and cork elms, and two from Europe, the
English and the Scotch or Dutch elms, are
planted commonly in our gardens and parks.
aradncanreee ee spreading tree, wrth grace-

White Elm /#/, drooping branches. Smooth
CUS ARATEARE  bocigy twigs ; alternate leaf-scars.
The terminal and lateral buds are the same stze ;
the flower buds are larger. The flowers come
before the leaves tn 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.

It is interesting to find how many distinct
shapes the American elm takes. These are so

varied that many people think that each form
I02
 

AMERICAN ELM, LANCASTER, MASS,

Ulmus americana

(From a photograph by Mr, Eli Forbes)

Page 102
 

 

   

 
THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY

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
103
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

growth of little twigs along the trunk and
branches. They may feather any of the differ-
ent forms already described, and they come from
latent buds which may have been dormant for
years before opening.

“ The white elm,” Professor Charles S. Sar-
gent 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 com-
panions 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

104
THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY

home was made a sapling elm taken from the
borders of a neighboring swamp was often set
to guard the rooftree. These elm trees, rem-
nants of the forest which covered New Eng-
land when it was first inhabited by white men,
or planted during the first century of their
occupation, are now dead or rapidly dis-
appearing; 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, U/mus, 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.

Slippery or A medium-sized tree, 45 to 60
Red Elm (feet high. The twigs are gray
Ulmus futva 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

105
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

downy, and are covered with reddish brown
hairs. The inner bark ts very muctlaginous.
Country boys know the slippery elm for its
sweet mucilage, just as they know the shag-
bark 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 imflammatory diseases and externally
for poultices.
Its former name, pudescens (down or soft
hair), referred to the pubescence on the buds
and leaves and along the recent shoots.

The slippery elm is found in certain local-
106
 

K ELM

Ulmus racemosa

YOUNG COR

Page 107
THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY

ities throughout the Atlantic States, it is not

common in Eastern Massachusetts.

Cork or Rock “4 “27ge tree, 80 to 100 feet high,
Elm known by the peculiar corky ridges

Ulmus racemosa 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 Massa-
chusetts, and would probably be found only
in the western part of the State growing wild.
Neither Michaux nor Emerson has described
thecorkelm. Nuttall says that it was discovered
in the State of New York bya 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

107
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

ornamental tree which planters have too gener-
ally neglected.”

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

It is found in New England, its range ex-
tending southward and westward.

English Elm “4 /adl tree, more upright im

Ulmus campestris gyowth than the American elm.
The branches are less spreading and more erect
than those of the American species. In this
climate wt rs often aistinguished 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.

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 im-
ported 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

108
 

MS

Ulmus campestris

ENGLISH EL

of

Page 1
 
THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY

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,

109
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

“ 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 aréusta, the vines
themselves being called ardustive vite, to dis-
tinguish them from others raised in more con-
fined situations. Once in two years the elms
were carefully pruned to prevent their leaves
from overshadowing the grapes; this was con-
sidered 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 : —

“Tf 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.

Ito
 

SCOTCH ELM

Ulmus glabra

Page 110
 
THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY

Scotch, Dutch, 4 ™e@tum-sized tree, 50 to 60
or Wych Elm feet high. The bark ts smooth
Uimus glabra 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 Britan-
nicum”: “In many parts of the country, the
wych elm, or witch-hazel, as it is still occa-
sionally 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 pres-
Iftl
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

ent 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 former 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.

Heche A small tree, 20 to 50 feet

Sugarberry, “2g, with slender, wide-spread-

Nettle Tree zyg branches. The terminal buds

gohan ae lacking, the lateral ones are
fiattencd and pointed and somewhat hatry. The
twigs are dark grayish brown with white cham-
bered pith inside the stems. The leaf-scars are
sent-oval with three bundle-scars and alternate
zn arrangement. The fruit ts reddish, turning
dark purple; tt 7s round and berry-lke and
about the size of a currant.

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,
112
 

HACKBERRY

Celtis occidentalis

Page 112
 
THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY

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 bea
tall and stately tree.

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

The generic name, Ce/tis, is the ancient
Greek name for the lotus berry; and the
specific name, occzdentalis (belonging to the
west), designates its American origin.
 
CHAPTER IX

THE BUTTONWOOD, THE TUPELO,
AND THE MULBERRIES
 
 

The Buttonwood, showing the hollow base of the leat-stalk which covers the bud

until the leaf falls
 
Chapter IX

THE BUTTONWOOD, THE TUPELO, AND
THE MULBERRIES

Families Platanaceez, Cornacez, and Moracze

r “HERE is but one genus in the family
Platanacee, and but one species in the
genus found growing in the North-

eastern States, the buttonwood, or sycamore.

Pee A large tree, 80 Zo 100 feet high,

Sycamore, or wth an irregular, picturesque

Plane Tree outline. The bark breaks off in
Platanus occidentalis 5 7

thin, brittle plates at the base of

the trunk, and higher up it ts smooth, an olive

green, color, and covered with white blotches.

The buds are subpetrolar, — that vs, they are

covered over by the base of the leafstalk through

the summer, and concealed entirely until the
leaf drops off. The leaf-scar 1s in the shape of

a ring around the bud, with prominent bundle-

scars ; the arrangement of the leaf-scars ts alter-

nate. Stipule scars are found on the stems
zn some places. The buds are conical, smooth,
1 17
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

and brown, and are covered by one scale. The
fruit hangs on the tree all winter,—a large,
ary ball made up of hundreds of seeds.

Like everything which has a definite in-
dividuality, 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 esthetic 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 ”: —

“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
118
 

BUTTONWOOD

Platanus occidentalis

Page 118
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRUNK OF A BUTTONWOOD

Page 119
 
BUTTONWOOD AND MULBERRIES

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, grand-
est, 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, occzdentalis, was
given to the sycamore as distinctive from
Platanus orientalis, the oriental plane tree of
Europe. The oriental plane is planted occa-
sionally in this country, and may be distin-
guished from our native species by its broader
head and by the fruit, which frequently -
hangs in clusters instead of singly on the
tree.

119g
STUDI}S OF TREES IN WINTER

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

A medium-sized tree, with hort-
Tupelo, Pep- ;
peridge, Sour 20%¢al branches and often with

Gum Tree = am excurrent trunk. Dark gray

Nossa hates eyyowed 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, hatry scales.
The fruit ts 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 horizon-
tal layersfrom 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.

The generic name, Vyssa, is the Greek name
120
f

fA
ee
ray

(

Ww

 

TUPELO

Nyssa

sylvatica

Page 120
 
BUTTONWOOD AND MULBERRIES

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 west-
ward, and stands the winds from the sea well
when it grows along the coast, apparently
losing little of its vigor.

: : A small tree or shrub, 12 to
F lowering Cor- f 4
nel, Flowering 40 feet high, with a dark, rough
ain 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 tRe maple and ash,
which has opposite leaf-scars.

The confusion existing in some minds be-
tween the flowering dogwood of the woods and
the poison dogwood of the swamps casts an

undeserved shadow over the name of the former.
I21
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

If the poison dogwood were always called
poison sumac and the Corzzzs florzda, 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 occa-
sionally 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, Zorzda (abound-
ing 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 Aorace ate a small family with but one
native representative in the North, the red mul-
berry. The white mulberry from China has
been so widely cultivated and naturalized in
the United States, that it is seen more com-

monly than the native species.
122
 

RED MULBERRY

Morus rubra

Page 123
 
BUTTONWOOD AND MULBERRIES

Red Mulberry 4 small tree, 15 to 60 feet high.
Morus rubra 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 guice comes tf the stems are cut on
warm days in winter. Very smooth buds.

The red mulberry is not particularly attrac-
tive 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, JZorzs, is probably derived
from the Celtic word mor, meaning black, in
reference to the color of the fruit. The specific
name, vwdra, 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.

123
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

White A small tree, with a rough bark,

Mulberry small, round brown buds, and

ipa small progecting alternate leaf-
scars with clearly defined bundle-scars. The
buds are smaller and more rounded than those
of the red mulberry. Lt rs 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.

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 thou-

124
 

WHITE MULBERRY
Morus alba

Page 124
 
BUTTONWOOD AND MULBERRIES

sand 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.

125
 
CHAPTER X

THE LOCUSTS, THE YELLOWWOOD,
AND THE KENTUCKY
COFFEE TREE
 
Chapter X

THE LOCUSTS, THE YELLOWWOOD, AND
THE KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE

Family Leguminose

, NHE Leguminose 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 distin-
guished by their pod-like fruit, —the name
Leguminose 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 yellow-
wood, concealed under the leafstalks through
the summer, but conspicuous in winter after
they have fallen.

Camaana An trregular growing, slender

Locust tree, 70 to 80 feet high, with
Robinia Pseudo-Acacia very rough, deeply furrowed,
9 129
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

often yellowish-looking bark. Slender twigs,
wth 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 homceopathic
remedies.

The name, Rodznza, was given to this genus
in honor of Jean Robin, a French botanist, and
the gardener of Henry IV. of France. The

specific name, Pseudo-A cacza (false acacia), arose
130
 

COMMON LOCUST TREES

Robinia Pseudo-Acacia

Page 130
 
THE LOCUSTS AND YELLOWWOOD

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 (Rodina 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 cul-
tivated as far north as Eastern Massachusetts.

The specific name, vzscosa, 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 orna-
mental shrub cultivated in gardens and found
growing wild from Virginia southward. The
specific name, /zspzda (bristly), refers to the

131
SrUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

long bristles on the branches, leaves, and pods
which distinguish this shrub from the other
species of the genus.

Honey Locust 4 large tree with a smooth
Gleditsia triacanthos dark bark, cracking im thick
lateral plates on old trees. Long, branching
thorus growing tn clusters out of the trunk and
on the branches. Suntooth, shining brown twigs
and prominent U-shaped, alternate leaf-scars.
There ave no terminal buds, and the lateral ones
are superposed, inconspicuous, rounded, and
partly concealed in the stem. The frutt ts a
large, pea-like pod, often hanging on the trees
through the winter.

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

132
 

LOCUST
Gleditsta triacanthos

HONEY

Page 132
THE LOCUSTS AND YELLOWWOOD

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 fer-
menting 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, G/editsza, was given to it
in honor of Gleditsch, a German botanist; and
the specific name, “zacanthos (three-thorned),
refers to the branching thorns.

The honey locust is not native in New Eng-
land, although it is found growing commonly.
Young trees spring up from the seeds of culti-
vated trees, and in this way it has spread and
increased its range. It is found growing wild

133
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

from Pennsylvania south and west. There are
thornless varieties of this tree which are often
cultivated.

Yellowwood 4 small tree, 20 to 50 feet high.
Cladrastis tutea nth a smooth dark gray bark,
The stems are smooth and brown, with lght
colored conspicuous leaf-scars in a circle around
the subpetiolar buds. The buds are brown and
very hairy, each scale betng covered with soft
brown hairs. Pod-like fruzi, 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.

The wood is used for making gunstocks and
for fuel, and it also yields a yellow dye, from
which it takes its specific name, /z¢ea,— 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

134
 

KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE

Gymnocladus dioica

Page 134
 
THE LOCUSTS AND YELLOWWOOD

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.

Kentueky A large tree, 50 to 80 feet high,
Coffee Tree wth rough bark. Large cane-
Gymnocladus diva Lhe smooth, gray shoots some-
what roughened by prominent lenticles. Large
U-shaped, alternate leaf-scars with three or five
bundle-scars. No terminal bud, the lateral
buds ave (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 tuches
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

135
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 (Ladurnum
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 red-

bud or Judas tree (Cerczs canadensis). Itis a
136
THE LOCUSTS AND YELLOWWOOD

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.

257
CHAPTER XI

THE LINDENS, THE  LIQUID-
AMBER, AND THE SASSAFRAS
The Linden

5)

 

The Liquidamber
 
Chapter XI

THE LINDENS, THE LIQUIDAMBER, AND
THE SASSAFRAS

Families Tiliacez, Hamamelidacez, and Lauraceze

r NHE 7Zztacez are a tropical family with
a single genus, the linden, as a repre-
sentative 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.

Tindeas Basse tall tree, 60 to 80 feet high,

wood Srequently excurrent. The bark

Tilia americana’ 4s yvather smooth with shallow,
close furrows, and the twigs are smooth, with
a good deal of color. The leaf-scars are alter-
nate, and the buds are smooth and red, the ter-
minal 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 grow-

141
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

ing from the trunk all the way up. This ex-
current 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 péz/on, the Greek word for a feather, in
allusion to the feather-like bracts on the clus-
ters of the flowers. The specific name, amerz-
cana, was given to our native linden to
distinguish it from the European species.

The linden is found growing wild in rich

142
 

MERICAN LINDEN
‘cana

A

Tilia amer

Page 142
THE LINDENS AND LIQUIDAMBER

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 Linnzus, the famous
botanist, was originally derived from ézx, the
Swedish name for the linden, a large tree
having always stood by the old family home-
stead.

The European lindens are not so well suited

143
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 FHfamamelis and Ligutdambar ;
each genus has but one species.

re A large tree, 30 to 150 feet
eens high, with deeply furrowed bark.
Ligquidambar Styra- The twigs are covered with corky

i ridges. The leaf-scars ave alter-
nate. The buds are reddish in color and smooth.
The pith ts in the form of a pentagon when the
twig 7s cut across. The frutt ts a round, dry,
open, rough catkin hanging on the tree through
the wenter.

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
144
 

LIQUIDAMBER
Liquidambar Styraciflua

Page 144
 
THE LINDENS AND LIQUIDAMBER

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 develop-
ment is in deep swamps, always inundated
every year during several weeks at a time, and
incapable of being drained and cultivated.
The generic name, Lzguzdamébar, from luguzdus
(liquid), améar (amber), was given to this tree
by Linnzus in reference to the fragrant juice
which exudes from its stems. It is sometimes

Io 145
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

collected and used as an ointment in medicine.
The flow of resinous balsam increases accord:
ing to the warmth of the climate in which
the liquidamber is found. The specific name,
Styractfiua, from the Latin word styrax (storax),
also alludes to this juice, storax being a res-
inous gum.

The liquidamber is found growing in Fair-
field County, Connecticut, and from there south-
ward to Florida and westward. It grows well
in gardens in the neighborhood of Boston; but
it is liable to suffer after severe winters through-
out 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 Novem-
ber 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.
Linnzus gave it the Greek name amamelis,
which means bearing flowers together with

the fruit.
146
 

SASSAFRAS

Sassafras variifolium

Page 146
 
THE LINDENS AND LIQUIDAMBER

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 accus-
tomed to find it a rather straggling shrub in
our New England woods.

The Lauracee 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.

Sassafras “4 “7ee common in rich woods.
Sassafras variifolium It 25 15 to 100 feet high, weth a
rough bark and twisted branches. Green twigs,
smooth and sweet scented, with an aromatic
mucilaginous gure. Large buds; seme-oval,
semicircular, alternate leaf-scars. The flowers
come a little before the leaves unfold. The
aromatic fragrance ts 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 deli-

147
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

clous, 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 com-
paratively young. The sassafras was one of the
first American trees which became known in
Europe. Inthe 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.”

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
148
 

 

TRUNK OF A SASSAFRAS

Page 148
 
THE LINDENS AND LIQUIDAMBER

spices of Oriental summers into our New Eng-
land 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 cin-
namon 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 was once both its
generic and specific name.

249
CHAPTER XII

THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE,
THE CATALPA, THE AILAN-
THUS, AND THE ARALIA
 
 
Chapter XII

THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE, THE CA-
TALPA, THE AILANTHUS, AND THE ARALIA

Families Magnoliacee, Bignoniacee, Simaroubacez, and
Araliacez

P | AHE 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 oneis found growing wild in New
England. The tulip tree is the only species in
the genus Lzrzodendron and it is found only in
eastern North America and western China.

Sd aanenac: A shrub or slentler tree, 4 to 30 feet

nolia; Sweet /2gh, with light brown bark. The

Bay recent shoots area bright green,anad
Magnolia virsiniens D2) the buds they have a tendency
towards downtness. Alternate leaf-scars.
153
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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
former name, g/auca (glaucous) referred to the
bloom on the under side of the leaves.

The umbrella tree (A/agnola 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 ex-

154
THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE

crescences. 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, ¢rzpetala, was given to it by
Linnzeus, and refers to the three conspicu-
ous sepals of the flowers. The English name
alludes to the spreading umbrella-like arrange-
ment 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.

Tulip Tree A very large tree, 80 to 150 feet
Liriodendron Tulipi- high. The bark ts dark and

on smooth, with small shallow fur-
rows. The twigs are light purplish brown, with
a grayish bloom, and the leaf-scars are oval and
alternate in arrangement. The terminal bud ts
covered by two stipules. There are stepule-scars on
the stems. The frurtis a potnted, open, dry cone,
often remaining on the trees through the winter.

155
STUDIES OF TREES IN 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 dis-
closes 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.

“{ 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 dis-
156
 

TULIP TREE
Liriodendron Tulipifera

Page 156
 
THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE

tance, just as the colors of flowers are an ad-
vantage in rendering them more conspicuous.
I then looked closely to see whether the pecu-
liar 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
Magnoliacee generally, originally enclosed in
and sheltered by the stipules of its predecessor.
These are in Lzrvzodendron 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 furni-
ture and in the interior finish of houses. The
bark of the wood and branches is pungent, bit-

157
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

ter, and aromatic, and acts on the system as a
tonic. According to Bigelow’s “ Medical Bot-
any” 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. Itis planted commonly through-
out NewEngland. This tree was found growing
in Western China in 1875, and in 1889 speci-
mens were sent to England and it was found to
be identical with the American species.

The family Bzgnonzacee (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 North-
ern 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.

Hardy Catalpa; A tall tree, 60 to 80 feet high,
Indian Bean with a thick, slightly furrowed
penile idles bark. Smooth, gray, coarse,

stiff twigs. Oval leaf-scars arranged tn whorls
158
 

 

CATALPA

Catalpa speciosa

Page 158
THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE

of three on the stem, or opposite each other.
The buds are short and inconspicuous, with loose
scales. The fruit ts tn long pods, hanging on
the tree tell 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

159
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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, sfeczosa (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 Stmaroubacee 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.

A large tree, with gray bark.

Ailanthus ; : ‘
Tree of Very large, coarse twigs with
Heaven brown pith. Large alternate leaf-

Ailanthus glandulosa

scars, V-shaped, or heart-shaped,
wth numerous bundle-scars. The buds are
small, round, and znconspicuous, and covered
weth two scales. The terminal buds are lacking.
Lhe fruit is winged, like that of the ash, but its
seed 1s in the centre. The dry clusters of fruit
hang on some trees through the winter.

The ailanthus, like the Kentucky coffee tree,
is destitute of small spray among its branches,

but it would never be confused with that tree
160
~

Si

i

S

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NOS

aes
a
ay

yy

rf

ae
Ky
Ie

oS

 

AILANTHUS

Ailanthus glandulosa

Page 160
 
THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE

on account of its smooth bark, which is a great
contrast to the roughly ridged bark of the Ken-
tucky 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 zsthetic 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 orna-
mental 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 az/ando (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, g/andulosa (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
II 161
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

country roads, and in parks and gardens. It
was first brought to the United States by Mr.

William Hamilton in 1784.

The family Avalacce, well known by its
herb members, the ginseng and wild sarsapa-
rilla, has one tree-like representative, — the

aralia.
Angelica Tree; A shrub or low tree, 8 to 30 feet

Hercules’ Club Azgh. Coarse, stout stems, cov-

Aratiaspinsa’ eyed with large prickles. The
alternate leaf-scars are narrow and project from
the stem and almost encircleit. 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 ts 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 North-
ern gardens it is only a shrub, but it invariably
arouses Curiosity and seems to compel atten-
tion more than trees three times its size.

The bark of the root and the berries are oc-

casionally used in medicine as a stimulant.
162
 

 

 

HERCULES’ CLUB

Aralia spinosa

Page 162
 
THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP TREE

The meaning of the generic name is un-
known. The specific name, sfznosa, 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 «Tennes-
see. There it grows to be thirty or thirty-five
feet high, with wide-spreading branches and a
true arborescent habit.

163
CHAPTER XIII

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

MOUNTAIN ASH

Pyrus americana

Page 170
Chapter XIII

THE APPLE TREE, PEAR TREE, MOUN-
TAIN ASH, CHERRY TREE, AND THE
SHAD BUSH.

Family Rosaceze

r NHE rose family is a very large order of
trees, shrubs, and herbs belonging to
temperate climates. There are nu-

merous 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 descrip-
tion 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 some-
times difficult to identify them.
Common “4 Jt topped tree, 20 to 40 feet
Apple Tree igh. The bark of the tree scales
Pyrus Malus off on small, thin, brittle plates.

The buds and the stems are small and somewhat

woolly. The leaf-scars are alternate and tncon-

spicuous, with three bundle-scars.
167
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 Scandina-
vians, 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 pur-
poses 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 in.
troduced into Britain by the Romans, and it is
widely naturalized in the United States.

The generic name, Pyrzs, is the ancient

classical name for the pear tree, and probably
168
THE APPLE AND PEAR TREES

was originally taken from the Celtic word peren,
from which the English word was derived.
The specific name, JZalus, is the ancient clas-

sical name for the apple tree. .
Goiniion pase A pyramidal tree, 30 to 70 feet
Tree high. The bark ts smooth, and

Pyrusconmun’s the byanches incline to be thorny,
especially when the tree has escaped cultivation.
Smooth stems and small pointed buds.  Alter-
nate 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 cultiva-
tion for hundreds of years and there are innu-
merable 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
169
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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.

Mountain Aen, A slender tree, or tall shrub, 20
or Rowan Tree 40 30 feet high. Slender spread-
Pyrus americana ing branches with smooth bark.
The twigs are downy, becoming smooth and
brownish red tn 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.

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 orna-
mental 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

170
rf

Ce

 

A YOUNG BLACK CHERRY TREE

Prunus serotina

Page 171
 
THE APPLE AND PEAR TREES

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 sambuctfolia, the elder-leafed moun-.
tain ash, is another native species which grows
wild in the mountains of Northern New Eng-
land and is found as far north as Greenland
and westward. The range of Pyrus americana
is more limited, but it is found from Newfound-
land to North Carolina and westward.
Wild Black A tree or shrub, varying from
Cherry 15 to 100 feet high. The bark
Primus serina 45° smooth on young trecs, with
conspicuous hortzontal lentecels ; 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, pecu-
liar, 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.
17k
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 medi-
cine, and the ripe fruit is used to flavor alco-
holic liquors.

The meaning of the generic name, Prunus,
is unknown, but it is thought to be of Asiatic
origin. The specific name, sevotzna (late flower-
ing), refers to the blossoms of this trée, which ap-
pear 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 avinm),
the common peach tree (Prunus Persica), and
the common garden plum (Prunus domestica)
all belong to this genus and are widely culti-
vated 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,

172
THE APPLE AND PEAR TREES

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 ther-
mometer 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.

Shad muchiser A small tree, 40 to 50 feet high,

vice Berry;  wzth smooth brown bark. Slen-
June Berry yyy twigs. The buds are brown
Amelanchier canaden-

ws and covered with slightly downy,
silky scales, and the leaf-scars are alternate.
173
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 exceed-
ingly hard, and is used for the handles of tools
and other smail implements.

The generic name, Amelanchier, is the Sa-
voy name for the medlar. The shad bush is
found from Newfoundland to Northern Florida
and westward.

174
CHAPTER XIV

THE WILLOWS AND POPLARS
 
Br

 

WHITE WILLOWS
Salix alba

Page 178
 
Chapter XIV

THE WILLOWS AND POPLARS

Family Salicacez

MONG the willows there are so many
A hybrids and varieties that their classi-
fication 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 Pofzlis also be-
longs to this family, of which four species grow
commonly in New England.
White Willow 4 levee tree, 50 to 80 feet high,
Salix alba with thick, rough bark and lithe
branches. The twigs are smooth and often yel-
low 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 numer-
ous 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
12 177
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

associated itself with country landscapes, and
there is scarcely a marshy meadow or a stream
through a pasture with a water course un-
marked by a row of these trees. It seems
wonderful that the buds of willows should sur-
vive 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 cat-
kins 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 sadrctum, or
willow field, next in value to the vineyard and
the garden.

The generic name comes from the Celtic
words sa/, near, @s, 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 (Sadix babylonica) is

178
THE WILLOW AND POPLARS

planted in gardens and may be distinguished by
its very slender, long drooping branches, which
in every limb suggest the sentiment of a hun-
dred 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 surround-
ings, 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 nzzgra) is the only
one anong our native willows which grows to a
good size, but even this is seldom more than
thirty feet high.

Aspen; Ameri- A medium sized tree, 30 to 60

can Aspen ° feet high, with a smooth, greenish

Populus tremultiZs gyay bark and tapering trunk.

The twigs are slender. The buds are long,

sharp-pointed, with smooth, glossy scales covered

with a gummy substance. Alternate laf-scars.
179
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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 expres-
sion: —
“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 : —

“OQ 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.”
180

?
 

ASPENS

Populus tremulotdes

Page 180
 
THE WILLOW AND POPLARS

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, Popz/us, is supposed to
have come from the Latin ardor populi (the
tree of the people), because rows of this tree
were always planted in public places about
Rome. The specific name, ¢remlordes, refers
to the leaves which tremble continually on
account of their long, flattened, pliable leaf-
stalks. The aspen grows wild throughout the
Northern United States and in the mountains
of Lower California and Mexico.

A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high,

Large toothed wth smooth greenish gray bark.

Aspen
Populus grandiden- Lhe buds are conical with some-
cs what downy scales and spread
at vight 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 lght,

and is used for making wood pulp and wooden
181
SLUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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

Balm of “1 4all tree, 40 to 70 feet high.

Gilead; Balsam Zhe bark is smooth and green-
Poplar

Populus balsamifera

wh 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
1S2
THE WILLOW AND POPLARS

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.

Cottonwood; 4 large tree, 80 to 100 feet

eae ot high. The bark ws dark gray

Poplar and more broken tn fissures than

Populus deltoides — thatof 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 tn the smull stems.

The cottonwood is larger than the other
poplars, and in the Mississippi Valley it some-
times grows to be one hundred and fifty feet
high. The climate of London must be par-
ticularly 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.
183
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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

The specific name, de/toides, 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 cot-
tonwood (Populus heterophylla) is found grow-
ing 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 con-

trast in the foliage when the wind blows.
184
CHAPTER XV

THE LARCH
 

AMERICAN LARCH

Larix larcina

Page 187
Chapter XV
THE LARCH

Family Pinaceze

r “NHE 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.

American 4 large tree, 50 ¢o 100 feet high.
Larch; Tama- Zhe bark is rough with small, flat
rack or Hack- 7 *

aati scales. The stems are pliable, and

Larix larcina = aye 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 ef-
fects ” in landscape gardening, —a choice which
is to be regretted for the most part, as few

trees have so little beauty as the larch.
187
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

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, Lavix, comes from the
Celtic word /av, 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.

Burepess A large tree, 80 to 100 feet high.

Larch The branches are more pendu-

Pavieateides lous, and the cones are twice as
large as those of our native species.

The cones of both the American and Euro-
pean 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.

At one time in England the plan of intro-
188
 

EAN LARCH

EUROP.

Larix decidua

Page 188
THE LARCH

ducing the larch into the forests bordering
the English lakes was under consideration,
and this greatly disturbed the poet Words-
worth, 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 individ-
ual 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 “ Asa 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 be-
comes 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 sum-

mer, when all other trees are in their pride, it is
189
STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER

of a dingy, lifeless hue ; in autumn of a spiritless,
unvaried yellow, and in winter it is still more
lamentably distinguished from every other de-
ciduous 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 thistree. It is said that Julius Cesar 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 rgni tmpenetrabile enum.”
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 sub-
merged, 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.

190
INDEX

Igt
INDEX

ACACIA, rose, 131
Acer, 21
dasycarpum, 26
WNegundo, 28, 29
pennsylvanicum, 27, 28
platanoides, 29, 30
Pseudo-Platanus, 30, 31
rubrum, 23, 25
Ssaccharinum, 25, 26
Saccharum, 22, 23, 26
spicatum, 28
Acerace@, 21
sculus glabra, 17
Lippocastanum, 15, 17
Ailanthus, 160
glandulosa, 160, 161
Amelanchier, 174
canadensis, 173
Angelica tree, 162
Apple tree, 167
Aralia spinosa, 162, 163
Araliacee, 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

13

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
Betulacea, 59
Bigelow, 158
Bignoniacee, 153, 1§8
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

 

193
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, II
adventitious, II
axillary, 6, 10
collateral, 11
flower, II
flowers in the, 1o
latent, I1
lateral, 6, 10
scales of, 9
superposed, It
terminal, 6, Io
winter, II

Bundle-scars, 10

Butternut, t1, 45
sugar from sap of, 47

Buttonwood, 117

CAMBIUM layer, 5, 6
Carpinus, 73

caroliniana, 72,74
Carya, 45, 51

alba, 51

cordiformis, 53

glabra, 54, 56

ovata, 49
Castanea, 82

dentata, 81, 83
Catalpa, hardy, 158

Speciosa, 158, 160
Celtis, 101

occidentalis, 112, 113
Cercis canadensis, 136

Cherry, bird, 172

 

INDEX

Cherry, black, 7, 171
choke, 172
pin, 172
red, 172
sweet, 172
Chestnut, 77, 81
Spanish, 82
Cladrastis, 134
lutea, 134
Cook, 80
Cork tree, 89
Cornacez@, 120
Cornel, flowering, 121
Cornus, 122
Jlorida, 121, 122
Cottonwood, 183
swamp, 184
Cucumber tree, 155

DoGwoop, 120
flowering, 121
poison, 121

Du Hamel, quoted, 143

ELM, Io!
American, 5, 10, IOI, 102
cork, 7, 107, 144
Dutch, 111
English, tor, 108
feathered, 11, 103
Lancaster, 103
red, 105
rock, 107
Scotch, 111
slippery, 7, 105
Thomas’s, 107
white, 102
wych, IIr
Elms, tor
Emerson, quoted, 37, 39, 87, 91,
94, 108, 119, 183
Evelyn, quoted, 41, 80, 190

194
INDEX

FAGACEE, 77

Fagus, 79
grandifolia, 77
sylvatica, 78, 80

Fraxinus, 35
americana, 36
excelsior, 39
nigra, 38
pennsylvanica, 37

Fruit, 8

GERARD, quoted, 70, 111, 180
Gilpin, 80, 119
Gleditsia, 133

triacanthos, 132, 133
Gray, quoted, 47, 119
Growth, 6, 9, 10

annual rings of, 6
Gymnocladus dioica, 135

HACKBERRY, IOI, I12
Hackmatack, 187
Hamamelidacee, t4t
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
whiteheart, 51
fippocastanacee, 15
Holmes, quoted, rog, 118
Homer, quoted, 180
Hop hornbeam, 8, 71
Hornbeam, 7, 72
Horsechestnut, 8, 9, 15, 41, 143
Horsechestnut buds, 15, 16

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

InpIAN bean, 158
Internodes, 9
Ironwood, 71

JEKYLL, quoted, 69
Judas tree, 136
JSuglandacee, 45
Suglans, 45, 47
cinerea, 45
nigra, 48
regia, 49
Juneberry, 173

KENTUCKY coffee tree, 129, 135,
160, 161
Knight, 169 5

LABURNUM vulgare, 136
Larch, 187
American, 187
European, 188
Larix, 188
decidua, 188
larcina, 187
Lauracea, 141, 147
Leaf-scars, 9, 10
Leguminosa, 129
Lenticels, 8, 16
Lime trees, 143
Linden, 141
common, I41
European, 141, 143
Linnzus, 28, 67, 143, 145, 146
Liguidambar, 144, 145
Styracifilua, 144, 146

 

195
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
swamp, 153
tripetala, 154, 155
virginiana, 153

Magnoliace@, 153, 157

Maple, 21
ash-leaved, 28
bird’s eye, 2
curled, 25
moosewood, 27
mountain, 7, 28
Norway, 29
red, 10, II, 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, tog

Morace, 122

Morus, 123
alba, 123, 124
rubra, 123

Mountain ash, 170

Mulberry, red, 123
white, 122, 124

INDEX

NETTLE tree, 112

Nodes, 9

Wyssa, 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
Oleacee, 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
Pinacee, 187
Pith, 6, 8
color, 8
form, 8
Tays, 6
Plane tree, 117
Platanacee, 117

 

196
INDEX

Platanus, 119
occidentalis, 117, 119
ortentalis, 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

Quexcus, 83, 85
alba, 85
bicolor, 86
coccinea, 95, 96
ilictfolia, 97
macrocarpa, 88, 89
palustris, 96, 97
prinoides, 90, 91
Prinus, 89
rubra, 93, 95
stellata, 91
velutina, 92, 93

 

REDBUD, 136

Robinia, 130
hispida, 131
Pseudo-Acacia, 129, 130
viscosa, 131

Rosacek, 167

Rowan tree, 170

SALICACEA:, 177
Salix alba, 177
babylonica, 178
nigra, 179
Sapwood, 5
Sargent, quoted, 104, 107, 124, 135,
145
Sassafras, 7, 141, 147
Sassafras variifolium, 147
Scars, 9
fruit, 9
leaf, 9
stipule, 9
Service berry, 173
Scott, quoted, 69, 180
Shad bush, 173
Shenstone, quoted, 70
Silkworms, 124, 125
Simaroubacer, 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, I17

TAMARACK, 187
Tennyson, quoted, 40, 41
Thoreau, 24

quoted, 65, 548

197
INDEX

Thorns, 8
Tilia americana, 141
Tiliace@, 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

ULMACEA, 101

Umbrella tree, 154

CUlmus, 101, 105
americana, 102
campestris, 108, 110, 112

Ulmus fulva, 105; 106
glabra, 111, 112
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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