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+Project Gutenberg's Getting Acquainted with the Trees, by J. Horace McFarland
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Getting Acquainted with the Trees
+
+Author: J. Horace McFarland
+
+Release Date: May 12, 2009 [EBook #28764]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE TREES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Getting Acquainted with the Trees
+
+BY
+
+J. HORACE McFARLAND
+
+
+_Illustrated from Photographs by the Author_
+
+
+NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914
+
+Copyright, 1904
+
+By The Outlook Company
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Published April, 1904
+
+Reprinted April, 1904
+
+New edition September, 1906
+
+Reprinted August, 1913 March, 1914.
+
+
+
+
+Foreword
+
+
+These sketches are, I fear, very unscientific and unsystematic. They
+record the growth of my own interest and information, as I have recently
+observed and enjoyed the trees among which I had walked unseeing far too
+many years. To pass on, as well as I can, some of the benefit that has
+come into my own life from this wakened interest in the trees provided
+by the Creator for the resting of tired brains and the healing of
+ruffled spirits, as well as for utility, is the reason for gathering
+together and somewhat extending the papers that have brought me, as they
+have appeared in the pages of "The Outlook," so many letters of
+fellowship and appreciation from others who have often seen more clearly
+and deeply into the woods than I may hope to.
+
+Driven out from my desk by weariness sometimes--and as often, I confess,
+by a rasped temper I would fain hide from display--I have never failed
+to find rest, and peace, and much to see and to love, among the common
+and familiar trees, to which I hope these mere hints of some of their
+features not always seen may send others who also need their silent and
+beneficent message.
+
+  J. H. McF.
+
+  _March 17, 1904_
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+  A STORY OF SOME MAPLES                                               1
+
+  THE GROWTH OF THE OAK                                               25
+
+  PINES                                                               49
+
+  APPLES                                                              73
+
+  WILLOWS AND POPLARS                                                 95
+
+  THE ELM AND THE TULIP                                              131
+
+  NUT-BEARING TREES                                                  157
+
+  SOME OTHER TREES                                                   185
+
+  INDEX                                                              235
+
+  BOTANICAL NAMES                                                    239
+
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+  Silver maple flowers                                                 4
+
+  Young leaves of the red maple                                        7
+
+  "The Norway maple breaks into a wonderful bloom"                     9
+
+  Samaras of the sugar maple                                          11
+
+  A mature sycamore maple                                             13
+
+  Sycamore maple blossoms                                             15
+
+  Flowers of the ash-leaved maple                                     17
+
+  Ash-leaved maples in bloom                                          19
+
+  Striped maple                                                       21
+
+  The swamp white oak in winter                                       29
+
+  Flowers of the pin-oak                                              31
+
+  The swamp white oak in early spring                                 36
+
+  An old post-oak                                                     39
+
+  A blooming twig of the swamp white oak                              41
+
+  Acorns of the English oak                                           47
+
+  A lone pine on the Indian river                                     53
+
+  Hemlock Hill, Arnold Arboretum                                      56
+
+  The long-leaved pines of the South                                  61
+
+  Fountain-like effect of the young long-leaved pines                 62
+
+  An avenue of white pines                                            67
+
+  Cones of the white spruce                                           71
+
+  An apple orchard in winter                                          78
+
+  When the apple trees blossom                                        81
+
+  The Spectabilis crab in bloom                                       84
+
+  Fruits of the wild crab                                             87
+
+  The beauty of a fruiting apple branch                               91
+
+  Bloom of double-flowering apple                                     94
+
+  A weeping willow in early spring                                   100
+
+  The weeping willow in a storm                                      103
+
+  A pussy-willow in a park                                           106
+
+  Blooms of the white willow                                    108, 109
+
+  A white willow in a characteristic position                        112
+
+  Clump of young white willows                                       116
+
+  White poplars in spring-time                                       119
+
+  Carolina poplar as a street tree                                   123
+
+  Winter aspect of the cottonwood                                    126
+
+  Lombardy poplar                                                    129
+
+  A mature American elm                                              136
+
+  The delicate tracery of the American elm in winter                 139
+
+  The English elm in winter                                          143
+
+  Winter effect of tulip trees                                       148
+
+  A great liriodendron in bloom                                      150
+
+  Flowers of the liriodendron                                        153
+
+  The wide-spreading black walnut                                    162
+
+  The American sweet chestnut in winter                              165
+
+  Sweet chestnut blooms                                              167
+
+  The chinquapin                                                     170
+
+  A shagbark hickory in bloom                                        173
+
+  The true nut-eater                                                 178
+
+  The American beech in winter                                       180
+
+  The witch-hazel                                                    181
+
+  Sweet birch in spring                                              191
+
+  Yellow birches                                                     192
+
+  Flowers of the spice-bush                                          194
+
+  Leaves and berries of the American holly                           195
+
+  American holly tree at Trenton                                     196
+
+  Floral bracts or involucres of the dogwood                         199
+
+  The red-bud in bloom                                               201
+
+  Blooms of the shad-bush                                            206
+
+  Flowers of the American linden                                     207
+
+  The American linden                                                209
+
+  Flowers of the black locust                                        211
+
+  Young trees of the black locust                                    212
+
+  The sycamore, or button-ball                                       215
+
+  Button-balls--fruit of the sycamore                                217
+
+  The liquidambar                                                    220
+
+  The leaves and fruit of the liquidambar                            222
+
+  The papaw in bloom                                                 226
+
+  Flowers of the papaw                                               227
+
+  The persimmon tree in fruiting time                                231
+
+  Berries of the spice-bush                                          234
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+A Story of Some Maples
+
+
+This is not a botanical disquisition; it is not a complete account of
+all the members of the important tree family of maples. I am not a
+botanist, nor a true scientific observer, but only a plain tree-lover,
+and I have been watching some trees bloom and bud and grow and fruit for
+a few years, using a camera now and then to record what I see--and much
+more than I see, usually!
+
+In the sweet springtime, when the rising of the sap incites some to
+poetry, some to making maple sugar, and some to watching for the first
+flowers, it is well to look at a few tree-blooms, and to consider the
+possibilities and the pleasures of a peaceful hunt that can be made with
+profit in city street or park, as well as along country roadsides and in
+the meadows and the woods.
+
+Who does not know of the maples that are all around us? Yet who has
+seen the commonest of them bloom in very early spring, or watched the
+course of the peculiar winged seed-pods or "keys" that follow the
+flowers? The white or "silver" maple of streets or roadsides, the soft
+maple of the woods, is one of the most familiar of American trees. Its
+rapid and vigorous growth endears it to the man who is in a hurry for
+shade, and its sturdy limbs are the joy of the tree-butcher who "trims"
+them short in later years.
+
+[Illustration: Silver maple flowers]
+
+Watch this maple in very early spring--even before spring is any more
+than a calendar probability--and a singular bloom will be found along
+the slender twigs. Like little loose-haired brushes these flowers are,
+coming often bravely in sleet and snow, and seemingly able to "set" and
+fertilize regardless of the weather. They hurry through the bloom-time,
+as they must do to carry out the life-round, for the graceful
+two-winged seeds that follow them are picked up and whirled about by
+April winds, and, if they lodge in the warming earth, are fully able to
+grow into fine little trees the same season. Examine these seed-pods,
+keys, or samaras (this last is a scientific name with such euphony to it
+that it might well become common!), and notice the delicate veining in
+the translucent wings. See the graceful lines of the whole thing, and
+realize what an abundant provision Dame Nature makes for
+reproduction,--for a moderate-sized tree completes many thousands of
+these finely formed, greenish yellow, winged samaras, and casts them
+loose for the wind to distribute during enough days to secure the best
+chances of the season.
+
+This same silver maple is a bone of contention among tree-men, at times.
+Some will tell you it is "coarse"; and so it is when planted in an
+improper place upon a narrow street, allowed to flourish unrestrained
+for years, and then ruthlessly cropped off to a headless trunk! But set
+it on a broad lawn, or upon a roadside with generous room, and its noble
+stature and grace need yield nothing to the most artistic elm of New
+England. And in the deep woods it sometimes reaches a majesty and a
+dignity that compel admiration. The great maple at Eagles Mere is the
+king of the bit of primeval forest yet remaining to that mountain rest
+spot. It towers high over mature hemlocks and beeches, and seems well
+able to defy future centuries.
+
+But there is another very early maple to watch for, and it is one widely
+distributed in the Eastern States. The red or scarlet maple is well
+named, for its flowers, not any more conspicuous in form than those of
+its close relation, the silver maple, are usually bright red or yellow,
+and they give a joyous color note in the very beginning of spring's
+overture. Not long are these flowers with us; they fade, only to be
+quickly succeeded by even more brilliant samaras, a little more delicate
+and refined than those of the silver maple, as well as of the richest
+and warmest hue. Particularly in New England does this maple provide a
+notable spring color showing.
+
+[Illustration: Young leaves of the red maple]
+
+The leaves of the red maple--it is also the swamp maple of some
+localities--as they open to the coaxing of April sun and April
+showers, have a special charm. They are properly red, but mingled with
+the characteristic color is a whole palette of tints of soft yellow,
+bronze and apricot. As the little baby leaflets open, they are shiny and
+crinkly, and altogether attractive. One thinks of the more aristocratic
+and dwarfed Japanese maples, in looking at the opening of these
+red-brown beauties, and it is no pleasure to see them smooth out into
+sedate greenness. Again, in fall, a glory of color comes to the leaves
+of the red maple; for they illumine the countryside with their scarlet
+hue, and, as they drop, form a brilliant thread in the most beautiful of
+all carpets--that of the autumn leaves. I think no walk in the really
+happy days of the fall maturity of growing things is quite so pleasant
+as that which leads one to shuffle through this deep forest floor
+covering of oriental richness of hue.
+
+As the ground warms and the sun searches into the hearts of the buds,
+the Norway maple, familiar street tree of Eastern cities, breaks into a
+wonderful bloom. Very deceptive it is, and taken for the opening foliage
+by the casual observer; yet there is, when these flowers first open, no
+hint of leaf on the tree, save that of the swelling bud. All that soft
+haze of greenish yellow is bloom, and bloom of the utmost beauty. The
+charm lies not in boldness of color or of contrast, but at the other
+extreme--in the delicacy of differing tints, in the variety of subtle
+shades and tones. There are charms of form and of fragrance, too, in
+this Norway maple--the flowers are many-rayed stars, and they emit a
+faint, spicy odor, noticeable only when several trees are together in
+bloom. And these flowers last long, comparatively; so long that the
+greenish yellow of the young leaves begins to combine with them before
+they fall. The tints of flower and of leaf melt insensibly into each
+other, so that, as I have remarked before, the casual observer says,
+"The leaves are out on the Norway maples,"--not knowing of the great
+mass of delightful flowers that have preceded the leaves above his
+unseeing eyes. I emphasize this, for I hope some of my readers may be on
+the outlook for a new pleasure in early spring--the blooming of this
+maple, with flowers so thoroughly distinct and so entirely beautiful.
+
+[Illustration: "The Norway maple breaks into a wonderful bloom"]
+
+The samaras to follow on this Norway maple are smaller than those of the
+other two maples mentioned, and they hang together at a different angle,
+somewhat more graceful. I have often wondered how the designers, who
+work to death the pansies, the roses and the violets, have managed to
+miss a form or "motive" of such value, suggesting at once the near-by
+street and far-away Egypt.
+
+[Illustration: Samaras of the sugar maple]
+
+A purely American species, and one of as much economic importance as any
+leaf-dropping tree, is the sugar maple, known also as rock maple--one
+designation because we can get sweetness from its sap, the other
+because of the hardness of its wood. The sugar maples of New England, to
+me, are more individual and almost more essentially beautiful than the
+famed elms. No saccharine life-blood is drawn from the elm; therefore
+its elegance is considered. I notice that we seldom think much of beauty
+when it attaches to something we can eat! Who realizes that the common
+corn, the American maize, is a stately and elegant plant, far more
+beautiful than many a pampered pet of the greenhouse? But this is not a
+corn story--I shall hope to be heard on the neglected beauty of many
+common things, some day--and we can for the time overlook the syrup of
+the sugar maple for its delicate blossoms, coming long after the red and
+the silver are done with their flowers. These sugar-maple blooms hang on
+slender stems; they come with the first leaves, and are very different
+in appearance from the flowers of other maples. The observer will have
+no trouble in recognizing them after the first successful attempt, even
+though he may be baffled in comparing the maple leaves by the apparent
+similarity of the foliage of the Norway, the sugar and the sycamore
+maples at certain stages of growth.
+
+[Illustration: A mature sycamore maple]
+
+After all, it is the autumn time that brings this maple most strongly
+before us, for it flaunts its banners of scarlet and yellow in the
+woods, along the roads, with an insouciant swing of its own. The sugar
+possibility is forgotten, and it is a pure autumn pleasure to appreciate
+the richness of color, to be soon followed by the more sober cognizance
+of the elegance of outline and form disclosed when all the delicate
+tracery of twig and bough stands revealed against winter's frosty sky.
+The sugar maple has a curious habit of ripening or reddening some of its
+branches very early, as if it was hanging out a warning signal to the
+squirrels and the chipmunks to hurry along with their storing of nuts
+against the winter's need. I remember being puzzled one August morning
+as I drove along one of Delaware's flat, flat roads, to know what could
+possibly have produced the brilliant, blazing scarlet banner that hung
+across a distant wood as if a dozen red flags were being there
+displayed. Closer approach disclosed one rakish branch on a sugar maple,
+all afire with color, while every other leaf on the tree yet held the
+green of summer.
+
+Again in the mountains, one late summer, half a lusty sugar maple set up
+a conflagration which, I was informed, presaged its early death. But the
+next summer it grew as freely as ever, and retained its sober green
+until the cool days and nights; just as if the ebullition of the season
+previous was but a breaking out of extra color life, rather than a
+suggestion of weakness or death.
+
+[Illustration: Sycamore maple blossoms]
+
+The Norway maple is botanically _Acer platanoides_, really meaning
+plane-like maple, from the similarity of its leaves to those of the
+European plane. The sycamore maple is _Acer Pseudo-platanus_, which,
+being translated, means that old Linnæus thought it a sort of false
+plane-like maple. Both are European species, but both are far more
+familiar, as street and lawn trees, to us dwellers in cities than are
+many of our purely American species. There is a little difference in the
+bark of the two, and the leaves of the sycamore, while almost identical
+in form, are darker and thicker than those of the Norway, and they are
+whitish underneath, instead of light green. The habit of the two is
+twin-like; they can scarcely be distinguished when the leaves are off.
+But the flowers are totally different, and one would hardly believe them
+to be akin, judging only by appearances. The young leaves of the
+sycamore maple are lush and vigorous when the long, grape-like
+flower-clusters appear below the twigs. "Racemes" they are,
+botanically--and that is another truly good scientific word--while the
+beautiful Norway maple's flowers must stand the angular designation of
+"corymbs." But don't miss looking for the sycamore maple's long,
+pendulous racemes. They seem more grape-like than grape blossoms; and
+they stay long, apparently, the transition from flower to fruit being
+very gradual. I mind me of a sycamore I pass every winter day, with its
+dead fruit-clusters, a reminiscence of the flower-racemes, swinging in
+the frosty breeze, waiting until the spring push of the life within the
+twigs shoves them off.
+
+To be ready to recognize this maple at the right time, it is well to
+observe and mark the difference between it and the Norway in the summer
+time, noting the leaves and the bark as suggested above.
+
+[Illustration: Flowers of the ash-leaved maple]
+
+Another maple that is different is one variously known as box-elder,
+ash-leaved maple, or negundo. Of rapid growth, it makes a lusty,
+irregular tree. Its green-barked, withe-like limbs seem willing to grow
+in any direction--down, up, sidewise--and the result is a peculiar
+formlessness that has its own merit. I think of a fringe of box-elders
+along Paxton Creek, decked in early spring with true maple flowers on
+thread-like stems, each cluster surmounted by soft green foliage
+apparently borrowed from the ash, and it seems that no other tree could
+fit better into the place or the season. Then I remember another, a
+single stately tree that has had a great field all to itself, and stands
+up in superb dignity, dominating even the group of pin-oaks nearest to
+it. 'Twas the surprising mist of bloom on this tree that took me up the
+field on a run, one spring day, when the running was sweet in the air,
+but sticky underfoot. The color effect of the flowers is most delicate,
+and almost indescribable in ordinary chromatic terms. Don't miss the
+acquaintance of the ash-leaved maple at its flowering time, in the very
+flush of the springtime, my tree-loving friends!
+
+I have not found a noticeable fragrance in the flowers of the box-elder,
+such as is very apparent where there is a group of Norway maples in
+bloom together. The red maples also give to the air a faint and
+delightfully spicy odor, under favorable conditions. May I hint that the
+lusty box-elder, when it is booming along its spring growth, furnishes
+a loose-barked whistle stick about as good as those that come from the
+willow? The generous growth that provides its loosening sap can also
+spare a few twigs for the boys, and they will be all the better for a
+melodious reason for the spring ramble.
+
+[Illustration: The ash-leaved maples in bloom]
+
+The striped maple of Pennsylvania, a comparatively rare and entirely
+curious small tree or large shrub, is not well known, though growing
+freely as "elkwood" and "moosewood" in the Alleghanies, because it is
+rather hard to transplant, and thus offers no inducements to the
+nurserymen. These good people, like the rest of us, move along the lines
+of least resistance, wherefore many a fine tree or fruit is rare to us,
+because shy or difficult of growth, or perhaps unsymmetrical. The fine
+Rhode Island Greening apple is unpopular because the young tree is
+crooked, while the leather-skinned and punk-fleshed Ben Davis is a model
+of symmetry and rapidity of growth. Our glorious tulip tree of the
+woods, because of its relative difficulty in transplanting, has had to
+be insisted upon from the nurserymen by those who know its superb
+beauty. For the same reason this small charming maple, with the large,
+soft, comfortable leaves upon which the deer love to browse, is kept
+from showing its delicate June bloom and its remarkable longitudinally
+striped bark in our home grounds. I hope some maple friends will look
+for it, and, finding, admire this, the aristocrat among our native
+species.
+
+[Illustration: Striped maple]
+
+The mountain maple--the nurserymen call it _Acer spicatum_--is another
+native of rather dwarf growth. It is bushy, and not remarkable in leaf,
+its claim for distinction being in its flowers and samaras, which are
+held saucily up, above the branches on which they grow, rather than
+drooping modestly, as other maples gracefully bear their bloom and
+fruit. These shiny seeds or keys are brightly scarlet, as well, and thus
+very attractive in color. There is a reason for this, in nature's
+economy; for while the loosely hung samaras of the other maples are
+distributed by the breezes, the red pods of this mountain maple hold
+stiffly upward to attract the birds upon whom it largely depends for
+that sowing which must precede its reproduction.
+
+Of the other maples of America--a score of them there are--I might write
+pages, to weariness. The black maple of the Eastern woods, the
+large-leaved maples of the West, these and many more are in this great
+family, to say nothing of the many interesting cultivated forms and
+variations introduced from European nurseries, and most serviceable in
+formal ornamental planting. But I have told of those I know best and
+those that any reader can know as well in one season, if he looks for
+them with the necessary tree love which is but a fine form of true love
+of God's creation. This love, once implanted, means surer protection for
+the trees, otherwise so defenseless against the unthinking vandalism of
+commercialism or incompetence--a vandalism that has not only devastated
+our American forests, but mutilated shamefully many trees of priceless
+value in and about our cities.
+
+Of the Japanese maples--their leaves seemingly a showing of the
+ingenuity of these Yankees of the Orient, in their twists of form and
+depths of odd color--I could tell a tale, but it would be of the tree
+nursery and not of the broad outdoors. Let us close the book and go
+afield, in park or meadow, on street or lawn, and look to the maples for
+an unsuspected feast of bloom, if it be spring, or for richness of
+foliage in summer and autumn; and in coldest winter let us notice the
+delicate twigs and yet sturdy structure of this tree family that is most
+of all characteristic of the home, in city or country.
+
+
+
+
+The Growth of the Oak
+
+
+The old saw has it, "Great oaks from little acorns grow," and all of us
+who remember the saying have thus some idea of what the beginning of an
+oak is. But what of the beginning of the acorn? In a general way, one
+inferentially supposes that there must be a flower somewhere in the
+life-history of the towering white oak that has defied the storms of
+centuries and seems a type of everything sturdy and strong and
+masculine; but what sort of a flower could one imagine as the source of
+so much majesty? We know of the great magnolias, with blooms befitting
+the richness of the foliage that follows them. We see, and some of us
+admire, the exquisitely delicate blossoms of that splendid American
+tree, the tulip or whitewood. We inhale with delight the fragrance that
+makes notable the time when the common locust sends forth its white
+racemes of loveliness. But we miss, many of us, the flowering of the
+oaks in early spring, and we do not realize that this family of trees,
+most notable for rugged strength, has its bloom of beginning at the
+other end of the scale, in flowers of delicate coloring and rather
+diminutive size.
+
+The reason I missed appreciating the flowers of the oak--they are quite
+new to me--for some years of tree admiration was because of the
+distracting accompaniment the tree gives to the blooms. Some trees--most
+of the maples, for instance--send out their flowers boldly ahead of the
+foliage, and it is thus easy to see what is happening above your head,
+as you stroll along drinking in the spring's nectar of spicy air.
+Others, again, have such showy blooms that the mass of foliage only
+accentuates their attractiveness, and it is not possible to miss them.
+
+[Illustration: The swamp white oak in winter]
+
+But the oak is different; it is, as modest as it is strong, and its
+bloom is nearly surrounded by the opening leaves in most seasons and in
+most of the species I am just beginning to be acquainted with. Then,
+too, these opening leaves are of such indescribable colors--if the
+delicate chromatic tints they reflect to the eye may be so strongly
+named--that they harmonize, and do not contrast, with the flowers. It is
+with them almost as with a fearless chipmunk whose acquaintance I
+cultivated one summer--he was gay with stripes of soft color, yet he so
+fitted any surroundings he chose to be in that when he was quiet he
+simply disappeared! The oak's flowers and its exquisite unfolding of
+young foliage combine in one effect, and it is an effect so beautiful
+that one easily fails to separate its parts, or to see which of the mass
+of soft pink, gray, yellow and green is bloom and which of it is
+leafage.
+
+[Illustration: Flowers of the pin-oak]
+
+Take the pin-oak, for instance, and note the softness of the greenery
+above its flowers. Hardly can we define the young leaves as green--they
+are all tints, and all beautiful. This same pin-oak, by the way (I mean
+the one the botanists call _Quercus palustris_), is a notable
+contradiction of the accepted theory that an oak of size and dignity
+cannot be reared in a lifetime. There are hundreds of lusty pin-oaks all
+over the Eastern States that are shading the homes of the wise men who
+planted them in youth, and they might well adorn our parks and avenues
+in place of many far less beautiful and permanent trees. With ordinary
+care, and in good soil, the pin-oak grows rapidly, and the
+characteristic spreading habit and the slightly down-drooping branches
+are always attractive. In its age it has not the ruggedness of its kin,
+though it assumes a stately and somewhat formal habit, and, I must
+confess, accumulates some ragged dead branches in its interior.
+
+This raggedness is easily cared for, for the tree requires--and few
+trees do--no "trimming" of its outer branches. The interior twigs that
+the rapid growth of the tree has deprived of air and light can be
+quickly and easily removed. In Washington, where street-tree planting
+has been and is intelligently managed under central authority, the
+avenues of pin-oaks are a splendid feature of the great boulevards which
+are serving already as a model to the whole country. Let us plant oaks,
+and relieve the monotony of too many maples, poplars and horse-chestnuts
+along our city and village highways.
+
+I like, too, to see the smooth little acorns of the pin-oak before the
+leaves drop; they seem so finished and altogether pleasing, and with the
+leaves make a classical decorative motive worth more attention from
+designers.
+
+While I am innocent of either ability or intent to write botanically of
+the great oak family, I ought perhaps to transcribe the information that
+the flowers we see--if we look just at the right time in the
+spring--are known as "staminate catkins,"--which, being interpreted,
+means that there are also pistillate flowers, much less conspicuous, but
+exceedingly necessary if acorns are to result; and also the fact that
+the familiar "pussy-willow" of our acquaintance is the same form of
+bloom--the catkin, or ament. I ought to say, too, that some of the oaks
+perfect acorns from blossoms in one year, while others must grow through
+two seasons before they are mature. Botanically, the oak family is
+nearly a world family, and we Americans, though possessed of many
+species, have no monopoly of it. Indeed, if I may dare to refer the
+reader to that great storehouse of words, the Encyclopædia Britannica, I
+think he will find that the oak is there very British, and that the
+English oak, surely a magnificent tree in England anyway, is
+patriotically glorified to the writer.
+
+But we want to talk of some of our own oaks. The one thoroughly
+characteristic is surely the noble white oak, a tree most admirable in
+every way, and most widely distributed over the Northern States. Its
+majestic form, as it towers high above the ordinary works of man,
+conveys the repose of conscious strength to the beholder. There is a
+great oak in Connecticut to which I make pilgrimages, and from which I
+always get a message of rest and peace. There it stands, strong,
+full-powered, minding little the most furious storms, a benediction to
+every one who will but lift his eyes. There it has stood in full majesty
+for years unknown, for it was a great oak, so run the title-deeds, way
+back in 1636, when first the white man began to own land in the
+Connecticut Valley. At first sight it seems not large, for its perfect
+symmetry conceals its great size; but its impression grows as one looks
+at it, until it seems to fill the whole landscape. I have sat under it
+in spring, when yet its leafy canopy was incomplete; I have looked into
+its green depths in midsummer, when its grateful shadow refreshed the
+highway; I have seen the sun set in redness beyond its bare limbs, the
+snowy countryside emphasizing its noble lines; I have tried to fathom
+the mystery in its sturdy heart overhead when the full moon rode in the
+sky; and always that "great oak of Glastonbury" has soothed and cheered
+and rested, and taken me nearer the Giver of all such good to restless
+humanity.
+
+Do I wonder at my friend who has built his home where he may look always
+at this white oak, or that he raged in anger when a crabbed neighbor
+ruthlessly cut down a superb tree of the same kind that was on his
+property line, in order that he might run his barbed-wire fence
+straight? No; I agree with him that this tree-murderer has probably a
+barbed-wire heart, and we expect that his future existence will be
+treeless, at least!
+
+[Illustration: The swamp white oak in early spring]
+
+Sometimes this same white oak adapts itself to the bank of a stream,
+though its true character develops best in the drier ground. Its
+strength has been its bane, for the value of its timber has caused many
+a great isolated specimen to be cut down. It is fine to know that some
+States--Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island also, I think--have
+given to trees along highways, and in situations where they are part of
+the highway landscape, the protection of a wise law. Under this law each
+town appoints a tree-warden, serving without pay (and therefore with
+love), who may seal to the town by his label such trees as are truly the
+common possession, regardless of whose land they happen to be on. If the
+owner desires to cut down a tree thus designated, he must first obtain
+permission, after stating satisfactory reasons, of the annual
+town-meeting, and this is not so easy as to make cutting very frequent.
+The whole country should have such a law, and I should enjoy its
+application right here in Pennsylvania, where oaks of a hundred years
+have been cut down to make room for a whisky sign, and where a superb
+pin-oak that I passed today is devoted to an ignominious use. If I may
+venture to become hortatory, let me say that the responsibility for the
+preservation of the all-too-few remaining great primeval trees, and of
+their often notable progeny, in our Eastern States, rests with those who
+care for trees, not alone with those who ought to care. To talk about
+the greatness and beauty of a fine oak or maple or tulip, to call
+attention to its shade value, and to appeal to the cupidity of the
+ground owner by estimating how much less his property will be worth
+when the trees are gone or have been mishandled, will aid to create the
+necessary public sentiment. And to provide wise laws, as may be often
+done with proper attention, is the plain duty and the high privilege of
+the tree-loving citizen. The trees are defenseless, and they are often
+unreplaceable; if you love them protect them as you would your children.
+
+The white-oak leaf is the most familiar and characteristic, perhaps, of
+the family; but other species, close to the white oak in habit, show
+foliage of a very different appearance. The swamp white oak, for
+instance, is a noble tree, and in winter particularly its irregular
+branches give it an especial expression of rugged strength as it grows
+along a brookside; but its leaves smooth up on the edges, giving only a
+hint of the deep serrations that typify its upland brother. Deeply green
+above are these leaves and softly white below, and in late summer there
+appears, here and there, on a stout stem, a most attractive acorn of
+large size. Its curious cup gives a hint, or more than a hint, as to the
+special designating character of another oak, the mossy-cup or bur. This
+latter species is beautiful in its habit, rich in its foliage, and the
+fringed or mossed acorns are of a remarkable size.
+
+[Illustration: An old post-oak]
+
+Of all the oaks, the sturdy but not lofty post-oak spreads the richest
+display of foliage. Its peculiar habit leads to the even placing of its
+violoncello-shaped leaves, and its generous crop of acorns gives added
+distinction in late summer. It is fine in the forest, and a notable
+ornament anywhere.
+
+It has been said that a proper penance for an offending botanist would
+be a compulsory separation and description of the involved and
+complicated goldenrod family; and I would suggest that a second edition
+of the same penance might be a requirement to name off-hand the first
+dozen oak trees the same poor botanist might meet. So much do the
+foliage, the bark, and the habit of growth vary, and so considerable is
+the difference between individuals of the same species, that the wisest
+expert is likely to be the most conservative. An unbotanical observer,
+who comes at the family just because he loves trees in general, and is
+poking his eyes and his camera into unusual places, doesn't make close
+determinations; he tells what he thinks he sees, and leaves exact work
+to the scientists.
+
+[Illustration: A blooming twig of the swamp white oak]
+
+There are some oaks, however, that have borrowed the foliage of other
+trees so cunningly that one at first scouts the possibility of the
+Quercus parentage, until he sees an undeniable acorn thrusting itself
+forward. Then he is sure that what seemed a rather peculiarly shaped
+chestnut tree, with somewhat stumpy foliage, is none other than the
+chestnut-oak. A fine tree it is, too, this same chestnut-oak, with its
+masquerading foliage of deep green, its upright and substantial habit,
+its rather long and aristocratic-looking acorns. The authorities tell
+that its wood, too, is brownish and valuable; but we tree-lovers are not
+enthusiastic over mere timber values, because that means the killing of
+the trees.
+
+The willow-oak will not deceive, because its habit is so oak-like and so
+willow-less; but its foliage is surely borrowed from its graceful and
+more rapidly growing neighbor. Not so large, by any means, as the white
+oak or the chestnut-oak, it has somewhat rough and reddish bark, and its
+acorns are perfected in the second year of their growth, close to the
+twigs, in the way of the pin-oak. The general aspect of the tree is
+upright, rather than spreading, and it partakes thus of the maple
+character in its landscape effect. The willow-oak is one of the species
+I would, if I were writing a tree-planting article, heartily commend to
+those who wish to add adornment to the countryside that shall be
+permanent and satisfactory. Just a hint here: nursery-grown oaks, now
+obtainable from any modern establishment, have usually been frequently
+moved or transplanted, as the trade term goes, and this means that they
+have established a somewhat self-contained root system, which will give
+them far greater vigor and cause them to take hold sooner when finally
+placed in a situation where they are to be permanent features. The
+reason is plain: the forest seedling, in the fierce struggle for
+existence usually prevailing, must send its roots far and wide for food,
+and when it is dug out their feeding capacity is so seriously curtailed
+as to check the growth of the tree for many years. The nursery-grown
+tree, on the contrary, has been brought up "by hand," and its food has
+always been convenient to it, leading to more rapid growth and a more
+compact root system. I only interject this prosaic fact here in the hope
+that some of my tree-loving readers will undertake to plant some oaks
+instead of only the soft-wooded and less permanent maples, poplars, and
+the like.
+
+Another simulative leaf is that of the laurel-oak, and it is color and
+gloss as well as shape that have been borrowed from its humbler
+neighbor in the forest. The shining green of the laurel is seen in these
+oak leaves; they are also half evergreen, thus being one of the family
+particularly belonging to our Southern States, and hardly enduring the
+chill of the winters north of Virginia. It is one of the galaxy of oaks
+I remember as providing a special interest in the Georgia forests, where
+the long-leaved pine also gave a new tree sensation to the visitor from
+the North, who at first could hardly imagine what those lovely little
+green fountains of foliage were that he saw along the roadside and in
+the woods. The Georgia oaks seem to me to have a richness of foliage, a
+color and substance and shine, that compare only with the excellence of
+two other products of the same State--the peach and the watermelon. The
+long summer and the plenitude of sunshine seem to weave into these
+products luxuriance found nowhere else; and when one sees for the first
+time a happy, rollicking bunch of round-eyed negro children, innocent
+alike of much clothing or any trouble, mixing up with the juicy Georgia
+melon under the shade of a luxuriant oak, he gets a new conception of
+at least one part of the race problem!
+
+One of the things I wanted much to see when I first traveled South was
+the famed live-oak, the majesty and the mournfulness of which had been
+long sung into me. Perhaps I expected too much, as I did of the
+palmetto, another part of my quest, but surely there was disappointment
+when I was led, on the banks of the Manatee River in Florida, to see a
+famous live-oak. It was tall and grand, but its adornment of long,
+trailing gray Spanish moss, which was to have attached the sadness to
+it, seemed merely to make it unkempt and uncomfortable. I was instantly
+reminded of a tree at home in the far North that I had never thought
+particularly beautiful, but which now, by comparison, took on an
+attractiveness it has never since lost. Imagine a great spreading
+weeping willow turned dingy gray, and you have a fair picture of a
+moss-covered live-oak; but you will prefer it green, as is the willow, I
+believe.
+
+One day a walk about Savannah, which city has many splendid live-oaks
+in its parks and squares, involved me in a sudden shower, when, presto!
+the weeping willow of the North was reincarnated before my eyes, for the
+falling rain turned the dingy moss pendants of the live-oak to the
+whitish green that makes the willow such a delightful color-note in
+early spring. I have been thankful often for that shower, for it gave a
+better feeling about the live-oak, and made me admire the weeping
+willow.
+
+The live-oak, by the way, has a leaf very little like the typical
+oak--it is elliptical in shape and smooth in outline. The curious
+parasitic moss that so frequently covers the tree obscures the really
+handsome foliage.
+
+The English Oak, grand tree that it is, grows well in America, as
+everything English should by right, and there are fine trees of this
+_Quercus Robur_ on Long Island. The acorns are of unusual elegance, as
+the photograph which shows them will prove.
+
+The red oak, the black oak, the scarlet oak, all splendid forest trees
+of the Northeast, are in the group of confusion that can be readily
+separated only by the timber-cruiser, who knows every tree in the
+forest for its economic value, or by the botanist, with his limp-bound
+Gray's Manual in hand. I confess to bewilderment in five minutes after
+the differences have been explained to me, and I enjoyed, not long ago,
+the confusion of a skilful nurseryman who was endeavoring to show me his
+young trees of red oak which the label proved to be scarlet! But the
+splendidly effective trees themselves can be fully appreciated, and the
+distinctions will appear as one studies carefully the features of these
+living gifts of nature's greenness. The trees wait on one, and once the
+habit of appreciation and investigation is formed, each walk afield, in
+forest or park, leads to the acquirement of some new bit of tree-lore,
+that becomes more precious and delightful as it is passed on and
+commented upon in association with some other member of the happily
+growing fraternity of nature-lovers.
+
+[Illustration: Acorns of the English oak]
+
+These oak notes are not intended to be complete, but only to suggest
+some points for investigation and appreciation to my fellows in the
+brotherhood. I have never walked between Trenton and New York, and
+therefore never made the desired acquaintance with the scrub-oaks along
+the way. Nor have I dipped as fully into the oak treasures of the Arnold
+Arboretum as I want to some day. But my camera is yet available and the
+trees are waiting; the tree love is growing and the tree friends are
+inviting, and together we will add to the oak knowledge and to that
+thankfulness for God and life and love and friends that the trees do
+most constantly cause to flourish.
+
+
+
+
+The Pines
+
+
+In popular estimation, the pines seem to belong to the North, not quite
+so exclusively as do the palms to the South. The ragged, picturesque old
+pines, spruces and hemlocks of our remembrance carry with them the
+thought of great endurance, long life and snowy forests. We think of
+them, too, as belonging to the mountains, not to the plains; as clothing
+steep slopes with their varied deep greens rather than as standing
+against the sky-line of the sea. Yet I venture to think that the most of
+us in the East see oftenest the pines peculiar to the lowlands, as we
+flit from city to city over the steel highways of travel, and have most
+to do, in an economical sense, with a pine that does not come north of
+the Carolinas--the yellow pine which furnishes our familiar
+house-flooring.
+
+The pine family, as we discuss it, is not all pines, in exactitude--it
+includes many diverse trees that the botanist describes as conifers.
+These cone-bearing trees are nearly all evergreens--that is, the foliage
+persists the year round, instead of being deciduous, as the
+leaf-dropping maples, oaks, birches, and the like are scientifically
+designated. Historically the pines are of hoary age, for they are
+closely related to the growths that furnished the geologic coal measures
+stored up in the foundations of the earth for our use now. Economically,
+too, all the pine family together is of vast importance--"the most
+important order of forest trees in the economy of civilized man," says
+Dr. Fernow; for, as he adds, the cone-bearing trees "have furnished the
+bulk of the material of which our civilization is built." As usual,
+civilization has destroyed ruthlessly, thoughtlessly, almost viciously,
+in using this material; wherefore the devastation of the forests, moving
+them back from us farther and farther until in many regions they are but
+a thin fringe, has left most of us totally unfamiliar with these trees,
+of the utmost beauty as well as of the greatest value.
+
+[Illustration: A lone pine on the Indian River]
+
+To know anything at all of the spruces, pines and hemlocks is to love
+them for the refreshment there is in their living presence, rather than
+to consider them merely for the timber value. But the point of view
+differs immensely with one's occupation. I remember finding in the
+depths of an Alleghany forest a comparatively rare native orchid, then
+new to me--the round-leaved _or orbicular habenaria_. While I was
+gloating over it with my camera a gray-haired native of the neighborhood
+joined me, and, to my surprise, assisted in the gloating--he, too, loved
+the woods and the plants. Coming a little later to a group of
+magnificent hemlocks, with great, clean, towering trunks reaching up a
+hundred feet through the soft maples and yellow birches and beeches
+which seemed dwarfed by these veterans, I exclaimed in admiration.
+"Yes," he said, "them's mighty fine hemlocks. I calc'late thet one to
+the left would bark near five dollars' wuth!" On the rare plant we had
+joined in esthetic appreciation, but the hemlock was to the old
+lumberman but a source of tan-bark.
+
+This search for tannin, by the way, is to blame for much wanton
+destruction. Young hemlocks, from four to six inches in diameter, are
+felled, stripped of their bark, and left cumbering the ground, to invite
+fire and to make of the woods an unkempt cemetery. The fall of a tree
+from natural causes is followed by the interesting and beauty-making
+process of its mossy decay and return to the forest floor, furnishing in
+the process nourishment for countless seedlings and plants. A tree
+felled in maturity under enlightened forest management is all removed
+for its timber, and leaves the ground clear; but the operations of the
+bark-hunter leave only hideous destruction and a "slash" that is most
+difficult to clear in later years.
+
+This same hemlock makes a most impressive forest. To walk among primeval
+hemlocks brings healing to the mind and peace to the soul, as one
+realizes fully that "the groves were God's first temples," and that God
+is close to one in these beneficent solitudes, where petty things must
+fall away, vexations cease, and man's spiritual nature absorb the
+message of the forest.
+
+[Illustration: Hemlock Hill, Arnold Arboretum (Boston)]
+
+I wonder how many of my readers realize that an exquisite bit of real
+hemlock forest lies not five miles from Boston Common? At the Arnold
+Arboretum, that noble collection of trees and plants, "Hemlock Hill" is
+assuming deeper majesty year after year as its trees gain age and size.
+It presents exactly the pure forest conditions, and makes accessible to
+thousands the full beauty and soothing that nothing but a coniferous
+forest can provide for man. There is the great collateral advantage,
+too, that to reach Hemlock Hill, the visitor must use a noble entrance,
+and pass other trees and plants which, in the adequate setting here
+given, cannot but do him much good, and prepare him for the deep sylvan
+temple of the hemlocks he is seeking. To visit the Arboretum at the time
+when the curious variety of the apple relatives--pyruses and the
+like--bloom, is to secure a great benefit of sight and scent, and it is
+almost certain to make one resolve to return when these blossoms shall,
+by nature's perfect work, have become fruit. Here the fruit is grown for
+its beauty only, and thus no gastronomic possibilities interfere with
+the appreciation of color, and form, and situation! But again, to come
+to the Arboretum some time during the reign of the lilacs is to
+experience an even greater pleasure, perhaps, for here the old farm
+garden "laylock" assumes a wonderful diversity of form and color, from
+the palest wands of the Persian sorts to the deepest blue of some of the
+French hybrids.
+
+The pines themselves will well repay any investigation and appreciation.
+Seven species are with us in the New England and Middle Atlantic States,
+seven more are found South, while the great West, with its yet
+magnificent forests, has twenty-five pines of distinct character. The
+white pine is perhaps most familiar to us, because of its economic
+importance, and it is as well the tallest and most notable of all those
+we see in the East. From its first essay as a seedling, with its
+original cluster of five delicate blue-green leaflets, to its lusty
+youth, when it is spreading and broad, if given room to grow, it is a
+fine object, and I have had some thrills of joy at finding this splendid
+common thing planted in well-placed groups on the grounds of wealthy
+men, instead of some Japanese upstart with a name a yard long and a
+truly crooked Oriental disposition! In age the white pine dominates any
+landscape, wearing even the scars of its long battle with the elements
+with stately dignity. A noble pair of white pines on the shore of Lake
+Champlain I remember especially--they were the monarchs of the lakeside
+as they towered above all other trees. Ragged they were, their symmetry
+gone long years ago through attacks of storms and through strife with
+the neighboring trees that had succumbed while they only suffered and
+stood firm. Yet they seemed all complete, of proved strength and staying
+power, and their aspect was not of defiance or anger, but rather
+indicative of beneficent strength, as if they said, "Here we stand;
+somewhat crippled, it is true, but yet pointing upright to the heavens,
+yet vigorous, yet seed-bearing and cheerful!"
+
+Another group of these white pines that stood close to some only less
+picturesque red pines on the shores of a pond deep in the Adirondacks
+emphasized again for me one May day the majesty of this beneficent
+friend of mankind; and yet another old pine monarch against the sunset
+sky pointed the westward way from the picturesque Cornell campus, and
+alas! also pointed the danger to even this one unreplaceable tree when
+modern "enterprise" constructs a trolley line on a scenic route,
+ruthlessly destroying the very features that make the route desirable,
+rather than go to any mechanical trouble!
+
+My readers will easily recall for themselves just the same sort of "old
+pine" groups they have record of on memory's picture-gallery, and will,
+I am sure, agree with me as to the informality, dignity and true beauty
+of these survivors of the forest, all of which deserve to be
+appreciatively cared for, against any encroachment of train, trolley or
+lumberman.
+
+I am ashamed to say I have not yet seen the blossoms of the white pine,
+which the botanists tell us come in early spring, minute and light
+brown, to be followed by the six-inch-long cones which mature the second
+year. I promise my camera that another spring it shall be turned toward
+these shy blossoms.
+
+[Illustration: The long-leaved pines of the South]
+
+[Illustration: The fountain-like effect of the young long-leaved pine]
+
+Any one who has traveled south of Virginia, even by the Pullman way of
+not seeing, cannot fail to have noted the lovely green leaf-fountains
+springing up from the ground along the railroads. These are the young
+trees of the long-leaved or Southern yellow pine. How beautiful they
+are, these narrow leaves of vivid green, more than a foot long, drooping
+gracefully from the center outward, with none of the stiffness of our
+Northern species! In some places they seem to fairly bubble in green
+from all the surface of the ground, so close are they. And the grand
+long-leaved pine itself, maintained in lusty vigor above these
+greeneries, is a tree of simple dignity, emphasized strongly when seen
+at its best either in the uncut forest, or in a planted avenue. We of
+the North are helping to ruin the next generation of Southern pines by
+lavish use, for decorations, of the young trees of about two feet high,
+crowded with the long drooping emerald needles. The little cut-off pine
+lasts a week or two, in a parlor--it took four or five years to grow!
+
+All pine-cones are interesting, and there is a great variation between
+the different species. The scrub-pine one sees along the railroads
+between New York and Philadelphia has rather stubby cones, while the
+pitch-pine, beloved of the fireplace for its "light-knots," has a
+somewhat pear-shaped and gracefully disposed cone. A most peculiar cone
+is that of a variety of the Norway pine, which, among other species
+brought from Europe, is valued for ornament. The common jack-pine of the
+Middle States hillsides wears symmetrical and handsome cones with
+dignity. Cones are, of course, the fruits or seed-holders of the pine,
+but the seeds themselves are found at the base of the scales, or parts
+of the cones, attached in pairs. Each cone, like an apple, has in its
+care a number of seeds, which it guards against various dangers until a
+kindly soil encourages the rather slow germination characteristic of the
+order.
+
+The nurserymen have imported many pines from Europe, which give pleasing
+variety to our ornamental plantings, and aid in enriching the winter
+coloring. The Austrian pine and the Scotch pine are welcome additions to
+our own pine family. In these days of economic chemistry and a
+deficient rag supply, every reader of these words is probably in close
+proximity to an important spruce product--paper. The manufacturers say,
+with hand on heart, that they do not use _much_ wood pulp, but when one
+has passed a great paper-mill flanked on all sides by piles of spruce
+logs, with no bales of rags in sight anywhere, he is tempted to think
+otherwise! Modern forestry is now planting trees on waste lands for the
+pulp "crop," and the common poplar is coming in to relieve the spruces.
+
+Beautiful trees are these spruces and firs, either in the forest or when
+brought by the planter to his home grounds. The leaves are much shorter
+than those of most pines, and clothe the twigs closely. There is a vast
+variety in color, too, from the wonderful whitish or "glaucous" blue of
+the Colorado blue spruce, to the deep shining green of Nordmann's fir, a
+splendid introduction from the Caucasus. Look at them, glistening in the
+winter sun, or drooping with the clinging snow; walk in a spruce wood,
+inhaling the bracing balsamic fragrance which seems so kindly to the
+lungs; hark to the music of the wind in their tops, telling of health
+and purity, of God's love and provision for man's mind and heart, and
+you will begin to know the song of the firs. To really hear this grand
+symphony, for such it then becomes, you must listen to the wind playing
+on the tops of a great primeval coniferous forest, of scores and
+hundreds of acres or miles in extent. And even then, many visits are
+needed, for there are movements to this symphony--the allegro of the
+gale, the scherzo of the easy morning breeze, the deep adagio of a
+rain-storm, and the andante of warm days and summer breezes, when you
+may repose prone upon a soft carpet of pine needles, every sense made
+alert, yet soothed, by the master-theme you are hearing.
+
+There is a little wood of thick young pines, interspersed with hard
+maple and an occasional birch, close by the lake of the Eagles, where my
+summers are made happy. The closeness of the pines has caused their
+lower branches to die, as always in the deep forest, and the falling
+needles, year by year, have deepened the soft brown carpet that covers
+the forest floor. Some one, years ago, struck by the aisles that the
+straight trunks mark out so clearly, called this the "Cathedral Woods."
+The name seems appropriate at all times, but especially when, on a warm
+Sunday afternoon, I lie at ease on the aromatic carpet, hearing the soft
+organ tones in the pine tops, and drinking in God's forest message.
+
+[Illustration: An avenue of white pines]
+
+I have visited these pine woods at midnight, when a full moon, making
+brilliant the near-by lake, gave but a ghostly gloom in the deep, deep
+silence of the Cathedral; but, more impressive, I have often trodden
+through in a white fog, when the distance was misty and dim, and the
+aisles seemed longer and higher, and to lead one further away from the
+trifles of temper and trial. Indeed, I do not believe that any one who
+has but once fully received from the deep forest that which it gives out
+so freely and constantly can ever think of things trivial, or of minor
+annoyances, while again within its soothing portals.
+
+But of the trees of the forest of pine and spruce it must be noted that
+sometimes the deepest, glossiest green of the leaves as presented to
+the eye only hides the dainty, white-lined interior surface of those
+same leaves. To the outside, a somber dignity, unassailable, untouched
+by frost or sun, protective, defenseful, as nature often appears to the
+careless observer; but inside is light, softly reflected, revealing
+unsuspected delicacies of structure and finish.
+
+To us who are not woodsmen or "timber-cruisers" the most familiar of all
+the spruces is the introduced form from Norway. Its yellowish green
+twigs are bright and cheerful, and in specimens that have reached the
+fruiting age the crown of cones, high up in the tree, is an additional
+charm, for these soft brown "strobiles," as the botanist calls them, are
+smooth and regular, and very different from those of the rugged pines. I
+have often been told that the Norway spruce was short-lived, and that it
+became unkempt in age; but now that I have lived for ten years and more
+beside a noble specimen, I know that the change from the upreaching push
+of youth to the semi-drooping sedateness of maturity is only a taking on
+of dignity. There stands on the home grounds of a true tree-lover in
+Pennsylvania a Norway spruce that has been untouched by knife or
+disaster since its planting many years ago. No pruning has shortened in
+its "leader" or top, no foolish idea of "trimming it up" has been
+allowed to deprive it of the very lowest branches, which, in
+consequence, now sweep the ground in full perfection, while the
+unchecked point of the tree still aspires upward forty feet above. A
+beautiful object is this tree--perhaps the most beautiful of all the
+conifers in my friend's great "pinetum," with its scores of rare
+species. Let me ask, then, those who would set this or any other tree of
+evergreen about the home, to see to it that the young tree from the
+nursery has all its lower branches intact, and that its top has never
+been mutilated. With care, such specimens may be obtained and
+successfully transplanted, and will grow in time to a lovely old age of
+steady greenness.
+
+The balsam fir is almost indistinguishable from the Norway spruce when
+young, but soon grows apart from it in habit, and is hardly as
+desirable, even though a native. It is rich in the true balsamic odor;
+and this, again, is its destruction; for one "spruce pillow" may
+destroy a half dozen trees!
+
+[Illustration: Cones of the white spruce]
+
+The white cedar, our common juniper, with its aromatic blue berries or
+fruits, is perhaps the most familiar of all the native evergreens. It
+comes to us of Pennsylvania all too freely at Christmas time, when the
+tree of joy and gifts may mean, in the wholesale, sad forest
+destruction. This juniper I have associated particularly with the
+dogwood and the red-bud, to the bloom of which it supplies a most
+perfect background in the favorite Conewago park, a purely natural
+reservation of things beautiful along the Pennsylvania railroad. Its
+lead-pencil sister, the red cedar, reaches our literary senses as
+closely as does the pulp-making spruce!
+
+I might write much of the rare introduced cypresses from Japan and
+China, and of the peculiar variations that have been worked out by the
+nurserymen among the native pines and firs; yet this would not be talk
+of the trees of the open ground, but rather of the nursery and the park.
+Also, if I had but seen them, there would be much to say about the
+magnificent conifers of the great West, from the giant red-woods, or
+sequoias, of the Mariposa grove in California to the richly varied pines
+of the Rockies. But I can only suggest to my readers the intimate
+consideration of all this great pine family, so peculiarly valuable to
+mankind, and the use of some of the pines and spruces about the home for
+the steady cheer of green they so fully provide.
+
+
+
+
+Apples
+
+
+Well do I remember one of the admonitions of my youth, brought upon me
+by an attempt to take apple-blossoms from a tree in bloom because they
+were beautiful. I was told that it was wrong to pluck for any purpose
+the flowers of fruit trees, because the possible fruitage might thereby
+be reduced. That is, feeding the eye was improper, but it was always in
+order to conserve all the possibilities for another organ of the body.
+In those days we had not learned that nature provides against
+contingencies, and that not one-tenth of all the blossoms would be
+needed to "set" as much fruit as the tree could possibly mature.
+
+The apple, well called the king of fruits, is worthy of all admiration
+as a fruit; but I do not see why that need interfere in the least with
+its consideration as an object of beauty. On the contrary, such
+consideration is all the better for the apple, which is not only most
+desirable and pleasing in its relation to the dessert, the truly
+celebrated American pie, the luscious dumpling of the housewife, and the
+Italian's fruit-stand of our cities, but is at the same time a
+benefaction to the eye and the sense of beauty, in tree, in blossom, and
+in fruit.
+
+It is of the esthetic value of the apple I would write, leaving its
+supreme place in pomology unassailed. Look at the young apple tree in
+the "nursery row," where it has been growing a year since it was
+"budded"--that is, mysteriously changed from the wild and untamed fruit
+of nature to the special variety designed by the nurseryman. It is a
+straight, shapely wand, in most varieties, though it is curious to find
+that some apples, notably the favorite Rhode Island Greening, start in
+promptly to be picturesquely crooked and twisty. As it grows and
+branches under the cultivation and guidance of the orchardist, it
+maintains a lusty, hearty aspect, its yellowish, reddish or brownish
+twigs--again according to variety--spreading out to the sun and the air
+freely. A decade passes, and the sparse showing of bloom that has
+decorated it each spring gradually gives place to a great glory of
+flowers. The tree is about to bear, and it assumes the character of
+maturity; for while it grows on soberly for many years, there is now a
+spreading, a sort of relaxation, very different from the vigorous
+upshooting of its early youth. After a crop or two, the tree has become,
+to the eye, the familiar orchard member, and it leans a little from the
+blasts of winter, twists aside from the perpendicular, spreads
+comfortably over a great expanse of ground, and settles down to its
+long, useful, and truly beautiful life.
+
+While the young orchard is trim and handsome, I confess to a greater
+liking for the rugged old trees that have followed blossom with fruit in
+unstinted profusion for a generation. There is a certain character of
+sturdy good-will about these substantial stems that the clinging snows
+only accentuate in winter. The framework of limb and twig is very
+different from that of the other trees, and the twisty lines seem to
+mean warmth and cheer, even against a frosty sky. And these old
+veterans are house trees, too--they do not suggest the forest or the
+broad expanse of nature, but, instead, the proximity of man and the
+home, the comfortable summer afternoon under their copious leafage, the
+great piles of ruddy-cheeked fruit in autumn.
+
+[Illustration: An apple orchard in winter]
+
+I need hardly say anything of the apple-blossoms, for those who read
+these words are almost certain to have long appreciated their delicately
+fragrant blush and white loveliness. The apricot and the cherry are the
+first of the fruit trees to sing the spring song, and they cover
+themselves with white, in advance of any sign of green leaves on their
+twigs. The apple has an advantage; coming more deliberately, the little
+pink buds are set amidst the soft greens of the opening foliage, and the
+leaves and flowers expand together in their symphony of color and
+fragrance. The grass has grown lush by this time, the dandelions are
+punctuating it with gold, and everything is in the full riot of
+exuberant springtime.
+
+But there are apples and apples and apples. Even the plain orchard
+gives us a difference in flowers, as well as in tree aspect. Notice the
+trees this coming May; mark the flat, white flowers on one tree, the
+cup-shaped, pink-veined blooms on another. Follow both through the
+fruiting, and see whether the sweeter flower brings the more sugary
+fruit. This fact ascertained, perhaps it may be followed up by
+observation of the distinctive color of the twigs and young
+branches--for there are wide differences in this respect, and the canny
+tree-grower knows his pets afar.
+
+Perhaps there is a "crab" in the old orchard, ready to give the greatest
+burst of bloom--for the crab-apple flower is usually finer and more
+fragrant than any other of the cultivated forms. It is an especial
+refuge of the birds and the bees, you will find, and it invites them
+with its rare fragrance and deeper blush, so that they may work all the
+more earnestly at the pollination without which all this richness of
+bloom would be ineffective in nature's reproductive scheme.
+
+[Illustration: When the apple trees blossom]
+
+This same crab-apple is soon to be, as its brilliant fruit matures, a
+notable object of beauty, for few ornamental trees can vie with its
+display of shining color. There was a great old crab right in the flower
+garden of my boyhood home, amid quaint box-trees, snowballs and lilacs.
+Lilies-of-the-valley flourished in its shadow, the delicate
+bleeding-heart mingled with old-fashioned irises and peonies at its
+feet. From early spring until mid-August the crab-apple held court of
+beauty there--and an always hungry boy often found something in addition
+to beauty in the red and yellow fruits that were acid but aromatic.
+
+With a little attention, if one would plant crab-apples for their
+loveliness of fruit hue and form, a fine contrast of color may be had;
+for some varieties are perfect in clear yellow, against others in
+deepest scarlet, bloom-covered with blue haze, and yet others which
+carry all the colors from cream to crimson--the latter as the warm sun
+paints deeper.
+
+Why do we not plant more fruit trees for beauty? Not one of our familiar
+fruits will fail us in this respect, if so considered. The apricot will
+often have its white flowers open to match the purity of the last snow,
+the cherry will follow with a burst of bloom, the apples and crab-apples
+will continue the show, aided by plum and pear and peach, and the
+quince--ah, there's a flower in a green enamel setting!--will close the
+blooming-time. But the cherry fruits now redden in shining roundness,
+the earlier apples throw rich gleams of color to the eye, and there is
+chromatic beauty until frost bids the last russets leave their stems,
+leaving bare the framework of the trees, to teach us in lines of
+symmetry and efficiency how strength and elegance are combined in
+nature's handiwork. Do you fear that some of the fruit may be taken?
+What of it? Plant for beauty, and the fruit is all extra--give it away
+freely, and pass on to others some of God's good gifts, to your own true
+happiness!
+
+There is another crab-apple that is distinctive in its elegance, color
+and fragrance. It is the true "wild crab" of Eastern North America, and
+one who makes its acquaintance in blooming time will never forget it.
+The tree is not large, and it is likely to be set with crooked, thorny
+branches; but the flowers! Deep pink or rosy red chalices, rather longer
+than the commonplace apple-blossom, and hanging on long and slender
+stems in a certain picturesquely stiff disposition, they are a joy for
+the senses of sight and fragrance. This notable native may be found on
+rich slopes and in dry glades--it is not fond of swamps. It is grown
+by some enlightened nurserymen, too, and can well be planted in the home
+grounds to their true adornment. The blossoms give way to form handsome
+yellow fruits, about an inch in diameter, which are themselves much more
+ornamental than edible, for even the small boy will not investigate a
+second time the bitter flesh. I have heard that a cider of peculiar
+"hardness" and potency, guaranteed to unsettle the firmest head, is made
+from these acid fruits--but I have not found it necessary to extend my
+tree studies in that direction.
+
+[Illustration: The Spectabilis crab in bloom]
+
+The states west of Kansas do not know this lovely wild crab, to which
+the botanists give a really euphonious designation as _Pyrus coronaria_.
+There is a prairie-states crab-apple, which I have never seen, but
+which, I am told, has nothing like the beauty of our exquisite Eastern
+native. This Western species lacks the long stem and the bright color of
+the flowers of our favorite, and its fruits, while quite as viciously
+sour, are a dull and greasy green. The great West has many other things,
+but we have the wild crab-apple.
+
+Rather between, as to beauty, is the native crab-apple of the Southland,
+which is known as the Soulard crab. It is not as attractive as our own
+Eastern gem, a pure native possession, and one which our foreign friends
+envy us.
+
+Curiously enough, our own fruiting apple is not a native of America. It
+was at a meeting of a New England pomological association that I heard,
+several years ago, an old man of marvelous memory and power of
+observation tell of his recollections of seventy years, notable among
+which was his account of seeing the first good apples, as a boy, during
+a visit in the state of New York. Think of it! the most widely grown and
+beautiful of all our fruits hardly older than the railroad in America!
+We owe the apples we eat to Europe, for the start, the species being
+probably of Himalayan origin. America has greatly developed the apple,
+however, as one who has looked over the fruit tables at any great
+exposition will promptly testify, and nearly all our really good
+varieties are of American origin. Moreover, we are the greatest
+apple-growers in the world, and the yearly production probably exceeds
+a hundred millions of barrels.
+
+[Illustration: Fruits of the wild crab]
+
+The curious story of "Johnny Appleseed" is given us by historians, who
+tell us of this semi-religious enthusiast who roamed barefoot over the
+wilds of Ohio and Indiana a century ago, sowing apple-seeds in the
+scattered clearings, and living to see the trees bearing fruit,
+selections from which probably are interwoven among the varieties of
+today. New varieties of apples, by the way, come from seeds sown, and
+trees grown from them, with a bare chance that one in ten thousand may
+be worth keeping. When a variety seems thus worthy, "buds" or "scions"
+from the original tree are "budded" or "grafted" by the nurseryman into
+young seedling trees, which are thus changed into the selected sort. To
+sow the seeds of your favorite Baldwin does not imply that you will get
+Baldwin trees, by any means; you will more likely have a partial
+reversion to the acid and bitter original species.
+
+It is not only for the fruit that we are indebted to the Old World, but
+also for some distinctively beautiful and most ornamental varieties of
+the apple, not by any means as well known among us as they ought to be.
+The nurserymen sell as an ornamental small tree a form known as
+"Parkman's double-flowering crab," which produces blooms of much beauty,
+like delicate little roses. Few of them, however, know of the glorious
+show that the spring brings where there is a proper planting of the
+Chinese and Japanese crab-apples, with some other hybrids and varieties.
+To readers in New England a pilgrimage to Boston is always in order. In
+the Public Gardens are superb specimens of these crab-apples from the
+Orient, as well as those native to this continent, and for several weeks
+in May they may be enjoyed. They _are_ enjoyed by the Bostonians, who
+are in this, as in many things, better served by their authorities than
+is any other American city. What other city, for instance, gives its
+people such a magnificent spring show of hyacinths, tulips, daffodils
+and the like?
+
+It is at the wonderful Arnold Arboretum, that Mecca of tree-lovers just
+outside of Boston and really within its superbly managed park system,
+that the greatest show of the "pyrus family," as the apples and pears
+are botanically called, may be found. Here have been gathered the lovely
+blooming trees of all the hardy world, to the delight of the eye and the
+nose, and the education of the mind. To me the most impressive of all
+was a wonderful Siberian crab (one must look for _Pyrus baccata_ on the
+label, as the Arboretum folks are not in love with "common" names) close
+by the little greenhouses. Its round head was purely white, with no
+hint of pink, and the mass of bloom that covered it was only punctuated
+by the green of the expanding leaves. The especial elegance of this crab
+was in its whiteness, and that elegance was not diminished by the later
+masses of little yellow and red, almost translucent, fruits.
+
+A somewhat smaller tree is commonly called the Chinese flowering apple,
+and its early flowers remind one strongly of the beauty of our own wild
+crab, as they are deeper in color than most of the crabs, being almost
+coral-red in bud. This "spectabilis," as it is familiarly called, is a
+gem, as it opens the season of the apple blooms with its burst of pink
+richness.
+
+The beauty-loving Japanese have a festival at the time of the
+cherry-blooming--and it is altogether a festival of beauty, not
+connected with the food that follows the flowers. They actually dare to
+cut the blossoms, too, for adornment, and all the populace take time to
+drink in the message of the spring. Will we workaday Americans ever dare
+to "waste" so much time, and go afield to absorb God's provision of soul
+and sense refreshment in the spring, forgetting for the time our shops
+and desks, our stores and marts?
+
+[Illustration: The beauty of a fruiting apple branch]
+
+Professor Sargent, that deep student of trees who has built himself a
+monument, which is also a beneficence to all mankind, in the great
+volumes of his "Silva of North America," lives not far from Boston, and
+he loves especially that jewel of the apple family which, for want of a
+common name, I must designate scientifically as _Pyrus floribunda_. On
+his own magnificent estate, as well as at the Arboretum, this superb
+shrub or small tree riots in rosy beauty in early spring. While the
+leaves do come with these flowers, they are actually crowded back out of
+apparent sight by the straight wands of rose-red blooms, held by the
+twisty little tree at every angle and in indescribable beauty. If the
+visitor saw nothing but this Floribunda apple--"abundant flowering" sure
+enough--on his pilgrimage, he might well be satisfied, especially if he
+then and there resolved to see it again, either as he planted it at home
+or journeyed hither another spring for the enlargement of his soul.
+
+There are other of these delightful crabs or apples to be
+enjoyed--Ringo, Kaido, Toringo--nearly all of Japanese origin, all of
+distinct beauty, and all continuing that beauty in handsome but inedible
+fruits that hang most of the summer. My tree-loving friends can well
+study these, and, I hope, plant them, instead of repeating continually
+the monotonously familiar shrubs and trees of ordinary commerce.
+
+But I have not spoken enough of one notable feature of the every-day
+apple tree that we may see without a journey to the East. The fully set
+fruiting branch of an apple tree in health and vigor, properly nurtured
+and protected against fungous disease by modern "spraying," is a thing
+of beauty in its form and color. See those deep red Baldwins shine
+overhead in the frosty air of early fall; note the elegance of form and
+striping on the leathery-skinned Ben Davis; appreciate true apples of
+gold set in green enamel on a tree of the sunny Bellefleur! These in the
+fall; but it is hardly full summer before the closely set branches of
+Early Harvest are as beautiful as any orange-tree, or the more upright
+Red Astrachan is ablaze with fruit of red and yellow. Truly, an apple
+orchard might be arranged to give a series of pictures of changing
+beauty of color and growth from early spring until fall frost, and then
+to follow with a daily panorama of form and line against snow and sky
+until the blossoms peeped forth again. Let us learn, if we do not
+already love the apple tree, to love it for its beauty all the year!
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Willows and Poplars
+
+
+"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we
+remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged our
+harps." Thus sang the Psalmist of the sorrows of the exiles in Babylon,
+and his song has fastened the name of the great and wicked city upon one
+of the most familiar willows, while also making it "weep"; for the
+common weeping willow is botanically named _Salix Babylonica_.
+
+It may be that the forlorn Jews did hang their harps upon the tree we
+know as the weeping willow, that species being credited to Asia as a
+place of origin; but it is open to doubt, for the very obvious reason
+that the weeping willow is distinctly unadapted to use as a harp-rack,
+and one is at a loss to know just how the instruments in question would
+have been hung thereon. It is probable that the willows along the rivers
+of Babylon were of other species, and that the connection of the city
+of the captivity and the tears of the exiles with the long, drooping
+branches of the noble tree which has thus been sorrowfully named was a
+purely sentimental one. Indeed, the weeping willow is also called
+Napoleon's willow, because the great Corsican found much pleasure in a
+superb willow of the same species which stood on the lonely prison isle
+of St. Helena, and from twigs of which many trees in the United States
+have been grown.
+
+The willow family presents great contrasts, both physical and
+sentimental. It is a symbol both of grief and of grace. The former
+characterization is undoubtedly because of the allusion of the one
+hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, as quoted above, thoughtlessly
+extended through the centuries; and the latter, as when a beautiful and
+slender woman is said to be of "willowy" form, obviously because of the
+real grace of the long, swinging wands of the same tree. I might hint
+that a better reason for making the willow symbolize grief is because
+charcoal made from its twigs and branches is an important and almost
+essential ingredient of gunpowder, through which a sufficiency of grief
+has undoubtedly entered the world!
+
+Willow twigs seem the very essence of fragility, as they break from the
+parent tree at a touch; and yet one of the willows furnishes the tough,
+pliable and enduring withes from which are woven the baskets of the
+world. The willows, usually thin in branch, sparse of somewhat pale
+foliage, of so-called mournful mien, are yet bursting with vigor and
+life; indeed, the spread and the value of the family is by reason of
+this tenacity and virility, which makes a broken twig, floating on the
+surface of a turbid stream, take root and grow on a sandy bank where
+nothing else can maintain itself, wresting existence and drawing
+strength and beauty from the very element whose ravages of flood and
+current it bravely withstands.
+
+Apparently ephemeral in wood, growing quickly and perishing as quickly,
+the willows nevertheless supply us with an important preservative
+element, extracted from their bitter juices. Salicylic acid, made from
+willow bark, prevents change and arrests decay, and it is an important
+medical agent as well.
+
+[Illustration: A weeping willow in early spring]
+
+Flexible and seemingly delicate as the little tree is when but just
+established, there is small promise of the rugged and sturdy trunk that
+in a few years may stand where the chance twig lodged. And the color of
+the willows--ah! there's a point for full enthusiasm, for this family of
+grief furnishes a cheerful note for every month in the year, and runs
+the whole scale of greens, grays, yellows and browns, and even adds to
+the winter landscape touches of blazing orange and bright red across the
+snow. Before ever one has thought seriously of the coming of spring, the
+long branchlets of the weeping willow have quickened into a hint of
+lovely yellowish green, and those same branchlets will be holding their
+green leaves against a wintry blast when most other trees have given up
+their foliage under the frost's urgency. Often have the orange-yellow
+twigs of the golden osier illumined a somber countryside for me as I
+looked from the car window; and close by may be seen other willow bushes
+of brown, green, gray, and even purple, to add to the color compensation
+of the season. Then may come into the view, as one flies past, a great
+old weeping willow rattling its bare twigs in the wind; and, if a stream
+is passed, there are sure to be seen on its banks the sturdy trunks of
+the white and the black willows at least. Think of an average landscape
+with the willows eliminated, and there will appear a great vacancy not
+readily filled by another tree.
+
+The weeping willow has always made a strong appeal to me, but never one
+of simple grief or sorrow. Its expression is rather of great dignity,
+and I remember watching in somewhat of awe one which grew near my
+childhood's home, as its branches writhed and twisted in a violent
+rain-storm, seeming then fairly to agonize, so tossed and buffeted were
+they by the wind. But soon the storm ceased, the sun shone on the
+rounded head of the willow, turning the raindrops to quickly vanishing
+diamonds, and the great tree breathed only a gentle and benignant peace.
+When, in later years, I came to know the moss-hung live-oak of the
+Southland, the weeping willow assumed to me a new dignity and value in
+the northern landscape, and I have strongly resented the attitude of a
+noted writer on "Art Out of Doors" who says of it: "I never once have
+seen it where it did not hurt the effect of its surroundings, or at
+least, if it stood apart from other trees, where some tree of another
+species would not have looked far better." One of the great merits of
+the tree, its difference of habit, its variation from the ordinary, is
+thus urged against it.
+
+[Illustration: The weeping willow in a storm]
+
+I have spoken of the basket willow, which is scientifically _Salix
+viminalis_, and an introduction from Europe, as indeed are many of the
+family. In my father's nursery grew a great patch of basket willows,
+annually cut to the ground to make a profusion of "sprouts," from which
+were cut the "tying willows" used to bind firmly together for shipment
+bundles of young trees. It was an achievement to be able to take a
+six-foot withe, and, deftly twisting the tip of it under the heel to a
+mass of flexible fiber, tie this twisted portion into a substantial
+loop; and to have this novel wooden rope then endure the utmost pull of
+a vigorous man, as he braced his feet against the bundle of trees in
+binding the withe upon it, gave an impression of anything but weakness
+on the part of the willow.
+
+Who has not admired the soft gray silky buds of the "pussy" willow,
+swelling with the spring's impulse, and ripening quickly into a "catkin"
+loaded with golden pollen? Nowadays the shoots of this willow are
+"forced" into bud by the florists, and sold in the cities in great
+quantities; but really to see it one must find the low tree or bush by a
+stream in the woods, or along the roadside, with a chance to note its
+fullness of blossom. It is finest just when the hepaticas are at their
+bluest on the warm hillsides; and, one sunny afternoon of a spring
+journey along the north branch of the Susquehanna river, I did not know
+which of the two conspicuous ornaments of the deeply wooded bank made me
+most anxious to jump from the too swiftly moving train.
+
+This pussy-willow has pleasing leaves, and is a truly ornamental shrub
+or small tree which will flourish quite well in a dry back yard, as I
+have reason to know. One bright day in February I found a pussy-willow
+tree, with its deep purple buds showing not a hint of the life within.
+The few twigs brought home quickly expanded when placed in water, and
+gave us their forecast of the spring. One twig was, out of curiosity,
+left in the water after the catkins had faded, merely to see what would
+happen. It bravely sent forth leaves, while at the base little white
+rootlets appeared. Its vigor appealing to us, it was planted in an arid
+spot in our back yard, and it is now, after a year and a half, a
+handsome, slender young tree that will give us a whole family of silken
+pussy-buds to stroke and admire another spring.
+
+[Illustration: A pussy-willow in a park]
+
+This same little tree is called also the glaucous willow, and it is
+botanically _Salix discolor_. It is more distinct than some others of
+the family, for the willow is a great mixer. The tree expert who will
+unerringly distinguish between the red oak and the scarlet oak by the
+precise angle of the spinose margins of the leaves (how I admire an
+accuracy I do not possess!) will balk at which is crack willow, or white
+willow, or yellow or blue willow. The abundant vigor and vitality and
+freedom of the family, and the fact that it is of what is known as the
+dioecious habit--that is, the flowers are not complete, fertile and
+infertile flowers being borne on separate trees--make it most ready to
+hybridize. The pollen of the black willow may fertilize the flower of
+the white willow, with a result that certainly tends to grayness on the
+worrying head of the botanist who, in after years, is trying to locate
+the result of the cross!
+
+[Illustration: Blossoms of the white willow]
+
+There is much variety in the willow flowers--and I wonder how many
+observers really notice any other willow "blossoms" than those of the
+showy pussy? A superb spring day afield took me along a fascinatingly
+crooked stream, the Conodoguinet, whose banks furnish a congenial and as
+yet protected (because concealed from the flower-hunting vandal) home
+for wild flowers innumerable and most beautiful, as well as trees that
+have ripened into maturity. An earlier visit at the time the bluebells
+were ringing out their silent message on the hillside, in exquisite
+beauty, with the lavender phlox fairly carpeting the woods, gave a
+glimpse of some promising willows on the other side of the stream.
+Twilight and letters to sign--how hateful the desk and its work seem in
+these days of springing life outside!--made a closer inspection
+impossible then, but a golden Saturday afternoon found three of us, of
+like ideals, hastening to this tree and plant paradise. A mass of soft
+yellow drew us from the highway across a field carpeted thickly with
+bluet or "quaker lady," to the edge of the stream, where a continuous
+hum showed that the bees were also attracted. It was one splendid willow
+in full bloom, and I could not and as yet cannot safely say whether it
+is the crack willow or the white willow; but I can affirm of a certainty
+that it was a delight to the eye, the mind and the nostrils. The extreme
+fragility of the smaller twigs, which broke away from the larger limbs
+at the lightest shake or jar, gave evidence of one of Nature's ways of
+distributing plant life; for it seems that these twigs, as I have
+previously said, part company with the parent tree most readily, float
+away on the stream, and easily establish themselves on banks and bars,
+where their tough, interlacing roots soon form an almost impregnable
+barrier to the onslaught of the flood. Only a stone's throw away there
+stood a great old black willow, with a sturdy trunk of ebon hue, crowned
+with a mass of soft green leafage, lighter where the breeze lifted up
+the under side to the sunlight. Many times, doubtless, the winds had
+shorn and the sleet had rudely trimmed this old veteran, but there
+remained full life and vigor, even more attractive than that of youth.
+
+Most of the willows are shrubs rather than trees, and there are endless
+variations, as I have before remarked. Further, the species belonging at
+first in the Eastern Hemisphere have spread well over our own side of
+the globe, so that it seems odd to regard the white willow and the
+weeping willow as foreigners. At Niagara Falls, in the beautiful park on
+the American side, on the islands amid the toss of the waters, there are
+many willows, and those planted by man are no less beautiful than those
+resulting from Nature's gardening. In spring I have had pleasure in some
+splendid clumps of a form with lovely golden leaves and a small, furry
+catkin, found along the edge of the American rapids. I wonder, by the
+way, how many visitors to Niagara take note of the superb collection of
+plants and trees there to be seen, and which it is a grateful relief to
+consider when the mind is wearied with the majesty and the vastness of
+Nature's forces shown in the cataract? The birds are visitors to Goat
+Island and the other islets that divide the Niagara River, and they have
+brought there the plants of America in wonderful variety.
+
+[Illustration: A white willow in a characteristic position]
+
+There is one willow that has been used by the nurserymen to produce a
+so-called weeping form, which, like most of these monstrosities, is not
+commendable. The goat willow is a vigorous tree introduced from Europe,
+having large and rather broad and coarse leaves, dark green above and
+whitish underneath. It is taken as a "stock," upon which, at a
+convenient height, the skilled juggler with trees grafts a drooping or
+pendulous form known as the Kilmarnock willow, thus changing the habit
+of the tree so that it then "weeps" to the ground. Fortunately, the
+original tree sometimes triumphs, the graft dies, and a lusty goat
+willow rears a rather shapely head to the sky.
+
+This Kilmarnock willow is a favorite of the peripatetic tree agent, and
+I have enjoyed hugely one notable evidence of his persuasive eloquence
+to be seen in a Lebanon Valley town, inhabited by the quaint folk known
+as Pennsylvania Germans. All along the line of the railroad traversing
+this valley may be seen these distorted willows decorating the prim
+front yards, and they are not so offensive when used with other shrubs
+and trees. In this one instance, however, the tree agent evidently found
+a customer who was persuaded that if one Kilmarnock willow was a good
+thing to have, a dozen of them was twelve times better; wherefore his
+dooryard is grotesquely adorned with that many flourishing weepers,
+giving an aspect that is anything but decorous or solemn. Some time the
+vigilance of the citizen will be relaxed, it may be hoped; he will
+neglect to cut away the recurring shoots of the parent trees, and they
+will escape and destroy the weeping form which provides so much
+sarcastic hilarity for the passers-by.
+
+The willow, with its blood relation, the poplar, is often "pollarded,"
+or trimmed for wood, and its abundant vigor enables it to recover from
+this process of violent abbreviation more satisfactorily than do most
+trees. The result is usually a disproportionately large stem or bole,
+for the lopping off of great branches always tends to a thickening of
+the main stem. The abundant leafage of both willow and poplar soon
+covers the scars, and there is less cause to mourn than in the case of
+maples or other "hard-wooded" trees.
+
+If my readers will only add a willow section to their mental observation
+outfit, there will be much more to see and appreciate. Look for and
+enjoy in the winter the variation in twig color and bark hue; notice how
+smoothly lies the covering on one stem, all rugged and marked on
+another. In the earliest spring examine the swelling buds, of widely
+differing color and character, from which shortly will spring forth the
+catkins or aments of bloom, followed by the leaves of varied colors in
+the varied species, and with shapes as varied. Vivid green, soft gray,
+greenish yellow; dull surface and shining surface above, pale green to
+almost pure white beneath; from the long and stringy leaf of the weeping
+willow to the comparatively broad and thick leaf of the
+pussy-willow--there is variety and interest in the foliage well worth
+the attention of the tree-lover. When winter comes, there will be
+another set of contrasts to see in the way the various species lose
+their leaves and get ready for the rest time during which the buds
+mature and ripen, and the winter colors again shine forth.
+
+[Illustration: Clump of young white willows]
+
+These observations may be made anywhere in America, practically, for the
+willow is almost indifferent to locality, growing everywhere that its
+far-reaching roots can find the moisture which it loves, and which it
+rapidly transpires to the thirsty air. As Miss Keeler well remarks, "The
+genus Salix is admirably fitted to go forth and inhabit the earth, for
+it is tolerant of all soils and asks only water. It creeps nearer to the
+North Pole than any other woody plant except its companion the birch. It
+trails upon the ground or rises one hundred feet in the air. In North
+America it follows the water-courses to the limit of the temperate zone,
+enters the tropics, crosses the equator, and appears in the mountains of
+Peru and Chili.... The books record one hundred and sixty species in the
+world, and these sport and hybridize to their own content and to the
+despair of botanists. Then, too, it comes of an ancient line; for
+impressions of leaves in the cretaceous rocks show that it is one of the
+oldest of plants."
+
+Common it is, and therefore overlooked; but the reader may well resolve
+to watch the willow in spring and summer, with its bloom and fruit; to
+follow its refreshing color through winter's chill; to observe its cheer
+and dignity; and to see the wind toss its slender wands and turn its
+graceful leaves.
+
+The poplars and the willows are properly considered together, for
+together they form the botanical world family of the _Salicaceæ_. Many
+characteristics of bloom and growth, of sap and bark, unite the two, and
+surely both, though alike common to the world, are common and familiar
+trees to the dwellers in North America.
+
+[Illustration: White poplars in spring-time]
+
+One of my earliest tree remembrances has to do with a spreading
+light-leaved growth passed under every day on the way to school--and,
+like most school-boys, I was not unwilling to stop for anything of
+interest that might put off arrival at the seat of learning. This great
+tree had large and peculiar winter buds, that always seemed to have
+advance information as to the coming of spring, for they would swell out
+and become exceedingly shiny at the first touch of warm sun. Soon the
+sun-caressing would be responded to by the bursting of the buds, or the
+falling away of their ingenious outer protecting scales, which dropped
+to the ground, where, sticky and shining, and extraordinarily aromatic
+in odor, they were just what a curious school-boy enjoyed investigating.
+"Balm of Gilead" was the name that inquiry brought for this tree, and
+the resinous and sweet-smelling buds which preceded the rather
+inconspicuous catkins or aments of bloom seemed to justify the Biblical
+designation.
+
+Nearly a world tree is this poplar, which in some one of its variable
+forms is called also tacamahac, and balsam poplar as well. Its cheerful
+upright habit, really fine leaves and generally pleasing air commend it,
+but there is one trouble--it is almost too vigorous and anxious to
+spread, which it does by means of shoots or "suckers," upspringing from
+its wide area of root-growth, thus starting a little forest of its own
+that gives other trees but small chance. But on a street, where the
+repression of pavements and sidewalks interferes with this exuberance,
+the balsam poplar is well worth planting.
+
+The poplars as a family are pushing and energetic growers, and serve a
+great purpose in the reforestation of American acres that have been
+carelessly denuded of their tree cover. Here the trembling aspen
+particularly, as the commonest form of all is named, comes in to quickly
+cover and shade the ground, and give aid to the hard woods and the
+conifers that form the value of the forest growth.
+
+This same American aspen, a consideration of the lightly hung leaves of
+which has been useful to many poets, is a well-known tree of graceful
+habit, particularly abundant in the forests north of Pennsylvania and
+New Jersey, and occupying clearings plentifully and quickly. Its flowers
+are in catkins, as with the rest of the family, and, like other poplars,
+they are in two kinds, male and female, or staminate and pistillate,
+which accounts for some troubles the inexperienced investigator has in
+locating them.
+
+There is another aspen, the large-toothed form, that is a distinct
+botanical species; but I have never been able to separate it, wherefore
+I do not try to tell of it here, lest I fall under condemnation as a
+blind leader, not of the blind, but of those who would see!
+
+In many cities, especially in cities that have experienced real-estate
+booms, and have had "extensions" laid out "complete with all
+improvements," there is to be seen a poplar that has the merit of quick
+and pleasing growth and considerable elegance as well. Alas, it is like
+the children of the tropics in quick beauty and quick decadence! The
+Carolina poplar, it is called, being a variety of the wide-spread
+cottonwood. Grow? All that is needed is to cut a lusty branch of it,
+point it, and drive it into the earth--it will do the rest!
+
+This means cheap trees and quick growth, and that is why whole new
+streets in West Philadelphia, for instance, are given up to the Carolina
+poplar. Its clear, green, shining leaves, of good size, coming early in
+spring; its easily guided habit, either upright or spreading; its very
+rapid growth, all commend it. But its coarseness and lack of real
+strength, and its continual invitation to the tree-butcher and the
+electric lineman, indicate the undesirability of giving it more than a
+temporary position, to shade while better trees are growing.
+
+[Illustration: The Carolina poplar as a street tree]
+
+But I must not get into the economics of street-tree planting. I started
+to tell of the blossoms of this same Carolina poplar, which are
+decidedly interesting. Just when the sun has thoroughly warmed up the
+air of spring there is a sudden, rapid thickening of buds over one's
+head on this poplar. One year the tree under my observation swelled and
+swelled its buds, which were shining more and more in the sun, until I
+was sure the next day would bring a burst of leaves. But the weather was
+dry, and it was not until that wonderful solvent and accelerator of
+growing things, a warm spring rain, fell softly upon the tree, that the
+pent-up life force was given vent. Then came, not leaves, but these long
+catkins, springing out with great rapidity, until in a few hours the
+tree glowed with their redness. A second edition of the shower, falling
+sharply, brought many of the catkins to the ground, where they lay about
+like large caterpillars.
+
+The whole process of this blooming was interesting, curious, but hardly
+beautiful, and it seemed to fit in with the restless character of the
+poplar family--a family of trees with more vigor than dignity, more
+sprightliness than grace. As Professor Bailey says of the cottonwood,
+"It is cheerful and restive. One is not moved to lie under it as he is
+under a maple or an oak." Yet there are not wanting some poplars of
+impressive character.
+
+One occurs to me, growing on a wide street of my home town, opposite a
+church with a graceful spire. This white or silver-leaved poplar has for
+many years been a regular prey of the gang of tree-trimmers, utterly
+without knowledge of or regard for trees, that infests this town. They
+hack it shamefully, and I look at it and say, "Well, the old poplar is
+ruined now, surely!" But a season passes, and I look again, to see that
+the tremendous vigor of the tree has triumphed over the butchers; its
+sores have been concealed, new limbs have pushed out, and it has again,
+in its unusual height, assumed a dignity not a whit inferior to that of
+the church spire opposite.
+
+[Illustration: Winter aspect of the cottonwood tree]
+
+This white poplar is at its best on the bank of a stream, where its
+small forest of "suckers" most efficiently protects the slope against
+the destructive action of floods. One such tree with its family and
+friends I saw in full bloom along the Susquehanna, and it gave an
+impression of solidity and size, as well as of lusty vigor, and I have
+always liked it since. The cheerful bark is not the least of its
+attractions--but it is a tree for its own place, and not for every
+place, by reason of the tremendous colonizing power of its root-sprouts.
+
+I wonder, by the way, if many realize the persistence and vigor of the
+roots of a tree of the "suckering" habit? Some years ago an ailanthus, a
+tree of vigor and beauty of foliage but nastiness of flower odor, was
+cut away from its home when excavation was being made for a building,
+which gave me opportunity to follow a few of its roots. One of them
+traveled in search of food, and toward the opportunity of sending up a
+shoot, over a hundred feet!
+
+The impending scarcity of spruce logs to feed the hungry maws of the
+machines that make paper for our daily journals has turned attention to
+several forms of the rapid-growing poplar for this use. The aspen is
+acceptable, and also the Carolina poplar, and these trees are being
+planted in large quantities for the eventual making of wood-pulp. Even
+today, many newspapers are printed on poplar, and exposure to the rays
+of the truth-searching sun for a few hours will disclose the yellowness
+of the paper, if not of the tree from which it has been ground.
+
+[Illustration: Lombardy poplar]
+
+Few whose eyes are turned upward toward the trees have failed to note
+that exclamation-point of growth, the Lombardy poplar. Originating in
+that portion of Europe indicated by its common name, and, indeed, a
+botanical form of the European black poplar, it is nevertheless widely
+distributed in America. When it has been properly placed, it introduces
+truly a note of distinction into the landscape. Towering high in the
+air, and carrying the eye along its narrowly oval contour to a skyward
+point, it is lofty and pleasing in a park. It agreeably breaks the
+sky-line in many places, and is emphatic in dignified groups. To plant
+it in rows is wrong; and I say this as an innocent offender myself. In
+boyhood I lived along the banks of the broad but shallow Susquehanna,
+and enjoyed the boating possible upon that stream when it was not
+reduced, as graphically described by a disgusted riverman, to merely a
+heavy dew. Many times I lost my way returning to the steep bluff near my
+home after the sun had gone to rest, and a hard pull against the swift
+current would ensue as I skirted the bank, straining eyes for landmarks
+in the dusk. It occurred to me to plant six Lombardy poplars on the top
+of the bluff, which might serve as easily recognized landmarks. Four of
+them grew, and are now large trees, somewhat offensive to a quickened
+sense of appropriateness. Long since the old home has been swallowed up
+by the city's advance, and I suppose none who now see those four spires
+of green on the river-bank even guess at the reason for their existence.
+
+The poplar family, as a whole, is exuberant with vigor, and interesting
+more on that account than by reason of its general dignity or strength
+or elegance. It is well worth a little attention and study, and the
+consideration particularly of its bloom periods, to which I commend the
+tree-sense of my readers as they take the tree walks that ought to
+punctuate these chapters.
+
+
+
+
+The Elm and the Tulip
+
+
+America has much that is unique in plant and tree growth, as one learns
+who sees first the collections of American plants shown with pride by
+acute gardeners and estate owners in England and on the European
+Continent. Many a citizen of our country must needs confess with some
+shame that his first estimation of the singular beauty of the American
+laurel has been born in England, where the imported plants are carefully
+nurtured; and the European to whom the rhododendrons of his own country
+and of the Himalayas are familiar is ready to exclaim in rapture at the
+superb effect and tropical richness of our American species, far more
+lusty and more truly beautiful here than the introductions which must be
+heavily paid for and constantly coddled.
+
+For no trees, however, may Americans feel more pride than for our
+American elms and our no less American tulip, the latter miscalled
+tulip "poplar." Both are trees practically unique to the country, both
+are widespread over Eastern North America, both are thoroughly trees of
+the people, both attain majestic proportions, both are long-lived and
+able to endure much hardship without a full giving up of either beauty
+or dignity.
+
+The American elm--how shall I properly speak of its exceeding grace and
+beauty! In any landscape it introduces an element of distinction and
+elegance not given by any other tree. Looking across a field at a
+cluster of trees, there may be a doubt as to the identity of an oak, a
+chestnut, a maple, an ash, but no mistake can be made in regard to an
+elm--it stands alone in the simple elegance of its vase-like form, while
+its feathery branchlets, waving in the lightest breeze, add to the
+refined and classic effect. I use the word "classic" advisedly, because,
+although apparently out of place in describing a tree, it nevertheless
+seems needed for the form of the American elm.
+
+The elm is never rugged as is the oak, but it gives no impression of
+effeminacy or weakness. Its uprightness is forceful and strong, and its
+clean and shapely bole impresses the beholder as a joining of gently
+outcurving columns, ample in strength and of an elegance belonging to
+itself alone. If I may dare to compare man-made architectural forms with
+the trees that graced the garden of Eden, I would liken the American elm
+(it is also the water elm and the white elm, and botanically _Ulmus
+Americana_) to the Grecian types, combining stability with elegance,
+rather than to the more rugged works of the Goths. Yet the free swing of
+the elm's wide-spreading branches inevitably suggests the pointed Gothic
+arch in simplicity and obvious strength.
+
+It is difficult to say when the American elm is most worthy of
+admiration. In summer those same arching branches are clothed and tipped
+with foliage of such elegance and delicacy as the form of the tree would
+seem to predicate. The leaf itself is ornate, its straight ribs making
+up a serrated and pointed oval form of the most interesting character.
+These leaves hang by slender stems, inviting the gentlest zephyr to
+start them to singing of comfort in days of summer heat. The elm is
+fully clothed down to the drooping tips of the branchlets with foliage,
+which, though deepest green above, reflects, under its dense shade, a
+soft light from the paler green of the lower side. It is no wonder that
+New England claims fame for her elms, which, loved and cared for, arch
+over the long village streets that give character to the homes of the
+descendants of the Puritan fathers. The fully grown elm presents to the
+sun a darkly absorbent hue, and to the passer-by who rests beneath its
+shade the most grateful and restful color in all the rainbow's palette.
+
+[Illustration: A mature American elm]
+
+Then, too, the evaporative power of these same leaves is simply
+enormous, and generally undreamed of. Who would think that a great,
+spreading elm, reaching into the air of August a hundred feet, and
+shading a circle of nearly as great diameter, was daily cooling the
+atmosphere with tons of water, silently drawn from the bosom of Mother
+Earth!
+
+Like many other common trees, the American elm blooms almost unnoticed.
+When the silver maple bravely pushes out its hardy buds in earliest
+spring--or often in what might be called latest winter--the elm is
+ready, and the sudden swelling of the twigs, away above our heads in
+March or April, is not caused by the springing leaves, but is the
+flowering effort of this noble tree. The bloom sets curiously about the
+yet bare branches, and the little brownish yellow or reddish flowers are
+seemingly only a bunch of stamens. They do their work promptly, and the
+little flat fruits, or "samaras," are ripened and dropped before most of
+us realize that the spring is fully upon us. These seeds germinate
+readily, and I recall the great pleasure with which a noted
+horticultural professor showed me what he called his "elm lawn," one
+summer. It seemed that almost every one of the thousands of seeds that,
+just about the time his preparations for sowing a lawn were completed,
+had softly fallen from the great elm which guards and shades his
+dooryard, had found good ground, and the result was a miniature forest
+of tiny trees, giving an effect of solid green which was truly a tree
+lawn.
+
+[Illustration: The delicate tracery of the American elm in winter]
+
+But, after all, I think it is in winter that the American elm is at its
+finest, for then stand forth most fully revealed the wonderful symmetry
+of its structure and the elegance of its lines. It has one advantage in
+its great size, which is well above the average, for it lifts its
+graceful head a hundred feet or more above the earth. The stem is
+usually clean and regular, and the branches spread out in closely
+symmetrical relation, so that, as seen against the cold sky of winter,
+leafless and bare, they seem all related parts of a most harmonious
+whole. Other great trees are notable for the general effect of strength
+or massiveness, individual branches departing much from the average line
+of the whole structure; but the American elm is regular in all its
+parts, as well as of general stateliness.
+
+As I have noted, the people of the New England States value and cherish
+their great elms, and they are accustomed to think themselves the only
+possessors of this unique tree. We have, however, as good elms in
+Pennsylvania as there are in New England, and I hope the day is not far
+distant when we shall esteem them as highly. The old elm monarch which
+stands at the gingerbread brownstone entrance of the Capitol Park in
+Pennsylvania's seat of government has had a hard battle, defenseless as
+it is, against the indifference of those whom it has shaded for
+generations, and who carelessly permitted the telegraph and telephone
+linemen to use it or chop it at their will. But latterly there has been
+an awakening which means protection, I think, for this fine old
+landmark.
+
+The two superb elms, known as "Paul and Virginia," that make notable the
+north shore of the Susquehanna at Wilkesbarre, are subjects of local
+pride; which seems, however, not strong enough to prevent the erection
+of a couple of nasty little shanties against their great trunks. There
+can be no doubt, however, that the sentiment of reverence for great
+trees, and of justice to them for their beneficent influence, is
+spreading westward and southward from New England. It gives me keen
+pleasure to learn of instances where paths, pavements or roadways have
+been changed, to avoid doing violence to good trees; and a recent
+account of the creation of a trust fund for the care of a great oak, as
+well as a unique instance in Georgia, where a deed has been recorded
+giving a fine elm a quasi-legal title to its own ground, show that the
+rights of trees are coming to be recognized.
+
+I have said little of the habitat, as the botanist puts it, of the
+American elm. It graces all North America east of the Rockies, and the
+specimens one sees in Michigan or Canada are as happy, apparently, as if
+they grew in Connecticut or in Virginia. Our increasingly beautiful
+national Capital, the one city with an intelligent and controlled system
+of tree-planting, shows magnificent avenues of flourishing elms.
+
+But I must not forget some other elms, beautiful and satisfactory in
+many places. It is no discredit to our own American elm to say that the
+English elm is a superb tree in America. It seems to be
+characteristically British in its sturdy habit, and forms a grand trunk.
+
+[Illustration: The English elm in winter]
+
+The juicy inner bark of the red or "slippery" elm was always acceptable,
+in lieu of the chewing-gum which had not then become so common, to a
+certain ever-hungry boy who used to think as much of what a tree would
+furnish that was eatable as he now does of its beauty. Later, the other
+uses of the bark of this tree became known to the same boy, but it was
+many years before he came really to know the slippery elm. One day a
+tree branch overhead showed what seemed to be remarkable little green
+flowers, which on examination proved to be, instead, the very
+interesting fruit of this elm, each little seed securely held inside a
+very neat and small flat bag. Looking at it earlier the next spring, the
+conspicuous reddish brown color of the bud-scales was noted.
+
+I have never seen the "wahoo," or winged elm of the South, and there are
+several other native elms, as well as a number of introductions from the
+Eastern Hemisphere, with which acquaintance is yet to be made. All of
+them together, I will maintain with the quixotic enthusiasm of lack of
+knowledge, are not worth as much as one-half hour spent in looking up
+under the leafy canopy of our own preëminent American elm--a tree
+surely among those given by the Creator for the healing of the nations.
+
+The tulip-tree, so called obviously because of the shape of its flowers,
+has a most mellifluous and pleasing botanical name, _Liriodendron
+Tulipifera_--is not that euphonious? Just plain "liriodendron"--how much
+better that sounds as a designation for one of the noblest of American
+forest trees than the misleading "common" names! "Tulip-tree," for a
+resemblance of the form only of its extraordinary blooms; "yellow
+poplar," probably because it is not yellow, and is in no way related to
+the poplars; and "whitewood," the Western name, because its wood is
+whiter than that of some other native trees. "Liriodendron" translated
+means "lily-tree," says my learned friend who knows Greek, and that is a
+fitting designation for this tree, which proudly holds forth its
+flowers, as notable and beautiful as any lily, and far more dignified
+and refined than the gaudy tulip. I like to repeat this smooth-sounding,
+truly descriptive and dignified name for a tree worthy all admiration.
+Liriodendron! Away with the "common" names, when there is such a
+pleasing scientific cognomen available!
+
+By the way, why should people who will twist their American tongues all
+awry in an attempt to pronounce French words in which the necessary
+snort is unexpressed visually and half the characters are "silent,"
+mostly exclaim at the alleged difficulty of calling trees and plants by
+their world names, current among educated people everywhere, while
+preferring some misleading "common" name? Very few scientific plant
+names are as difficult to pronounce as is the word "chrysanthemum," and
+yet the latter comes as glibly from the tongue as do "geranium,"
+"rhododendron," and the like. Let us, then, at least when we have as
+good a name as liriodendron for so good a tree, use it in preference to
+the most decidedly "common" names that belie and mislead.
+
+I have said that this same tulip-tree--which I will call liriodendron
+hereafter, at a venture--is a notable American tree, peculiar to this
+country. So believed the botanists for many years, until an inquiring
+investigator found that China, too, had the same tree, in a limited
+way. We will still claim it as an American native, and tell the Chinamen
+they are fortunate to have such a superb tree in their little-known
+forests. They have undoubtedly taken advantage, in their art forms, of
+its peculiarly shaped leaves, if not of the flowers and the curious
+"candlesticks" that succeed them.
+
+[Illustration: Winter effect of tulip trees]
+
+Let us consider this liriodendron first as a forest tree, as an
+inhabitant of the "great woods" that awed the first intelligent
+observers from Europe, many generations back. Few of our native trees
+reach such a majestic height, here on the eastern side of the continent,
+its habitat. Ordinarily it builds its harmonious structure to a height
+of seventy or a hundred feet; but occasional individuals double this
+altitude, and reach a trunk diameter of ten feet. While in the close
+forest it towers up with a smooth, clean bole, in open places it assumes
+its naturally somewhat conical form very promptly. Utterly dissimilar in
+form from the American elm, it seems to stand for dignity, solidity and
+vigor, and yet to yield nothing in the way of true elegance. The
+botanists tell us it prefers deep and moist soil, but I know that it
+lives and seems happy in many soils and in many places. Always and
+everywhere it shows a clean, distinct trunk, its brown bark uniformly
+furrowed, but in such a manner as to give a nearly smooth appearance at
+a little distance. The branches do not leave the stem so imperceptibly
+as do those which give the elm its very distinct form, but rather start
+at a right angle, leaving the distinct central column of solid strength
+unimpaired. The winter tracery of these branches, and the whole effect
+of the liriodendron without foliage, is extremely distinct and pleasing.
+I have in mind a noble group of great liriodendrons which I first saw
+against an early April sky of blue and white. The trees had grown close,
+and had interlaced their somewhat twisty branches, so that the general
+impression was that of one great tree supported on several stems. The
+pure beauty of these very tall and very stately trees, thus grouped and
+with every twig sharply outlined, I shall always remember.
+
+The liriodendron is more fortunate than some other trees, for it has
+several points of attractiveness. Its stature and its structure are
+alike notable, its foliage entirely unique, and its flowers and
+seed-pods even more interesting. The leaf is very easily recognized when
+once known. It is large, but not in any way coarse, and is thrust forth
+as the tree grows, in a peculiarly pleasing way. Sheathed in the manner
+characteristic of the magnolia family, of which the liriodendron is a
+notable member, the leaves come to the light practically folded back on
+themselves, between the two protecting envelopes, which remain until
+the leaf has stretched out smoothly. Yellowish green at first, they
+rapidly take on the bright, strong green of maturity. The texture is
+singularly refined, and it is a pleasure to handle these smooth leaves,
+of a shape which stamps them at once on the memory, and of a coloring,
+both above and below, that is most attractive. They are maintained on
+long, slender stems, or "petioles," and these stems give a great range
+of flexibility, so that the leaves of the liriodendron are, as Henry
+Ward Beecher puts it, "intensely individual, each one moving to suit
+himself."
+
+[Illustration: A great liriodendron in bloom]
+
+Of course all this moving, and this out-breaking of the leaves from
+their envelopes, take place far above one's head, on mature trees. It
+will be found well worth while, however, for the tree-lover to look in
+the woods for the rather numerous young trees of the tulip, and to
+observe the very interesting way in which the growth proceeds. The
+beautiful form and color of the leaves may also be thus conveniently
+noted, as also in the autumn the soft, clear yellow early assumed.
+
+It is the height and spread of the liriodendron that keep its truly
+wonderful flowers out of the public eye. If they were produced on a
+small tree like the familiar dogwood, for instance, so that they might
+be nearer to the ground, they would receive more of the admiration so
+fully their due. In Washington, where, as I have said, trees are planted
+by design and not at random, there are whole avenues of liriodendrons,
+and it was my good fortune one May to drive between these lines of
+strong and shapely young trees just when they were in full bloom. The
+appearance of these beautiful cups, each one held upright, not drooping,
+was most striking and elegant. Some time, other municipalities will
+learn wisdom from the example set in Washington, and we may expect to
+see some variety in our street trees, now monotonously confined for the
+most part to the maples, poplars, and a few good trees that would be
+more valued if interspersed with other equally good trees of different
+character. The pin-oak, the elm, the sweet-gum, or liquidambar, the
+ginkgo, and a half-dozen or more beautiful and sturdy trees, do
+admirably for street planting, and ought to be better known and much
+more freely used.
+
+[Illustration: Flowers of the liriodendron]
+
+I have seen many rare orchids brought thousands of miles and petted into
+a curious bloom--indeed, often more curious than beautiful. If the bloom
+of the liriodendron, in all its delicate and daring mingling of green
+and yellow, cream and orange, with its exquisite interior filaments,
+could be labeled as a ten-thousand-dollar orchid beauty from Borneo, its
+delicious perfume would hardly be needed to complete the raptures with
+which it would be received into fashionable flower society. But these
+lovely cups stand every spring above our heads by millions, their
+fragrance and form, their color and beauty, unnoticed by the throng. As
+they mature into the brown fruit-cones that hold the seeds, and these in
+turn fall to the ground, to fulfil their purpose of reproduction, there
+is no week in which the tree is not worthy of attention; and, when the
+last golden leaf has been plucked by the fingers of the winter's frost,
+there yet remain on the bare branches the curious and interesting
+candlestick-like outer envelopes of the fruit-cones, to remind us in
+form of the wonderful flower, unique in its color and attractiveness,
+that gave its sweetness to the air of May and June.
+
+These two trees--the elm and the liriodendron--stand out strongly as
+individuals in the wealth of our American trees. Let all who read and
+agree in my estimate, even in part, also agree to try, when opportunity
+offers, to preserve these trees from vandalism or neglect, realizing
+that the great forest trees of our country are impossible of
+replacement, and that their strength, majesty and beauty are for the
+good of all.
+
+
+
+
+Nut-Bearing Trees
+
+
+What memories of chestnutting parties, of fingers stained with the dye
+of walnut hulls, and of joyous tramps afield in the very heart of the
+year, come to many of us when we think of the nuts of familiar
+knowledge! Hickory-nuts and butternuts, too, perhaps hazelnuts and even
+beechnuts--all these American boys and girls of the real country know.
+In the far South, and, indeed, reaching well up into the Middle West,
+the pecan holds sway, and a majestic sway at that, for its size makes it
+the fellow of the great trees of the forest, worthy to be compared with
+the chestnut, the walnut, and the hickory.
+
+But it has usually been of nuts to eat that we have thought, and the
+chance for palatable food has, just as with some of the best of the
+so-called "fruit" trees--all trees bear fruit!--partially closed our
+eyes to the interest and beauty of some of these nut-bearers.
+
+My own tree acquaintance has proceeded none too rapidly, and I have
+been--and am yet--as fond of the toothsome nuts as any one can be who is
+not a devotee of the new fad that attempts to make human squirrels of us
+all by a nearly exclusive nut diet. I think that my regard for a nut
+tree as something else than a source of things to eat began when I came,
+one hot summer day, under the shade of the great walnut at Paxtang. Huge
+was its trunk and wide the spread of its branches, while the richness of
+its foliage held at bay the strongest rays of the great luminary. How
+could I help admiring the venerable yet lusty old tree, conferring a
+present benefit, giving an instant and restful impression of strength,
+solidity, and elegance, while promising as well, as its rounded green
+clusters hung far above my head, a great crop of delicious nut-fruit
+when the summer's sun it was so fully absorbing should have done its
+perfect work!
+
+Alas for the great black walnut of Paxtang! It went the way of many
+another tree monarch whose beauty and living usefulness were no defense
+against sordid vandalism. In the course of time a suburb was laid out,
+including along its principal street, and certainly as its principal
+natural ornament, this massive tree, around which the Indians who roamed
+the "great vale of Pennsylvania" had probably gathered in council. The
+sixty-foot "lot," the front of which the tree graced, fell to the
+ownership of a man who, erecting a house under its beneficent
+protection, soon complained of its shade. Then came a lumber prospector,
+who saw only furniture in the still flourishing old black walnut. His
+offer of forty dollars for the tree was eagerly accepted by the
+Philistine who had the title to the land, and although there were not
+wanting such remonstrances as almost came to a breaking of the peace,
+the grand walnut ended its hundreds of years of life to become mere
+lumber for its destroyers! The real estate man who sold the land greatly
+admired the tree himself, realizing also its great value to the suburb,
+and had never for one moment dreamed that the potential vandal who
+bought the tree-graced parcel of ground would not respect the inherent
+rights of all his neighbors. He told me of the loss with tears in his
+eyes and rage in his language; and I have never looked since at the
+fellow who did the deed without reprobation. More than that, he has
+proven a theory I hold--that no really good man would do such a thing
+after he had been shown the wrong of it--by showing himself as dishonest
+in business as he was disregardful of the rights of the tree and of his
+neighbors.
+
+[Illustration: The wide-spreading black walnut]
+
+The black walnut is a grand tree from any point of view, even though it
+so fully absorbs all water and fertility as to check other growth under
+its great reach of branches. The lines it presents to the winter sky are
+as rugged as those of the oak, but there is a great difference. And this
+ruggedness is held far into the spring, for the black walnut makes no
+slightest apparent effort at growth until all the other trees are
+greening the countryside. Then with a rush come the luxuriant and
+tropical compound leaves, soon attaining their full dignity, and adding
+to it also a smooth polish on the upper surface. The walnut's flowers I
+have missed seeing, I am sorry to say, while registering a mental
+promise not to permit another season to pass without having that
+pleasure.
+
+Late in the year the foliage has become scanty, and the nut-clusters
+hang fascinatingly clear, far above one's head, to tempt the climb and
+the club. The black walnut is a tree that needs our care; for furniture
+fashion long used its close-grained, heavy, handsome wood as cruelly as
+the milliners did the herons of Florida from which were torn the
+"aigrets," now happily "out of style." Though walnut furniture is no
+longer the most popular, the deadly work has been done, for the most
+part, and but few of these wide-spread old forest monarchs yet remain.
+Scientific forestry is now providing, in many plantings, and in many
+places, another "crop" of walnut timber, grown to order, and using waste
+land. It is to such really beneficent, though entirely commercial work,
+that we must look for the future of many of our best trees.
+
+The butternut, or white walnut, has never seemed so interesting to me,
+nor its fruit so palatable, probably because I have seen less of it. The
+so-called "English" walnut, which is really the Persian walnut, is not
+hardy in the eastern part of the United States, and, while a tree of
+vast commercial importance in the far West, does not come much into the
+view of a lover of the purely American trees.
+
+[Illustration: The American sweet chestnut]
+
+Of the American sweet chestnut as a delightful nut-fruit I need say
+nothing more than that it fully holds its place against "foreign
+intervention" from the East; even though these European and Japanese
+chestnuts with their California-bred progeny give us fruit that is much
+larger, and borne on trees of very graceful habit. No one with
+discrimination will for a moment hesitate, after eating a nut of both,
+to cheerfully choose the American native as best worth his commendation,
+though he may come to understand the food value, after cooking, of the
+chestnuts used so freely in parts of Europe.
+
+[Illustration: Sweet chestnut blossoms]
+
+As a forest tree, however, our American sweet chestnut has a place of
+its own. Naturally spreading in habit when growing where there is room
+to expand, it easily accommodates itself to the more cramped conditions
+of our great woodlands, and shoots upward to light and air, making
+rapidly a clean and sturdy stem. What a beautiful and stately tree it
+is! And when, late in the spring, or indeed right on the threshold of
+summer, its blooming time comes, it stands out distinctly, having then
+few rivals in the eye of the tree-lover. The locust and the tulip are
+just about done with their floral offering upon the altar of the year
+when the long creamy catkins of the sweet chestnut spring out from the
+fully perfected dark green leaf-clusters. Peculiarly graceful are these
+great bloom heads, high in the air, and standing nearly erect, instead
+of hanging down as do the catkins of the poplars and the birches. The
+odor of the chestnut flower is heavy, and is best appreciated far above
+in the great tree, where it may mingle with the warm air of June,
+already bearing a hundred sweet scents.
+
+There stands bright in my remembrance one golden June day when I came
+through a gateway into a wonderful American garden of purely native
+plants maintained near Philadelphia, the rock-bound drive guarded by two
+clumps of tall chestnuts, one on either side, and both in full glory of
+bloom. There could not have been a more beautiful, natural, or dignified
+entrance; and it was just as beautiful in the early fall, when the deep
+green of the oblong-toothed leaves had changed to clear and glowing
+yellow, while the flowers had left their perfect work in the swelling
+and prickly green burs which hid nuts of a brown as rich as the flesh
+was sweet.
+
+Did you, gentle reader, ever saunter through a chestnut grove in the
+later fall, when the yellow had been browned by the frosts which brought
+to the ground alike leaves and remaining burs? There is something
+especially pleasant in the warmth of color and the crackle of sound on
+the forest floor, as one really shuffles through chestnut leaves in the
+bracing November air, stooping now and then for a nut perchance
+remaining in the warm and velvety corner of an opened bur.
+
+Here in Pennsylvania, and south of Mason and Dixon's line, there grows a
+delightful small tree, brother to the chestnut, bearing especially sweet
+little nuts which we know as chinquapins. They are darker brown, and the
+flesh is very white, and rich in flavor. I could wish that the
+chinquapin, as well as the chestnut, was included among the trees that
+enlightened Americans would plant along roadsides and lanes, with other
+fruit trees; the specific secondary purpose, after the primary enjoyment
+of form, foliage and flower, being to let the future passer-by eat
+freely of that fruit provided by the Creator for food and pleasure, and
+costing no more trouble or expense than the purely ornamental trees more
+frequently planted.
+
+Both chestnut and chinquapin are beautiful ornamental trees; and some of
+the newer chestnut hybrids, of parentage between the American and the
+European species, are as graceful as the most highly petted lawn trees
+of the nurserymen. Indeed, the very same claim may be made for a score
+or more of the standard fruit trees, alike beautiful in limb tracery, in
+bloom, and in the seed-coverings that we are glad to eat; and some time
+we shall be ashamed not to plant the fruit trees in public places, for
+the pleasure and the refreshing of all who care.
+
+[Illustration: The chinquapin]
+
+One of the commonest nut trees, and certainly one of the most pleasing,
+is the hickory. There are hickories and hickories, and some are
+shellbarks, while others are bitternuts or pignuts. The form most
+familiar to the Eastern States is the shagbark hickory, and its
+characteristic upright trees, tall and finely shaped, never
+wide-spreading as is the chestnut under the encouragement of plenty of
+room and food, are admirable from any standpoint. There is a lusty old
+shagbark in Wetzel's Swamp that has given me many a pleasant
+quarter-hour, as I have stood at attention before its symmetrical stem,
+hung with slabs of brown bark that seem always just ready to separate
+from the trunk.
+
+The aspect of this tree is reflected in its very useful timber, which is
+pliant but tough, requiring less "heft" for a given strength, and
+bending with a load easily, only to instantly snap back to its position
+when the stress slackens. Good hickory is said to be stronger than
+wrought iron, weight for weight; and I will answer for it that no
+structure of iron can ever have half the grace, as well as strength,
+freely displayed by this same old shagbark of the lowlands near my home.
+
+Curious as I am to see the blooms of the trees I am getting acquainted
+with, there are many disappointments to be endured--as when the favorite
+tree under study is reached a day too late, and I must wait a year for
+another opportunity. It was, therefore, with much joy that I found that
+a trip carefully timed for another fine old hickory along the
+Conodoguinet--an Indian-named stream of angles, curves, many trees and
+much beauty--had brought me to the quickly passing bloom feast of this
+noble American tree. The leaves were about half-grown and half-colored,
+which means that they displayed an elegance of texture and hue most
+pleasing to see. And the flowers--there they were, hanging under the
+twigs in long clusters of what I might describe as ends of chenille, if
+it were not irreverent to compare these delicate greenish catkins with
+anything man-made!
+
+[Illustration: A shagbark hickory in bloom]
+
+This fine shagbark was kind to the cameraman, for some of its lower
+branches drooped and hung down close enough to the "bars" of the rail
+fence to permit the photographic eye to be turned on them. Then came the
+tantalizing wait for stillness! I have frequently found that a wind,
+absolutely unnoticeable before, became obtrusively strong just when the
+critical moment arrived, and I have fancied that the lightly hung
+leaflets I have waited upon fairly shook with merriment as they received
+the gentle zephyr, imperceptible to my heated brow, but vigorous enough
+to keep them moving. Often, too--indeed nearly always--I have found that
+after exhausting my all too scanty stock of patience, and making an
+"exposure" in despair, the errant blossoms and leaflets would settle
+down into perfect immobility, as if to say, "There! don't be
+cross--we'll behave," when it was too late.
+
+But the shagbark at last was good to me, and I could leave with the
+comfortable feeling that I was carrying away a little bit of nature's
+special work, a memorandum of her rather private processes of
+fruit-making, without injuring any part of the inspected trees. It has
+been a sorrow to me that I have not seen that great hickory later in the
+year, when the clusters of tassels have become bunches of husk-covered
+nuts. To get really acquainted with any tree, it should be visited many
+times in a year. Starting with the winter view, one observes the bark,
+the trend and character of the limbs, the condition of the buds. The
+spring opening of growth brings rapid changes, of both interest and
+beauty, to be succeeded by the maturity of summer, when, with the
+ripened foliage overhead, everything is different. Again, when the fruit
+is on, and the touch of Jack Frost is baring the tree for the smoother
+passing of the winds of winter, there is another aspect. I have great
+respect for the tree-lover who knows unerringly his favorites at any
+time of the year, for have I not myself made many mistakes, especially
+when no leaves are at hand as pointers? The snow leaves nothing to be
+seen but the cunning framework of the tree--tell me, then, is it ash, or
+elm, or beech? Which is sugar-maple, and which red, or sycamore?
+
+One summer walk in the deep forest, my friend the doctor, who knows many
+things besides the human frame, was puzzled at a sturdy tree bole, whose
+leaves far overhead mingled so closely with the neighboring greenery of
+beech and birch that in the dim light they gave no help. First driving
+the small blade of his pocket-knife deep into the rugged bark of the
+tree in question, he withdrew it, and then smelled and tasted,
+exclaiming, "Ah, I thought so; it _is_ the wild cherry!" And, truly, the
+characteristic prussic-acid odor, the bitter taste, belonging to the
+peach and cherry families, were readily noted; and another Sherlock
+Holmes tree fact came to me!
+
+Of other hickories I know little, for the false shagbark, the mockernut,
+the pignut, and the rest of the family have not been disclosed to me
+often enough to put me at ease with them. There are to be more tree
+friends, both human and arborescent, and more walks with the doctor and
+the camera, I hope!
+
+We of the cold North, as we crack the toothsome pecan, hardly realize
+its kinship with the hickory. It is full brother to our shellbark,
+which is, according to botany, _Hicoria ovata_, while the Southern tree
+is _Hicoria pecan_. A superb tree it is, too, reaching up amid its
+vigorous associates of the forests of Georgia, Alabama and Texas to a
+height exceeding one hundred and fifty feet. Its upright and elegant
+form, of a grace that conceals its great height, its remarkable
+usefulness, and its rather rapid growth, commend it highly. The
+nut-clusters are striking, having not only an interesting outline, but
+much richness of color, in greens and russets.
+
+[Illustration: The American beech in winter]
+
+It may seem odd to include the beech under the nut-bearing trees, to
+those of us who know only the nursery-grown forms of the European beech,
+"weeping" and twisted, with leaves of copper and blood, as seen in parks
+and pleasure-grounds. But the squirrels would agree; they know well the
+sweet little triangular nuts that ripen early in fall.
+
+The pure American beech, uncontaminated and untwisted with the abnormal
+forms just mentioned, is a tree that keeps itself well in the eye of the
+woods rambler; and that eye is always pleasured by it, also. Late in
+winter, the light gray branches of a beech thicket on a dry hillside on
+the edge of my home city called attention to their clean elegance amid
+sordid and forbidding surroundings, and it was with anger which I dare
+call righteous that I saw a hideous bill-board erected along the
+hillside, to shut out the always beautiful beeches from sight as I
+frequently passed on a trolley car! I have carefully avoided buying
+anything of the merchants who have thus set up their announcements where
+they are an insult; and it might be noted that these and other offensive
+bill-boards are to others of like mind a sort of reverse
+advertising--they tell us what _not_ to purchase.
+
+[Illustration: The true nut-eater]
+
+Years ago I chanced to be present at a birth of beech leaves, up along
+Paxton Creek. It was late in the afternoon, and our reluctant feet were
+turning homeward, after the camera had seen the windings of the creek
+against the softening light, when the beeches over-arching the little
+stream showed us this spring marvel. The little but perfectly formed
+leaves had just opened, in pairs, with a wonderful covering of silvery
+green, as they hung downward toward the water, yet too weak to stand out
+and up to the passing breeze. The exquisite delicacy of these trembling
+little leaves, the arching elegance of the branches that had just opened
+them to the light, made it seem almost sacrilegious to turn the lens
+upon them.
+
+Often since have I visited the same spot, in hope to see again this
+awakening, but without avail. The leaves show me their silky
+completeness, rustling above the stream in softest tree talk; the
+curious staminate flower-clusters hang like bunches of inverted commas;
+the neat little burs, with their inoffensive prickles, mature and
+discharge the angular nuts--but I am not again, I fear, to be present at
+the hour of the leaf-birth of the beech's year.
+
+The beech, by the way, is tenacious of its handsome foliage. Long after
+most trees have yielded their leaves to the frost, the beech keeps its
+clothing, turning from the clear yellow of fall to lightest fawn, and
+hanging out in the forest a sign of whiteness that is cheering in the
+winter and earliest spring. These bleached-out leaves will often remain
+until fairly pushed off by the opening buds of another year.
+
+[Illustration: The witch-hazel]
+
+Of the hazelnut or filbert, I know nothing from the tree side, but I
+cannot avoid mentioning another botanically unrelated so-called
+hazel--the witch-hazel. This small tree is known to most of us only as
+giving name to a certain soothing extract. It is worthy of more
+attention, for its curious and delicately sweet yellow flowers,
+seemingly clusters of lemon-colored threads, are the very last to bloom,
+opening bravely in the very teeth of Jack Frost. They are a delight to
+find, on the late fall rambles; and the next season they are followed by
+the still more curious fruits, which have a habit of suddenly opening
+and fairly ejaculating their seeds. A plucked branch of these fruits,
+kept in a warm place a few hours, will show this--another of nature's
+efficient methods for spreading seeds, in full operation--if one watches
+closely enough. The flowers and the fruits are on the tree at the same
+time, just as with the orange of the tropics.
+
+Speaking of a tropical fruit, I am reminded that the greatest nut of
+all, though certainly not an American native, is nevertheless now grown
+on American soil. Some years ago a grove of lofty cocoanut palms in
+Yucatan fascinated me, and the opportunity to drink the clear and
+refreshing milk (not milky at all, and utterly different from the
+familiar contents of the ripened nut of commerce) was gladly taken. Now
+the bearing trees are within the bounds of the United States proper, and
+the grand trees in Southern Florida give plenty of fruit. The African
+citizens of that neighborhood are well aware of the refreshing character
+of the "juice" of the green cocoanut, and a friend who sees things for
+me with a camera tells with glee how a "darky" at Palm Beach left him in
+his wheel-chair to run with simian feet up a sloping trunk, there to
+pull, break open, and absorb the contents of a nut, quite as a matter of
+course. I have myself seen the Africans of the Bahamas in the West
+Indies climbing the glorious cocoa palms of the coral keys, throwing
+down the mature nuts, and then, with strong teeth, stripping the tough
+outer covering to get at the refreshing interior.
+
+All these nut trees are only members of the great family of trees given
+by God for man's good, I firmly believe; for man first comes into
+Biblical view in a garden of trees, and the city and the plain are but
+penances for sin!
+
+
+
+
+Some Other Trees
+
+
+In preceding chapters of this series I have treated of trees in a
+relationship of family, or according to some noted similarity. There
+are, however, some trees of my acquaintance of which the family
+connections are remote or unimportant, and there are some other trees of
+individual merit with the families of which I am not sufficiently well
+acquainted to speak familiarly as a whole. Yet many of these trees,
+looked at by themselves, are as beautiful, interesting, and altogether
+worthy as any of which I have written, and they are also among the
+familiar trees of America. Therefore I present a few of them apart from
+the class treatment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One day in very early spring--or was it very late in winter?--I walked
+along the old canal road, looking for some evidence in tree growth that
+spring was really at hand. Buds were swelling, and here and there a
+brave robin could be heard telling about it in song to his mate (I think
+that settled the season as earliest spring!); but beyond the bud
+evidences the trees seemed to be silent on the subject. Various herbs
+showed lusty beginnings, and the skunk-cabbage, of course, had pushed up
+its tropical richness in defiance of any late frost, pointing the way to
+its peculiar red-purple flowers, long since fertilized and turning
+toward maturity.
+
+The search seemed vain, until a glint of yellow just ahead, too deep to
+proceed from the spice-bush I was expecting to find, drew me to the very
+edge of the water, there to see hanging over and reflected in the stream
+a mass of golden catkins. Looking closely, and touching the little tree,
+I disengaged a cloud of pollen and a score of courageous bees, evidently
+much more pleased with the sweet birch than with the near-by
+skunk-cabbage flowers. Sweet birch it was; the stiff catkins, that had
+all winter held themselves in readiness, had just burst into bloom with
+the sun's first warmth, introducing a glint of bright color into the
+landscape, and starting the active double work of the bees, in
+fertilizing flowers while gathering honey, that was not to be
+intermitted for a single sunshine hour all through the season.
+
+A little later, along the great Susquehanna, I found in full bloom other
+trees of this same birch, beloved of boys--and of girls--for its
+aromatic bark. Certainly picturesque and bright, the little trees were a
+delight to the winter-wearied eye, the mahogany twigs and the golden
+catkins, held at poise over the water, being full of spring suggestion.
+
+All of the birches--I wish I knew them better!--are good to look at, and
+I think the bees, the woodpeckers, the humming-birds and other wood folk
+must find some of them good otherwise. At Eagles Mere there was a yellow
+birch in the bark of which scores of holes had been drilled by the
+woodpeckers or the bees, at regularly spaced intervals, to let the
+forest life drink at will of the sweet sap. I remember also that my
+attempt to photograph a score of bees, two large brown butterflies and
+one humming-bird, all in attendance upon this birch feast, was a
+surprising failure. I secured a picture of the holes in the bark, to be
+sure, but the rapidly moving insect and bird life was too quick for an
+exposure of even a fraction of a second, and my negative was lifeless.
+These same yellow birches, picturesque in form, ragged in light-colored
+bark, give a brightness all their own to the deep forest, mostly of
+trees with rather somber bark.
+
+A woodsman told me one summer of the use of old birch bark for starting
+a fire in the wet woods, and I have since enjoyed collecting the bark
+from fallen trees in the forest. It strips easily, in large pieces, from
+decayed stems, and when thrown on an open fire, produces a cheery and
+beautiful blaze, as well as much heat; while, if cunningly handled, by
+its aid a fire can be kindled even in a heavy rain.
+
+[Illustration: Sweet birch in early spring]
+
+The great North Woods show us wonderful birches. Paddling through one of
+the Spectacle ponds, along the Racquette river, one early spring day, I
+came upon a combination of white pine, red pine, and paper-birch that
+was simply dazzling in effect. This birch has bark, as every one knows,
+of a shining creamy white. Not only its color, but its tenacity,
+resistance to decay, and wonderful divisibility, make this bark one of
+the most remarkable of nature's fabrics. To the Indian and the trapper
+it has long been as indispensable as is the palm to the native of the
+tropics.
+
+[Illustration: Yellow birches]
+
+There are other good native birches, and one foreigner--the true white
+birch--whose cut-leaved form, a familiar lawn tree of drooping habit, is
+worth watching and liking. The name some of the nurserymen have given
+it, of "nine-bark," is significantly accurate, for at least nine layers
+may be peeled from the glossy whiteness of the bark of a mature tree.
+
+I intend to know more of the birches, and to see how the two kinds of
+flowers act to produce the little fruits, which are nuts, though they
+hardly look so. And I would urge my tree-loving friends to plant about
+their homes these cheery and most elegantly garbed trees.
+
+The spice-bush, of which I spoke above, is really a large shrub, and is
+especially notable for two things--the way it begins the spring, and
+the way it ends the fall. About my home, it is the first of wild woods
+trees to bloom, except perhaps the silver maple, which has a way of
+getting through with its flowers unnoticed before spring is thought of.
+One finds the delicate little bright yellow flowers of the spice-bush
+clustered thickly along the twigs long before the leaves are ready to
+brave the chill air. After the leaves have fallen in the autumn, these
+flowers stand out in a reincarnation of scarlet and spicy berries, which
+masquerade continually as holly berries when cunningly introduced amid
+the foliage of the latter. Between spring and fall the spice-bush is
+apparently invisible.
+
+[Illustration: Flowers of the spice-bush]
+
+[Illustration: Leaves and berries of the American holly]
+
+How many of us, perfectly familiar with "the holly berry's glow" about
+Christmas time, have ever seen a whole tree of holly, set with berries?
+Yet the trees, sometimes fifty feet high, of American holly--and this is
+very different from the English holly in leaf--grow all along the
+Atlantic sea-board, from Maine to Florida, and are especially plenty
+south of Maryland and Delaware. There is one superb specimen in Trenton,
+New Jersey's capital, which is of the typical form, and when crowded
+with scarlet berries it is an object of great beauty. One reason why
+many of us have not seen holly growing in the wild is that it seems to
+prefer the roughest and most inaccessible locations. Years ago I was
+told that I might see plenty of holly growing freely in the Pennsylvania
+county of my home. "But," my informant added, "you will need to wear
+heavy leather trousers to get to it!" The nurserymen are removing this
+difficulty by growing plants of all the hollies--American, Japanese,
+English and Himalayan--so that they may easily be set in the home
+grounds, with their handsome evergreen foliage and their berries of
+red or black.
+
+[Illustration: American holly tree at Trenton, N. J.]
+
+One spring, the season and my opportunities combined to provide a most
+pleasing feast of color in the tree quest. It was afforded by the
+juxtaposition at Conewago of the bloom-time of the deep pink red-bud,
+miscalled "Judas tree," and the large white dogwood,--both set against
+the deep, almost black green of the American cedar, or juniper. These
+two small trees, the red-bud and the dogwood, are of the class of
+admirable American natives that are notable rather for beauty and
+brightness of bloom than for tree form or size.
+
+The common dogwood--_Cornus florida_ of the botany--appears in bloom
+insidiously, one might say; for the so-called flowers open slowly, and
+they are green in color, and easily mistaken for leaves, after they have
+attained considerable size. Gradually the green pales to purest white,
+and the four broad bracts, with the peculiar little pucker at the end of
+each, swell out from the real flowers, which look like stamens, to a
+diameter of often four inches. With these flowers clustered thickly on
+the usually flat, straight branches, the effect against the green or
+brown of near-by trees is startling. The dogwood's horizontal branching
+habit makes every scrap of its lovely white blooms effective to the
+beholder on the ground below, but far more striking if one may see it
+from above, as looking down a hillside.
+
+Though the dogwood blooms before its leaves are put forth, the foliage
+sometimes catches up with the flowers; and this foliage is itself a
+pleasure, because of its fineness and its regular venation, or marking
+with ribs. In the fall, when the flowers of purest white have been
+succeeded by oblong berries of brightest scarlet, the foliage remains
+awhile to contrast with the brilliance of the fruit. The frosts soon
+drop the leaves, and then the berries stand out in all their
+attractiveness, offering food to every passing bird, and thus carrying
+out another of nature's cunning provisions for the reproduction of the
+species. Seeds in the crops of birds travel free and far, and some fall
+on good ground!
+
+Is it not sad to know that the brave, bold dogwood, holding out its
+spring flag of truce from arduous weather, and its autumn store of
+sustenance for our feathered friends, is in danger of extinction from
+the forest because its hardy, smooth, even-grained white wood has been
+found to be especially available in the "arts"? I feel like begging for
+the life of every dogwood, as too beautiful to be destroyed for any mere
+utility.
+
+[Illustration: Floral bracts or involucres of the dogwood]
+
+I have been wondering as to the reason for the naming of the cornuses as
+dogwoods, and find in Bailey's great Cyclopedia of Horticulture the
+definite statement that the name was attached to an English red-branched
+species because a decoction of the bark was used to wash mangy dogs!
+This is but another illustration of the inadequacy and inappropriateness
+of "common" names.
+
+There are many good dogwoods--the Cornus family is admirable, both in
+its American and its foreign members--but I must not become encyclopedic
+in these sketches of just a few tree favorites. I will venture to
+mention one shrub dogwood--I never heard its common name, but it has
+three botanical names (_Cornus sericea_, or _coerulea_, or _Amomum_,
+the latter preferred) to make up for the lack. It ought to be called
+the blue-berried dogwood, by reason of its extremely beautiful fruit,
+which formed a singular and delightful contrast to the profusion of red
+and scarlet fruits so much in evidence, one September day, in Boston's
+berry-full Franklin Park.
+
+[Illustration: The red-bud in bloom]
+
+The red-bud, as I have said, is miscalled Judas-tree, the tradition
+being that it was on a tree of this family, but not of the American
+branch, happily and obviously, that the faithless disciple hanged
+himself after his final interview with the priests who had played upon
+his cupidity. Indeed, tradition is able to tell even now marvelous
+stories to travelers, and not long ago I was more amused than edified to
+hear an eloquent clergyman just returned from abroad tell how he had
+been shown the fruits of the Judas-tree, "in form like beautiful apples,
+fair to the eye, but within bitter and disappointing;" and he moralized
+just as vigorously on this fable as if it had been true, as he thought
+it. He didn't particularly relish the suggestion that the pulpit ought
+to be fairly certain of its facts, whether of theology or of science, in
+these days; but he succumbed to the submission of authority for the
+statement that the Eastern so-called Judas-tree, _Cercis siliquastrum_,
+bore a small pod, like a bean, and was not unpleasant, any more than the
+pod was attractive.
+
+I mention this only in reprobation of the unpleasant name that really
+hurts the estimation of one of the most desirable and beautiful of
+America's smaller trees. The American red-bud is a joy in the spring
+about dogwood time, for it is all bloom, and of a most striking color.
+Deep pink, or purplish light red, or clear bright magenta--all these
+color names fit it approximately only. One is conscious of a warm glow
+in looking toward the little trees, with every branch clear down to the
+main stem not only outlined but covered with richest color.
+
+There is among the accompanying illustrations (page 201) a photograph of
+a small but characteristic red-bud in bloom, looking at which reminds me
+of one of the pleasantest experiences of my outdoor life. With a
+cameristic associate, I was in a favorite haunt, seeing dogwoods and
+red-buds and other things of spring beauty, when a sudden warm thunder
+shower overtook us. Somewhat protected in our carriage--and it would
+have been more fun if we had stood out to take the rain as comfortably
+as did the horse--we saw the wonder of the reception of a spring shower
+by the exuberant plant life we were there to enjoy. When the clouds
+suddenly obscured the sky, and the first drops began to fall, the soft
+new umbrellas of the May-apples, raised to shield the delicate white
+flowers hidden under them from the too ardent sunshine, reversed the
+usual method by closing tightly and smoothly over the blooms, thus
+protecting perfectly their pollen hearts, and offering little resistance
+to the sharp wind that brought the rain. At our very feet we could see
+the open petals of the spring beauty coil up into tight little spirals,
+the young leaves on the pin-oaks draw in toward the stems from which
+they had been expanding. Over the low fence, the blue phlox, that dainty
+carpeting of the May woods, shut its starry flowers, and lay close to
+the ground. Quiet as we were, we could see the birds find sheltered
+nooks in the trees about us.
+
+But soon the rain ceased, the clouds passed away, and the sun shone
+again, giving us a rainbow promise on the passing drops. Everything woke
+up! The birds were first to rejoice, and a veritable oratorio of praise
+and joyfulness sounded about our ears. The leaves quickly expanded,
+fresher than ever; the flowers uncurled and unfolded, the May-apple
+umbrellas raised again; and all seemed singing a song as joyous as that
+of the birds, though audible only to the nerves of eye and brain of the
+human beings who had thus witnessed another of nature's interior
+entertainments.
+
+How much we miss by reason of fear of a little wetting! Many of the
+finest pictures painted by the Master of all art are visible only in
+rain and in mist; and the subtlest coloring of tree leaf and tree stem
+is that seen only when the dust is all washed away by the shower that
+should have no terrors for those who care for the truths of nature. In
+these days of rain-proof clothing, seeing outdoors in the rain is not
+even attended by the slightest discomfort, and I have found my camera
+quite able to stand a shower!
+
+Another of the early spring-flowering small trees--indeed, the earliest
+one that blooms in white--is the shad-bush, or service-berry. Again the
+"common" names are trifling and inadequate; shad-bush because the
+flowers come when the shad are ascending the rivers along which the
+trees grow, and service-berry because the pleasant fruits are of
+service, perhaps! June-berry, another name, is better; but the genus
+owns the mellifluous name of Amelanchier, and the term Canadensis
+belongs to the species with the clouds of little white flowers shaped
+like a thin-petaled star. The shad-bush blooms with the trilliums--but I
+may not allow the spring flowers to set me spinning on another hank!
+
+[Illustration: Blooms of the shad-bush]
+
+Searching for early recollections of trees, I remember, when a boy of
+six or seven, finding some little green berries or fruits, each with its
+long stem, on the pavement under some great trees in the Capitol Park of
+my home town. I could eat these; and thus they pleased the boy as much
+as the honey-sweet flowers that gave rise to them now please the man.
+The noble American linden, one of the really great trees of our forests,
+bears these delicate whitish flowers, held in rich clusters from a
+single stem which is attached for part of its length to a curious long
+green bract. If these flowers came naked on the tree, as do those of the
+Norway maple, for instance, they would be easily seen and admired of
+men, but being withheld until the splendid heart-shaped foliage is well
+out, the blooms miss the casual eye. But the bees see them; they know
+the linden for their own, and great stores of sweetest honey follow a
+year when abundant pasture of these flowers is available.
+
+[Illustration: Flowers of the American linden]
+
+A kindly tree is this linden, or lime, or basswood, to give it all its
+common names. Kindly as well as stately, but never rugged as the oak, or
+of obvious pliant strength as the hickory. The old tree invites to shade
+under its limbs crowded with broad leaves; the young tree is lusty of
+growth and clean of bark, a model of rounded beauty and a fine variant
+from the overworked maples of our streets.
+
+Again, the tale of woe! for the great lindens of our forests are nearly
+all gone. Too useful for timber; too easy to fell; its soft, smooth,
+even wood too adaptable to many uses! Cut them all; strip the bark for
+"bast," or tying material; America is widening; the sawmills cannot be
+idle; scientific and decent forestry, so successful and so usual in
+Europe, is yet but a dream for future generations here in America!
+
+But other lindens, those of Europe especially, are loved of the
+landscape architect and the Germans. "Unter den Linden," Berlin's famous
+street, owes its name, fame and shade to the handsome European species,
+the white-lined leaves of which turn up in the faintest breeze, to show
+silvery against the deep green of their upper surfaces. Very many of
+these fine lindens are being planted now in America by landscape
+architects, and there are some lindens on Long Island just as prim and
+trim as any in Berlin. Indeed, there is a sort of German "offiziere"
+waxed-mustache air of superiority about them, anyway!
+
+[Illustration: The American linden]
+
+There is an all-pervading Middle States tree that I might give a common
+name to as the "fence-post tree," because it is so often grown for that
+use only, by reason of its enduring timber and its exceeding vigor under
+hard usage. Yet the common black locust is one of the most distinct and
+pleasing American trees of moderate height. Distinct it is in its
+framework in winter, mayhap with the twisted pods of last season's
+fruits hanging free; distinct again in its long-delayed late-coming
+acacia-like foliage; but fragrant, elegant and beautiful, as well as
+distinct, when in June it sets forth its long, drooping racemes of
+whitest and sweetest flowers. These come only when warm weather is an
+assured fact, and the wise Pennsylvania Germans feel justified in
+awaiting the blooming of the locust before finally discarding their
+winter underclothing!
+
+For years a family of my knowledge has held it necessary, for its proper
+conduct, to have in order certain floral drives. First the apple
+blossom drive introduces the spring, and the lilac drive confirms the
+impression that really the season is advancing; but the locust drive is
+the sweetest of all, taking these nature lovers along some shady lanes,
+beside the east bank of a great river, and in places where, the trees
+planted only for the fence utility of the hard yellow wood, these
+fragrant flowers, hanging in grace and elegance far above the highway,
+have redeemed surroundings otherwise sordid and mean.
+
+[Illustration: Flowers of the black locust]
+
+I want Americans to prize the American locust for its real beauty. The
+French know it, and show with pride their trifling imported specimens.
+We cannot exterminate the trees, and there will be plenty for posts,
+too; but let us realize its sweetness and elegance, as well as the
+durability of its structure.
+
+[Illustration: Young trees of the black locust]
+
+There are fashions in trees, if you please, and the nurserymen set them.
+Suddenly they discover the merits of some long-forgotten tree, and it
+jumps into prominence. Thus, only a few years ago, the pin-oak came into
+vogue, to the lasting benefit of some parks, avenues and home grounds.
+Then followed the sycamore, but it had to be the European variety, for
+our own native "plane tree," or "button-ball," is too plentiful and easy
+to sing much of a tree-seller's song about. This Oriental plane is a
+fine tree, however, and the avenue in Fairmount Park that one may see
+from trains passing over the Schuylkill river is admirable. The bark is
+mottled in green, and especially bright when wet with rain. As the
+species is free from the attacks of a nasty European "bug," or fungus,
+which is bothering the American plane, it is much safer to handle,
+commercially.
+
+But our stately American sycamore is in a different class. One never
+thinks of it as a lawn tree, or as bordering a fashionable roadway;
+rather the expectation is to find it along a brook, in a meadow, or in
+some rather wild and unkempt spot. As one of the scientific books begins
+of it, "it is a tree of the first magnitude." I like that expression;
+for the sycamore gives an impression of magnitude and breadth; it
+spreads out serenely and comfortably.
+
+My friend Professor Bailey says _Platanus occidentalis_, which is the
+truly right name of this tree, has no title to the term sycamore; it is
+properly, as his Cyclopedia gives it, Buttonwood, or Plane. Hunting
+about a little among tree books, I find the reason for this, and that it
+explains another name I have never understood. The sycamore of the
+Bible, referred to frequently in the Old Testament, traditionally
+mentioned as the tree under which Joseph rested with Mary and the young
+child on the way to Egypt, and into which Zaccheus climbed to see what
+was going on, was a sort of fig tree--"Pharaoh's Fig," in fact. When
+the mystery-plays of the centuries gone by were produced in Europe, the
+tree most like to what these good people thought was the real sycamore
+furnished the branches used in the scene-setting--and it was either the
+oriental plane, or the sycamore-leaved maple that was chosen, as
+convenient. The name soon attached itself to the trees; and when
+homesick immigrants looked about the new world of America for some
+familiar tree, it was easy enough to see a great similarity in our
+buttonwood, which thus soon became sycamore.
+
+[Illustration: The sycamore, or button-ball]
+
+So much for information, more or less legendary, I confess; but the
+great tree we are discussing is very tangible. Indeed, it is always in
+the public eye; for it carries on a sort of continuous disrobing
+performance! The snake sheds his skin rather privately, and comes forth
+in his new spring suit all at once; the oak and the maple, and all the
+rest of them continually but invisibly add new bark between the
+splitting or stretching ridges of the old; but our wholesome friend the
+sycamore is quite shamelessly open about it, dropping off a plate or a
+patch here and there as he grows and swells, to show us his underwear,
+which thus at once becomes overcoat, as he goes on. At first greenish,
+the under bark thus exposed becomes creamy white, mostly; and I have had
+a conceit that the colder the winter, the whiter would be those portions
+of Mr. Buttonball's pajamas he cared to expose to us the next spring!
+
+[Illustration: Button-balls--fruit of the sycamore]
+
+The leaves of the sycamore are good to look at, and efficient against
+the sun. The color above is not as clear and sharp as that of the maple;
+underneath the leaves are whitish, and soft, or "pubescent," as the
+botanical term goes. Quite rakishly pointed are the tips, and the whole
+effect, in connection with the balls,--which are first crowded clusters
+of flowers, and then just as crowded clusters of seeds--is that of a
+gentleman of the old school, dignified in his knee-breeches and cocked
+hat, fully aware that he is of comfortable importance!
+
+Those little button-balls that give name to this good American tree
+follow the flower clusters without much change of form--they _were_
+flowers, they _are_ seeds--and they stay by the tree persistently all
+winter, blowing about in the sharp winds. After a while one is banged
+often enough to open its structure, and then the carrying wind takes on
+its wings the neat little cone-shaped seeds, each possessed of its own
+silky hairs to help float it gently toward the ground--and thus is
+another of nature's curious rounds of distribution completed.
+
+A tree is never without interest to those whose eyes have been opened to
+some of the wonders and perfections of nature. Nevertheless, there is a
+time in the year's round when each tree makes its special appeal. It may
+be in the winter, when every twig is outlined sharply against the cold
+sky, and the snow reflects light into the innermost crevices of its
+structure, that the elm is most admirable. When the dogwood has on its
+white robe in May and June, it then sings its song of the year. The
+laden apple tree has a pure glory of the blossoms, and another warmer,
+riper glory of the burden of fruit, but we think most kindly of its
+flowering time. Some trees maintain such a continuous show of interest
+and beauty that it is difficult to say on any day, "_Now_ is this tulip
+or this oak at its very finest!" Again, the spring redness of the swamp
+maple is hardly less vivid than its mature coloring of the fall.
+
+But as to the liquidambar, or sweet-gum, there can be no question.
+Interesting and elegant the year round, its autumn covering of polished
+deep crimson starry leaves is so startlingly beautiful and distinct as
+to almost take it out of comparison with any other tree. Others have
+nearly the richness of color, others again show nearly the elegance of
+leaf form, but no one tree rivals completely the sweet-gum at the time
+when the autumn chill has driven out all the paleness in its leaf
+spectrum, leaving only the warm crimson that seems for awhile to defy
+further attacks of frost.
+
+As to shape, the locality settles that; for, a very symmetrical small to
+maximum-sized tree in the North and on high dry places, in the South
+and in wet places north it becomes another "tree of the first
+magnitude," wide-spreading and heavy. A stellar comparison seems to fit,
+because of these wonderful leaves. They struck me at first, hunting
+photographs one day, as some sort of a maple; but what maple could have
+such perfection of star form? A maple refined, perfected, and indeed
+polished, one might well think, for while other trees have shining
+leaves, they are dull in comparison with the deep-textured gloss of
+these of the sweet-gum.
+
+[Illustration: The liquidambar]
+
+Here, too, is a tree for many places; an adaptable, cosmopolitan sort of
+arboreal growth. At its full strength of hard, solid, time-defying
+wooded body on the edge of some almost inaccessible swamp of the South,
+where its spread-out roots and ridgy branches earn for it another common
+name as the "alligator tree," it is in a park or along a private
+driveway at the North quite the acme of refined tree elegance, all the
+summer and fall. It takes on a rather narrow, pyramidal head, broadening
+as it ages, but never betraying kin with its fellow of the swamp, save
+perhaps when winter has bared its peculiar winged and strangely "corky"
+branches.
+
+[Illustration: The star-shaped leaves and curious fruits of the
+liquidambar, late in the summer.]
+
+These odd branches bear, on some trees particularly, a noticeable ridge,
+made up of the same substance which in the cork-oak of Europe furnishes
+the bottle-stoppers of commerce. It makes the winter structure of the
+sweet-gum most distinct and picturesque, which appearance is accentuated
+by the interesting little seed-balls, or fruits, rounded and spiny, that
+hang long from the twigs. These fruits follow quickly an inconspicuous
+flower that in April or May has made its brief appearance, and they add
+greatly to the general attractiveness of the tree on the lawn, to my
+mind. Years ago I first made acquaintance with the liquidambar, as it
+ought always to be called, one wet September day, when an old
+tree-lover took me out on his lawn to see the rain accentuate the polish
+on the starry leaves and drip from the little many-pointed balls. I
+found that day that a camera would work quite well under an umbrella,
+and I obtained also a mind-negative that will last, I believe, as long
+as I can think of trees.
+
+The next experience was in another state, where a quaint character,
+visited on business, struck hands with me on tree-love, and took me to
+see his pet liquidambar at the edge of a mill-pond. That one was taller,
+and quite stately; it made an impression, deepened again when the third
+special showing came, this time on a college campus, the young tree
+being naked and corky, and displayed with pride by the college professor
+who had gotten out of his books into real life for a joyous half day.
+
+He wasn't the botany professor, if you please; that dry-as-dust
+gentleman told me, when I inquired as to what I might find in early
+bloom, or see with the eyes of an ignorant plant-lover, that there was
+"nothing blooming, and nothing of interest." He added that he had a
+fine herbarium where I might see all the plants I wanted, nicely dried
+and spread out with pins and pasters, their roots and all!
+
+Look at _dead_ plants, their roots indecently exposed to mere curiosity,
+on a bright, living early April day? Not much! I told my trouble to the
+professor of agriculture, whose eyes brightened, as he informed me he
+had no classes for that morning, and--"We would see!" We _did_ see a
+whole host of living things outdoors,--flowers peeping out; leaves of
+the willows, just breaking; buds ready to burst; all nature waiting for
+the sun's call of the "grand entrée." It was a good day; but I pitied
+that poor old dull-eyed herbarium specimen of a botanical professor, in
+whose veins the blood was congealing, when everything about called on
+him to get out under the rays of God's sun, and study, book in hand if
+he wanted, the bursting, hurrying facts of the imminent spring.
+
+But a word more about the liquidambar--the name by which I hope the tree
+we are discussing may be talked of and thought of. Old Linnæus gave it
+that name, because it described euphoniously as well as scientifically
+the fact that the sap which exudes from this fine American tree _is_
+liquid amber. Now isn't that better than "gum" tree?
+
+With trees in general as objects of interest, I have always felt a
+special leaning toward tropical trees, probably because they were rare,
+and indeed not to be seen outside of the conservatory in our Middle
+States. My first visit to Florida was made particularly enjoyable by
+reason of the palms and bananas there to be seen, and I have by no means
+lost the feeling of admiration for the latter especially. In Yucatan
+there were to be seen other and stranger growths and fruits, and the
+novelty of a great cocoanut grove is yet a memory not eclipsed by the
+present-day Floridian and Bahamian productions of the same sort.
+
+It was, therefore, with some astonishment that I came to know, a few
+years ago, more of a little tree bearing a fruit that had been familiar
+from my boyhood, but which I was then informed was the sole northern
+representative of a great family of tropical fruits, and which was
+fairly called the American banana. The papaw it was; a fruit all too
+luscious and sweet, when fully ripe in the fall, for most tastes, but
+appealing strongly to the omnivorous small boy. I suppose most of my
+readers know its banana-like fruits, four or five inches long, green
+outside, but filled with soft and sweet aromatic yellow pulp, punctuated
+by several fat bean-like seeds.
+
+[Illustration: The papaw in bloom]
+
+But it is the very handsome and distinct little tree, with its decidedly
+odd flowers, I would celebrate, rather than the fruits. This tree,
+rather common to shady places in eastern America as far north as New
+York, is worth much attention, and worth planting for its spreading
+richness of foliage. The leaves are large, and seem to carry into the
+cold North a hint of warmth and of luxuriant growth not common, by any
+means--I know of only one other hardy tree, the cucumber magnolia, with
+an approaching character. The arrangement of these handsome papaw leaves
+on the branches, too, makes the complete mass of regularly shaped
+greenery that is the special characteristic of this escape from the
+tropics; and, since I have seen the real papaw of the West Indies in
+full glory, I am more than ever glad for the handsomer tree that belongs
+to the regions of cold and vigor.
+
+[Illustration: Flowers of the papaw]
+
+The form of our papaw, or _Asimina triloba_--the botanical name is
+rather pleasing--is noticeable, and as characteristic as its leafage.
+See these side branches, leaving the slender central stem with a
+graceful up-curve, but almost at once swinging down, only to again curve
+upward at the ends! Are they not graceful? Such branches as these point
+nature's marvelous engineering, to appreciate which one needs only to
+try to imagine a structure of equal grace and efficiency, made with any
+material of the arts. How awkward and clumsy steel would be, or other
+metal!
+
+Along these swinging curved branches, as we see them in the April winds,
+there appear hints of the leaf richness that is to come--but something
+else as well. These darkest purple-red petals, almost black, as they
+change from the green of their opening hue, make up the peculiar flowers
+of the papaw. There is gold in the heart of the flower, not hid from the
+bees, and there is much of interest for the seeker for spring knowledge
+as well; though I advise him not to smell the flowers. Almost the exact
+antithesis of the dogwood is the bloom of this tree; for, both starting
+green when first unfolded from the buds, the papaw's flowers advance
+through browns and yellows, dully mingled, to the deep vinous red of
+maturity. The dogwood's final banner of white is unfolded through its
+progress of greens, about the same time or a little later.
+
+A pleasant and peculiar small tree is this papaw, not nearly so well
+known or so highly esteemed as it ought to be.
+
+Another tree with edible fruits--but here there will be a dispute,
+perhaps!--is the persimmon. I mean the American persimmon, indissolubly
+associated in our own Southland with the darky and the 'possum, but also
+well distributed over Eastern North America as far north as Connecticut.
+The botanical name of the genus is Diospyros, liberally translated as
+"fruit of the gods," or "Jove's fruit." If his highness of Olympus was,
+by any chance, well acquainted with our 'simmon just before frost, he
+must have had a copper-lined mouth, to choose it as his peculiar fruit!
+
+Making a moderate-sized tree of peculiar and pleasing form, its branches
+twisting regardless of symmetry, the persimmon in Pennsylvania likes
+the country roadsides, especially along loamy banks. Here it has
+unequaled opportunity for hanging out its attractively colored fruits.
+As one drives along in early fall, just before hard frost, these
+fine-looking little tomato-like globes of orange and red are advertised
+in the wind by the absence of the early dropping foliage. They look
+luscious and tempting; indeed, they _are_ tempting! Past experience--you
+need but one--had prepared me for this "bunko" fruit; but my friend
+would not believe me, one day in early October--he must taste for
+himself. Taste he did, and generously, for the first bite is pleasing,
+and does not alarm, wherefore he had time, before his insulted nerves of
+mouth and tongue gave full warning, to absorb two of the 'simmons. Whew!
+What a face he made when the puckering juice got to work, and convinced
+him that he had been sucking a disguised lump of alum. Choking and
+gasping, he called for the water we were far from; and _he_ won't try an
+unfrosted persimmon again!
+
+My clerical friend who brought home the fairy tale about the red-bud,
+or Judas-tree, might well have based his story on the American
+persimmon, but for the fact that this puckery little globe, so brilliant
+and so deceptive before frost, loses both its beauty and its astringency
+when slightly frozen. Then its tender flesh is suave and delicious, and
+old Jove might well choose it for his own.
+
+[Illustration: The persimmon tree in fruiting time]
+
+But the tree--that is a beauty all summer, with its shining leaves,
+oblong, pointed and almost of the magnolia shape. It will grace any
+situation, and is particularly one of the trees worth planting along
+highways, to relieve the monotony of too many maples, ashes,
+horse-chestnuts and the like, and to offer to the passer-by a tempting
+fruit of which he will surely not partake too freely when it is most
+attractive. I read that toward the Western limit of its range the
+persimmon, in Louisiana, Eastern Kansas and the Indian Territory,
+becomes another tree of the first magnitude, towering above a hundred
+feet. This would be well worth seeing!
+
+There is another persimmon in the South, introduced from Japan, the
+fruits of which are sold on the fruit-stands of Philadelphia, Boston
+and New York. This, the "kaki" of Japan, is a small but business-like
+tree, not substantially hardy north of Georgia, which provides great
+quantities of its beautiful fruits, rich in coloring and sweet to the
+taste, and varying greatly in size and form in its different varieties.
+These 'simmons do not need the touch of frost, nor do they ever attain
+the fine, wild, high flavor of the frost-bitten Virginian fruits; the
+tree that bears them has none of the irregular beauty of our native
+persimmon, nor does it approach in size to that ornament of the
+countryside.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, in closing these sketches, I become most keenly sensible of
+their deficiencies. Purely random bits they are, coming from a busy man,
+and possessing the one merit of frankness. Deeply interested in trees,
+but lacking the time for continuous study, I have been turning my camera
+and my eyes upon the growths about me, asking questions, mentally
+recording what I could see, and, while thankful for the rest and the
+pleasure of the pursuit, always sorry not to go more fully into proper
+and scientific tree knowledge. At times my lack in this respect has made
+me ashamed to have written at all upon trees; but with full gratitude to
+the botanical explorers whose labors have made such superficial
+observations as mine possible, I venture to send forth these sketches,
+without pretension as to the statement of any new facts or features.
+
+[Illustration: Berries of the spice-bush]
+
+If anything I have here set down shall induce among those who have
+looked and read with me from nature's open book the desire to go more
+deeply into the fascinating tree lore that always awaits and inevitably
+rewards the effort, I shall cry heartily, "God-speed!"
+
+
+
+
+Index
+
+
+Illustrations are indicated by a prefixed asterisk (*). For botanical
+names, see page 239.
+
+  Acorn, beginning of, 27.
+
+  Alligator tree, 221.
+
+  Amelanchier, 205.
+
+  American trees in Europe, 133.
+
+  Apple blossoms, 75, 80.
+
+  Apple, beauty of fruiting branch, 91
+
+  Apple, Chinese flowering, 90.
+
+  Apple, Crab, 80.
+
+  Apple trees, fruiting, 93; in blossom, *81.
+
+  Apples, 73.
+
+  Apples, Ben Davis, Bellefleur, Baldwin, Early Harvest, Red Astrachan, 93;
+    Rhode Island Greening, 76;
+    Winesap, fruit, *75.
+
+  Apple orchard in winter, *78.
+
+  Apples, Crab, fruit-cluster, *73.
+
+  Apples, propagation of, 88.
+
+  Arnold Arboretum, 57, 89.
+
+  Aspen, American, 121.
+
+  Aspen, Large-toothed, 121.
+
+  Aspen, Trembling (poplar), 121.
+
+
+  Bailey, Prof. L. H., quoted, 125.
+
+  Balm of Gilead, 118.
+
+  Beech, American, *177, 178.
+
+  Beech, birth of leaves, 179.
+
+  Bill-boards, 179.
+
+  Birch-bark for fuel, 190.
+
+  Birch, Paper, 190.
+
+  Birch, Sweet, 188, *185, *191.
+
+  Birch, White, 193.
+
+  Birch, Yellow, 189, *192.
+
+  Butternut, 164.
+
+  Buttonball, *215.
+
+  Buttonwood, 214.
+
+
+  Cathedral Woods (pines), 68.
+
+  Cedar, White, 71.
+
+  Cherry, Wild, 176.
+
+  Chestnut, American Sweet, 166, *165.
+
+  Chestnut burs, *157.
+
+  Chestnut grove in fall, 168.
+
+  Chestnut, Sweet, blossoms, *167.
+
+  Chinquapin, 169, *170.
+
+  Cocoanut, 182.
+
+  Common names, 146.
+
+  Cones of the pines, 64.
+
+  Cornus sericea, 200.
+
+  Cottonwood (poplar), 125.
+
+  Crab-apple, 80; Floribunda, 92;
+    Parkman's, 88;
+    Siberian, 89;
+    Spectabilis, *84.
+
+  Crab-apple, Wild, 85.
+
+  Crab-apples, Chinese and Japanese, 88;
+    Ringo, Kaido, Toringo, 93.
+
+  Crab, Wild, 83.
+
+  Crab, Soulard, 86.
+
+  Crab, Wild, fruit, *87.
+
+  Cypress, 72.
+
+
+  Diospyros, 229.
+
+  Dogwood berries, *187.
+
+  Dogwood, Blue-berried, 200.
+
+  Dogwood, White, 197, *199.
+
+
+  Elkwood, 20.
+
+  Elm and the Tulip, 131.
+
+  Elm, American, *ix, 134, *136, 137, 139.
+
+  Elm at Capitol Park, 141.
+
+  Elm, English, 142; *143.
+
+  Elm lawn, 138.
+
+  Elm, Slippery, 142; seed-pods, *131.
+
+  Elm, Wahoo or Winged, 144.
+
+  Elms, Paul and Virginia, 141.
+
+
+  Fence-post tree (locust), 210.
+
+  Fernow, Dr., on pines, 52.
+
+  Filbert, 181.
+
+  Fir, Balsam, 70.
+
+  Fir, Nordmann's, 65.
+
+  Firs, 65.
+
+  Fruit trees for beauty, 82.
+
+
+  Goat Island, plants on, 113.
+
+
+  Habenaria, Round-leaved, 54.
+
+  Hazelnut, 181.
+
+  Hemlock, 55.
+
+  Hemlock Hill, *56.
+
+  Hickory, False Shagbark, 176.
+
+  Hickory, Mockernut, 176.
+
+  Hickory, Pignut, 176.
+
+  Hickory, Shagbark, 171, *173.
+
+  Hollies, Japanese, English, Himalayan, 195.
+
+  Holly, American, 194, *196.
+
+  Holly, leaves and berries, *195.
+
+
+  Johnny Appleseed, 87.
+
+  Judas-tree, 201.
+
+  Judas-tree, Eastern, 202.
+
+  June-berry, 205.
+
+  Juniper, Common, 71.
+
+
+  Kaki, 233.
+
+  Keeler, Miss, quoted, 117.
+
+
+  Linden, American, 206; flowers, *207, *209.
+
+  Linden, European, 208.
+
+  Liquidambar, 219, *220; fruits, *222.
+
+  Liriodendron, 145;
+    candlesticks, 147;
+    buds opening, 149;
+    flowers of, *150, 153.
+
+  Liriodendrons in Washington, 152.
+
+  Locust, Black, 210; flowers, *211.
+
+  Locust, young trees, *212.
+
+  Maple, Ash-leaved, Box-elder, or Negundo, 17;
+    flowers, *17;
+    in bloom, *19.
+
+  Maple, Black, 22.
+
+  Maple, Japanese, 23.
+
+  Maple, Large-leaved, 22.
+
+  Maple, Mountain, 21.
+
+  Maple, Norway, 8; bloom, *9;
+    samaras, *1.
+
+  Maple, Red, Scarlet or Swamp, 6;
+    young leaves, *7.
+
+  Maple, Silver, 4; flowers, *4;
+    samaras, *3.
+
+  Maple, Striped, 20, *21.
+
+  Maple, Sugar, 10;
+    samaras, *11.
+
+  Maple, Sycamore, *13, 15;
+    blossoms, *15.
+
+  Maples, A Story of Some, 1.
+
+  Moosewood, 20.
+
+
+  Niagara, plants and trees, 111.
+
+  Nut-bearing Trees, 157.
+
+
+  Oak, Chestnut, 42;
+    flowers, *25.
+
+  Oak, English, 33, 46;
+    acorns, *47.
+
+  Oak, The Growth of the, 25.
+
+  Oak, Laurel, 43.
+
+  Oak, Live, 45.
+
+  Oak, Mossy Cup or Bur, 38.
+
+  Oak, Pin, 30; acorns, *27;
+    flowers, *31.
+
+  Oak, Post, *39, 40.
+
+  Oak, Swamp White, 38;
+    flowers, *41;
+    in early spring, *36;
+    in winter, *29.
+
+  Oak, White, 33.
+
+  Oak, Willow, 42.
+
+  Oaks, blooming of, 28.
+
+  Oaks in Georgia, 44.
+
+  Oaks, Red, Black, Scarlet, 46.
+
+  Orchard, apple, 77.
+
+
+  Papaw, 225; flowers, *227;
+    in bloom, *226.
+
+  Paxtang walnut, 160.
+
+  Pecan, 176; nuts, *159.
+
+  Persimmons, American, 229.
+
+  Persimmon, Japanese, *v, 232.
+
+  Persimmon tree in fruit, *231.
+
+  Pine, Austrian, 64.
+
+  Pine, Jack, 64.
+
+  Pine, Long-leaved or Southern, 63;
+    forest, *61;
+    young trees, *62.
+
+  Pine on Indian River, *53.
+
+  Pine, Pitch, 64.
+
+  Pine, Red, 59.
+
+  Pine, Scrub, 64.
+
+  Pine, White, *vii, 59; cone, *51.
+
+  Pines of America, 58.
+
+  Pines, The, 49.
+
+  Pines, White, avenue of, *67.
+
+  Plane, Oriental, 213.
+
+  Plane-tree, 213.
+
+  Poplar, Aspen, 121.
+
+  Poplar, Balsam, or Balm of Gilead, 118.
+
+  Poplar, Carolina, 122;
+    as street tree, *123;
+    blooming of, 124;
+    flowers, *95.
+
+  Poplar, Cottonwood, 125; in winter, *126.
+
+  Poplar, Lombardy, 128, *129.
+
+  Poplar, White or Silver-leaved, 125.
+
+  Poplar, Yellow, 145.
+
+  Poplars (and Willows), 95, 118.
+
+  Poplars for pulp-making, 128.
+
+  Poplars, White, in spring, *119.
+
+  Pyrus family, 89.
+
+
+  Rain, flowers in, 203.
+
+  Red-bud, 201; in bloom, *201.
+
+  Red-woods, 72.
+
+
+  Salicylic acid from willows, 99.
+
+  Salix, genus (Willows), 117.
+
+  Sargent, Prof. Charles S., 92.
+
+  Sequoias, 72.
+
+  Service-berry, 205.
+
+  Shad-bush, 205;
+    flowers, *206.
+
+  Skunk-cabbage, 188.
+
+  Some Other Trees, 185.
+
+  Spice-bush, 193; flowers, *194;
+    berries, 234.
+
+  Spruce, Colorado Blue, 65.
+
+  Spruce, Norway, 69;
+    cones, *49.
+
+  Spruce, White, cones, *71.
+
+  Spruces, 65.
+
+  Squirrels as nut-eaters, *179.
+
+  Strobiles (cones) of spruce, 69.
+
+  Sweet-gum, 219.
+
+  Sycamore, 214, *215;
+    fruits, *217.
+
+
+  Tree-warden law, 35.
+
+  Tropical trees, 225.
+
+  Tulip (and Elm), 131, 145.
+
+  Tulip flowers, *133;
+    structure of, 148.
+
+  Tulip tree in winter, *148.
+
+
+  Walnut, Black, 160;
+    in winter, *162.
+
+  Walnut, English or Persian, 164.
+
+  Walnut, White, 164.
+
+  Washington, tree planting in, 32.
+
+  Whitewood, 145.
+
+  Willow, Basket, 104.
+
+  Willow, Black, 110.
+
+  Willow family, contrasts of, 98.
+
+  Willow, glaucous (pussy), 107.
+
+  Willow, Goat, 113.
+
+  Willow, Golden, 111.
+
+  Willow, Kilmarnock, 113.
+
+  Willow, Napoleon's, 98.
+
+  Willow, Pussy, 105; blooms, *97;
+    in park, *106.
+
+  Willow, Weeping, 102;
+    in early spring, *100;
+    in storm, *103.
+
+  Willow, White, 108;
+    blossoms, *108, 109;
+    clump, *116;
+    tree by stream, *112.
+
+  Willows and Poplars, 95.
+
+  Willows, colors of, 101.
+
+  Willows, Crack, Yellow, Blue, 107.
+
+  Willows of Babylon, 97.
+
+  Witch-hazel, 181; flowers, *181.
+
+
+
+
+Botanical Names
+
+
+The standard used in determining the botanical names is Bailey's
+"Cyclopedia of American Horticulture."
+
+  COMMON NAME               BOTANICAL NAME                          PAGE
+
+  Amelanchier               Amelanchier Canadensis                   205
+
+  Aspen, American           Populus tremuloides                      121
+
+  Aspen, Large-toothed      Populus grandidentata                    121
+
+  Beech, American           Fagus ferruginea                         178
+
+  Birch, Paper              Betula papyrifera                        190
+
+  Birch, Sweet              Betula lenta                             188
+
+  Birch, White              Betula populifolia                       193
+
+  Birch, Yellow             Betula lutea                             189
+
+  Butternut                 Juglans cinerea                          164
+
+  Buttonball               }                                       { 215
+  Buttonwood               }Platanus occidentalis                  { 214
+
+  Chestnut, American Sweet  Castanea Americana                       166
+
+  Chinquapin                Castanea pumila                          169
+
+  Cocoanut                  Cocos nucifera                           182
+
+  Cottonwood (poplar)       Populus deltoides                        125
+
+  Crab-apple, Siberian      Pyrus baccata                             89
+
+  Crab-apple, Wild          Pyrus coronaria                           85
+
+  Crab, Soulard             Pyrus Soulardi                            86
+
+  Dogwood, Blue-berried     Cornus sericea                           200
+
+  Dogwood, White            Cornus florida                           197
+
+  Elm, American             Ulmus Americana                          134
+
+  Elm, English              Ulmus campestris                         142
+
+  Elm, Slippery or Red      Ulmus fulva                              142
+
+  Elm, Wahoo or Winged      Ulmus alata                              144
+
+  Filbert  Corylus          Americana                                181
+
+  Fir, Balsam               Abies balsamea                            70
+
+  Fir, Nordmann's           Abies Nordmanniana                        65
+
+  Habenaria, Round-leaved   Habenaria orbiculata                      54
+
+  Hazelnut                  Corylus Americana                        181
+
+  Hemlock                   Tsuga Canadensis                          55
+
+  Hickory, False Shagbark   Hicoria glabra, var.                     176
+                            microcarpa
+
+  Hickory, Mockernut        Hicoria alba                             176
+
+  Hickory, Pignut           Hicoria glabra                           176
+
+  Hickory, Shagbark         Hicoria ovata                            171
+
+  Holly, American           Ilex opaca                               194
+
+  Judas-tree                Cercis Canadensis                        201
+
+  Judas-tree, Eastern       Cercis Siliquastrum                      202
+
+  June-berry                Amelanchier Botryapium                   205
+
+  Juniper, Common           Juniperus communis                        71
+
+  Kaki                      Diospyros Kaki                           233
+
+  Linden, American          Tilia Americana                          206
+
+  Linden, European          Tilia tomentosa                          208
+
+  Liquidambar               Liquidambar styraciflua                  219
+
+  Liriodendron              Liriodendron Tulipifera                  145
+
+  Locust, Black             Robinia Pseudacacia                      210
+
+  Maple, Ash-leaved,
+  Box-elder or Negundo      Acer Negundo                              17
+
+  Maple, Black              Acer nigrum                               22
+
+  Maple, Japanese           Acer palmatum                             23
+
+  Maple, Large-leaved       Acer macrophyllum                         22
+
+  Maple, Mountain           Acer spicatum                             21
+
+  Maple, Norway             Acer platanoides                           8
+
+  Maple, Red, Scarlet       Acer rubrum                                6
+  or Swamp
+
+  Maple, Silver, White      Acer saccharinum                           4
+  or Soft
+
+  Maple, Striped,           Acer Pennsylvanicum                       20
+  of Pennsylvania
+
+  Maple, Sugar              Acer saccharum                            10
+
+  Maple, Sycamore           Acer Pseudo-platanus                      15
+
+  Oak, Chestnut             Quercus Prinus                            42
+
+  Oak, English              Quercus pedunculata                   33, 46
+
+  Oak, Laurel               Quercus laurifolia                        43
+
+  Oak, Live                 Quercus Virginiana                        45
+
+  Oak, Mossy Cup or Bur     Quercus macrocarpa                        38
+
+  Oak, Pin                  Quercus palustris                         30
+
+  Oak, Post                 Quercus stellata                          40
+
+  Oak, Swamp White          Quercus bicolor                           38
+
+  Oak, White                Quercus alba                              33
+
+  Oak, Willow               Quercus Phellos                           42
+
+  Papaw                     Asimina triloba                          225
+
+  Pecan                     Hicoria Pecan                            176
+
+  Persimmon, American       Diospyros Virginiana                     229
+
+  Persimmon, Japanese       Diospyros Kaki                           232
+
+  Pine, Austrian            Pinus Laricio, var.                       64
+                            Austriaca
+
+  Pine, Long-leaved or      Pinus palustris                           63
+  Southern
+
+  Pine, Pitch               Pinus rigida                              64
+
+  Pine, Red                 Pinus resinosa                            59
+
+  Pine, Scrub               Pinus Virginiana                          64
+
+  Pine, White               Pinus Strobus                             59
+
+  Plane, Oriental           Platanus orientalis                      213
+
+  Plane-tree                Platanus occidentalis                    213
+
+  Poplar, Aspen             Populus tremuloides                      121
+
+  Poplar, Balsam, or        Populus balsamifera                      118
+  Balm of Gilead
+
+  Poplar, Carolina          Populus deltoides,                       122
+                            var. Caroliniana
+
+  Poplar, Cottonwood        Populus deltoides                        125
+
+  Poplar, Lombardy          Populus nigra,                     128, *129
+                            var. Italica
+
+  Poplar, White or          Populus alba                             125
+  Silver-leaved
+
+  Poplar, Yellow            Liriodendron                             145
+                            Tulipifera
+
+  Red-bud                   Cercis Canadensis                        201
+
+  Service-berry             Amelanchier vulgaris                     205
+
+  Shad-bush                 Amelanchier                              205
+                            Canadensis
+
+  Skunk-cabbage             Spathyema foeetida                       188
+
+  Spice-bush                Benzoin oderiferum                       193
+
+  Spruce, Colorado Blue     Picea pungens                             65
+
+  Spruce, Norway            Picea excelsa                             69
+
+  Sweet-gum                 Liquidambar                              219
+                            styraciflua
+
+  Sycamore                  Platanus occidentalis 214
+
+  Walnut, Black             Juglans nigra                            160
+
+  Walnut, English or        Juglans regia                            164
+  Persian
+  Walnut, White             Juglans cinerea                          164
+
+  Whitewood                 Liriodendron                             145
+  Tulipifera
+
+  Willow, Basket            Salix viminalis                          104
+
+  Willow, Black             Salix nigra                              110
+
+  Willow, Goat              Salix Caprea                             113
+
+  Willow, Golden            Salix vitellina                          111
+
+  Willow, Kilmarnock.       Salix Caprea, var.                       113
+                            pendula
+
+  Willow, Pussy             Salix discolor                           105
+
+  Willow, Weeping           Salix Babylonica                         102
+
+  Willow, White             Salix alba                               108
+
+  Witch-hazel               Hamamelis Virginiana                     181
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following pages are advertisements of
+
+   +------------------------------+
+   |THE MACMILLAN STANDARD LIBRARY|
+   |                              |
+   |THE MACMILLAN FICTION LIBRARY |
+   |                              |
+   |THE MACMILLAN JUVENILE LIBRARY|
+   |                              |
+   |THE MACMILLAN STANDARD LIBRARY|
+   +------------------------------+
+
+This series has taken its place as one of the most important
+popular-priced editions. The "Library" includes only those books which
+have been put to the test of public opinion and have not been found
+wanting,--books, in other words, which have come to be regarded as
+standards in the fields of knowledge--literature, religion, biography,
+history, politics, art, economics, sports, sociology, and belles
+lettres. Together they make the most complete and authoritative works on
+the several subjects.
+
+_Each volume, cloth, 12mo, 50 cents net; postage, 10 cents extra_
+
+Addams--The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets
+
+BY JANE ADDAMS
+
+"Shows such sanity, such breadth and tolerance of mind, and such
+penetration into the inner meanings of outward phenomena as to make it a
+book which no one can afford to miss."--_New York Times._
+
+Bailey--The Country Life Movement in the United States
+
+BY L. H. BAILEY
+
+"... clearly thought out, admirably written, and always stimulating in
+its generalization and in the perspectives it opens."--_Philadelphia
+Press._
+
+Bailey and Hunn--The Practical Garden Book
+
+BY L. H. BAILEY AND C. E. HUNN
+
+"Presents only those facts that have been proved by experience, and
+which are most capable of application on the farm."--_Los Angeles
+Express._
+
+Campbell--The New Theology
+
+BY R. J. CAMPBELL
+
+"A fine contribution to the better thought of our times written in the
+spirit of the Master."--_St. Paul Dispatch._
+
+Clark--The Care of a House
+
+BY T. M. CLARK
+
+"If the average man knew one-ninth of what Mr. Clark tells him in this
+book, he would be able to save money every year on repairs,
+etc."--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+Conyngton--How to Help: A Manual of Practical Charity
+
+BY MARY CONYNGTON
+
+"An exceedingly comprehensive work with chapters on the homeless man and
+woman, care of needy families, and the discussions of the problems of
+child labor."
+
+Coolidge--The United States as a World Power
+
+BY ARCHIBALD CARY COOLIDGE
+
+"A work of real distinction ... which moves the reader to
+thought."--_The Nation._
+
+Croly--The Promise of American Life
+
+BY HERBERT CROLY
+
+"The most profound and illuminating study of our national conditions
+which has appeared in many years."--THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+
+Devine--Misery and Its Causes
+
+BY EDWARD T. DEVINE
+
+"One rarely comes across a book so rich in every page, yet so sound, so
+logical, and thorough."--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+Earle--Home Life in Colonial Days
+
+BY ALICE MORSE EARLE
+
+"A book which throws new light on our early history."
+
+Ely--Evolution of Industrial Society
+
+BY RICHARD T. ELY
+
+"The benefit of competition and the improvement of the race, municipal
+ownership, and concentration of wealth are treated in a sane, helpful,
+and interesting manner."--_Philadelphia Telegraph._
+
+Ely--Monopolies and Trusts
+
+BY RICHARD T. ELY
+
+"The evils of monopoly are plainly stated, and remedies are proposed.
+This book should be a help to every man in active business
+life."--_Baltimore Sun._
+
+French--How to Grow Vegetables
+
+BY ALLEN FRENCH
+
+"Particularly valuable to a beginner in vegetable gardening, giving not
+only a convenient and reliable planting-table, but giving particular
+attention to the culture of the vegetables."--_Suburban Life._
+
+Goodyear--Renaissance and Modern Art
+
+W. H. GOODYEAR
+
+"A thorough and scholarly interpretation of artistic development."
+
+Hapgood--Abraham Lincoln: The Man of the People
+
+BY NORMAN HAPGOOD
+
+"A life of Lincoln that has never been surpassed in vividness,
+compactness, and homelike reality."--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+Haultain--The Mystery of Golf
+
+BY ARNOLD HAULTAIN
+
+"It is more than a golf book. These is interwoven with it a play of mild
+philosophy and of pointed wit."--_Boston Globe._
+
+Hearn--Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation
+
+BY LAFCADIO HEARN
+
+"A thousand books have been written about Japan, but this one is one of
+the rarely precious volumes which opens the door to an intimate
+acquaintance with the wonderful people who command the attention of the
+world to-day."--_Boston Herald._
+
+Hillis--The Quest of Happiness
+
+BY REV. NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS
+
+"Its whole tone and spirit is of a sane, healthy
+optimism."--_Philadelphia Telegraph._
+
+Hillquit--Socialism in Theory and Practice
+
+BY MORRIS HILLQUIT
+
+"An interesting historical sketch of the movement."--_Newark Evening
+News._
+
+Hodges--Everyman's Religion
+
+BY GEORGE HODGES
+
+"Religion to-day is preëminently ethical and social, and such is the
+religion so ably and attractively set forth in these pages."--_Boston
+Herald._
+
+Home--David Livingstone
+
+BY SILVESTER C. HORNE
+
+The centenary edition of this popular work. A clear, simple, narrative
+biography of the great missionary, explorer, and scientist.
+
+Hunter--Poverty
+
+BY ROBERT HUNTER
+
+"Mr. Hunter's book is at once sympathetic and scientific. He brings to
+the task a store of practical experience in settlement work gathered in
+many parts of the country."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+Hunter--Socialists at Work
+
+BY ROBERT HUNTER
+
+"A vivid, running characterization of the foremost personalities in the
+Socialist movement throughout the world."--_Review of Reviews._
+
+Jefferson--The Building of the Church
+
+BY CHARLES E. JEFFERSON
+
+"A book that should be read by every minister."
+
+King--The Ethics of Jesus
+
+BY HENRY CHURCHILL KING
+
+"I know no other study of the ethical teaching of Jesus so scholarly, so
+careful, clear and compact as this."--G. H. PALMER, Harvard University.
+
+King--Rational Living
+
+BY HENRY CHURCHILL KING
+
+"An able conspectus of modern psychological investigation, viewed from
+the Christian standpoint."--_Philadelphia Public Ledger._
+
+London--The War of the Classes
+
+BY JACK LONDON
+
+"Mr. London's book is thoroughly interesting, and his point of view is
+very different from that of the closest theorist."--_Springfield
+Republican._
+
+London--Revolution and Other Essays
+
+BY JACK LONDON
+
+"Vigorous, socialistic essays, animating and insistent."
+
+Lyon--How to Keep Bees for Profit
+
+BY EVERETT D. LYON
+
+"A book which gives an insight into the life history of the bee family,
+as well as telling the novice how to start an apiary and care for
+it."--_Country Life in America._
+
+McLennan--A Manual of Practical Farming
+
+BY JOHN MCLENNAN
+
+"The author has placed before the reader in the simplest terms a means
+of assistance in the ordinary problems of farming."--_National
+Nurseryman._
+
+Mabie--William Shakespeare: Poet, Dramatist, and Man
+
+BY HAMILTON W. MABIE
+
+"It is rather an interpretation than a record."--_Chicago Standard._
+
+Mahaffy--Rambles and Studies in Greece
+
+BY J. P. MAHAFFY
+
+"To the intelligent traveler and lover of Greece this volume will prove
+a most sympathetic guide and companion."
+
+Mathews--The Church and the Changing Order
+
+BY SHAILER MATHEWS
+
+"The book throughout is characterized by good sense and restraint.... A
+notable book and one that every Christian may read with profit."--_The
+Living Church._
+
+Mathews--The Gospel and the Modern Man
+
+BY SHAILER MATHEWS
+
+"A succinct statement of the essentials of the New
+Testament."--_Service._
+
+Patten--The Social Basis of Religion
+
+BY SIMON N. PATTEN
+
+"A work of substantial value"--_Continent._
+
+Peabody--The Approach to the Social Question
+
+BY FRANCIS GREENWOOD PEABODY
+
+"This book is at once the most delightful, persuasive, and sagacious
+contribution to the subject."--_Louisville Courier-Journal._
+
+Pierce--The Tariff and the Trusts
+
+BY FRANKLIN PIERCE
+
+"An excellent campaign document for a
+non-protectionist."--_Independent._
+
+Rauschenbusch--Christianity and the Social Crisis
+
+BY WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH
+
+"It is a book to like, to learn from, and to be charmed with."--_New
+York Times._
+
+Riis--The Making of an American
+
+BY JACOB RIIS
+
+"Its romance and vivid incident make it as varied and delightful as any
+romance."--_Publisher's Weekly._
+
+Riis--Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen
+
+BY JACOB RIIS
+
+"A refreshing and stimulating picture."--_New York Tribune._
+
+Ryan--A Living Wage; Its Ethical and Economic Aspects
+
+BY REV. J. A. RYAN
+
+"The most judicious and balanced discussion at the disposal of the
+general reader."--_World To-day._
+
+St. Maur--A Self-supporting Home
+
+BY KATE V. ST. MAUR
+
+"Each chapter is the detailed account of all the work necessary for one
+month--in the vegetable garden, among the small fruits, with the fowls,
+guineas, rabbits, and in every branch of husbandry to be met with on the
+small farm."--_Louisville Courier-Journal._
+
+Sherman--What is Shakespeare?
+
+BY L. A. SHERMAN
+
+"Emphatically a work without which the library of the Shakespeare
+student will be incomplete."--_Daily Telegram._
+
+Sidgwick--Home Life in Germany
+
+BY A. SIDGWICK
+
+"A vivid picture of social life and customs in Germany to-day."
+
+Smith--The Spirit of American Government
+
+BY J. ALLEN SMITH
+
+"Not since Bryce's 'American Commonwealth' has a book been produced
+which deals so searchingly with American political institutions and
+their history."--_New York Evening Telegram._
+
+Spargo--Socialism
+
+BY JOHN SPARGO
+
+"One of the ablest expositions of Socialism that has ever been
+written."--_New York Evening Call._
+
+Tarbell--History of Greek Art
+
+BY T. B. TARBELL
+
+"A sympathetic and understanding conception of the golden age of art."
+
+Valentine--How to Keep Hens for Profit
+
+BY C. S. VALENTINE
+
+"Beginners and seasoned poultrymen will find in it much of
+value."--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+Van Dyke--The Gospel for a World of Sin
+
+BY HENRY VAN DYKE
+
+"One of the basic books of true Christian thought of to-day and of all
+times."--_Boston Courier._
+
+Van Dyke--The Spirit of America
+
+BY HENRY VAN DYKE
+
+"Undoubtedly the most notable interpretation in years of the
+real America. It compares favorably with Bryce's 'American
+Commonwealth.'"--_Philadelphia Press._
+
+Veblen--The Theory of the Leisure Class
+
+BY THORSTEIN B. VEBLEN
+
+"The most valuable recent contribution to the elucidation of this
+subject."--_London Times._
+
+Wells--New Worlds for Old
+
+BY H. G. WELLS
+
+"As a presentation of Socialistic thought as it is working to-day, this
+is the most judicious and balanced discussion at the disposal of the
+general reader."--_World To-day._
+
+White--The Old Order Changeth
+
+BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
+
+"The present status of society in America. An excellent antidote to the
+pessimism of modern writers on our social system."--_Baltimore Sun._
+
+
+THE MACMILLAN FICTION LIBRARY
+
+A new and important series of some of the best popular novels which have
+been published in recent years.
+
+These successful books are now made available at a popular price in
+response to the insistent demand for cheaper editions.
+
+_Each volume, cloth, 12mo, 50 cents net; postage, 10 cents extra_
+
+Allen--A Kentucky Cardinal
+
+BY JAMES LANE ALLEN
+
+"A narrative, told with naïve simplicity, of how a man who was devoted
+to his fruits and flowers and birds came to fall in love with a fair
+neighbor."--_New York Tribune._
+
+Allen--The Reign of Law _A Tale of the Kentucky Hempfields_
+
+BY JAMES LANE ALLEN
+
+"Mr. Allen has style as original and almost as perfectly finished as
+Hawthorne's.... And rich in the qualities that are lacking in so many
+novels of the period."--_San Francisco Chronicle._
+
+Atherton--Patience Sparhawk
+
+BY GERTRUDE ATHERTON
+
+"One of the most interesting works of the foremost American novelist."
+
+Child--Jim Hands
+
+BY RICHARD WASHBURN CHILD
+
+"A big, simple, leisurely moving chronicle of life. Commands the
+profoundest respect and admiration. Jim is a real man, sound and
+fine."--_Daily News._
+
+Crawford--The Heart of Rome
+
+BY MARION CRAWFORD
+
+"A story of underground mysterie."
+
+Crawford--Fair Margaret: A Portrait
+
+BY MARION CRAWFORD
+
+"A story of modern life in Italy, visualizing the country and its
+people, and warm with the red blood of romance and melodrama."--_Boston
+Transcript._
+
+Davis--A Friend of Cæsar
+
+BY WILLIAM STEARNS DAVIS
+
+"There are many incidents so vivid, so brilliant, that they fix
+themselves in the memory."--NANCY HUSTON BANKS in _The Bookman._
+
+Drummond--The Justice of the King
+
+BY HAMILTON DRUMMOND
+
+"Read the story for the sake of the living, breathing people, the
+adventures, but most for the sake of the boy who served love and the
+King."--_Chicago Record-Herald._
+
+Elizabeth and Her German Garden
+
+"It is full of nature in many phases--of breeze and sunshine, of the
+glory of the land, and the sheer joy of living."--_New York Times._
+
+Gale--Loves of Pelleas and Etarre
+
+BY ZONA GALE
+
+"... full of fresh feeling and grace of style, a draught from the
+fountain of youth."--_Outlook._
+
+Herrick--The Common Lot
+
+BY ROBERT HERRICK
+
+"A story of present-day life, intensely real in its picture of a young
+architect whose ideals in the beginning were, at their highest, æsthetic
+rather than spiritual. It is an unusual novel of great interest."
+
+London--Adventure
+
+BY JACK LONDON
+
+"No reader of Jack London's stories need be told that this abounds with
+romantic and dramatic incident."--_Los Angeles Tribune._
+
+London--Burning Daylight
+
+BY JACK LONDON
+
+"Jack London has outdone himself in 'Burning Daylight.'"--_The
+Springfield Union._
+
+Loti--Disenchanted
+
+BY PIERRE LOTI
+
+"It gives a more graphic picture of the life of the rich Turkish women
+of to-day than anything that has ever been written."--_Brooklyn Daily
+Eagle._
+
+Lucas--Mr. Ingleside
+
+BY E. V. LUCAS
+
+"He displays himself as an intellectual and amusing observer of life's
+foibles with a hero characterized by inimitable kindness and
+humor."--_The Independent._
+
+Mason--The Four Feathers
+
+BY A. E. W. MASON
+
+"'The Four Feathers' is a first-rate story, with more legitimate thrills
+than any novel we have read in a long time."--_New York Press._
+
+Norris--Mother
+
+BY KATHLEEN NORRIS
+
+"Worth its weight in gold."--_Catholic Columbian._
+
+Oxenham--The Long Road
+
+BY JOHN OXENHAM
+
+"'The Long Road' is a tragic, heart-gripping story of Russian political
+and social conditions."--_The Craftsman._
+
+Pryor--The Colonel's Story
+
+BY MRS. ROGER A. PRYOR
+
+"The story is one in which the spirit of the Old South figures largely;
+adventure and romance have their play and carry the plot to a satisfying
+end."
+
+Remington--Ermine of the Yellowstone
+
+BY JOHN REMINGTON
+
+"A very original and remarkable novel wonderful in its vigor and
+freshness."
+
+Roberts--Kings in Exile
+
+BY CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS
+
+"The author catches the spirit of forest and sea life, and the reader
+comes to have a personal love and knowledge of our animal
+friends."--_Boston Globe._
+
+Robins--The Convert
+
+BY ELIZABETH ROBINS
+
+"'The Convert' devotes itself to the exploitation of the recent
+suffragist movement in England. It is a book not easily forgotten, by
+any thoughtful reader."--_Chicago Evening Post._
+
+Robins--A Dark Lantern
+
+BY ELIZABETH ROBINS
+
+A powerful and striking novel, English in scene, which takes an
+essentially modern view of society and of certain dramatic situations.
+
+Ward--David Grieve
+
+BY MRS. HUMPHREY WARD
+
+"A perfect picture of life, remarkable for its humor and extraordinary
+success at character analysis."
+
+Wells--The Wheels of Chance
+
+BY H. G. WELLS
+
+"Mr. Wells is beyond question the most plausible romancer of the
+time."--_The New York Tribune._
+
+
+THE MACMILLAN JUVENILE LIBRARY
+
+This collection of juvenile books contains works of standard quality, on
+a variety of subjects--history, biography, fiction, science, and
+poetry--carefully chosen to meet the needs and interests of both boys
+and girls.
+
+_Each volume, cloth, 12mo, 50 cents net; postage, 10 cents extra_
+
+Altsheler--The Horsemen of the Plains
+
+BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
+
+"A story of the West, of Indians, of scouts, trappers, fur traders, and,
+in short, of everything that is dear to the imagination of a healthy
+American boy."--_New York Sun._
+
+Bacon--While Caroline Was Growing
+
+BY JOSEPHINE DASKAM BACON
+
+"Only a genuine lover of children, and a keenly sympathetic observer of
+human nature, could have given us a book as this."--_Boston Herald._
+
+Carroll--Alice's Adventures, and Through the Looking Glass
+
+BY LEWIS CARROLL
+
+"One of the immortal books for children."
+
+Dix--A Little Captive Lad
+
+BY MARIE BEULAH DIX
+
+"The human interest is strong, and children are sure to like
+it."--_Washington Times._
+
+Greene--Pickett's Gap
+
+BY HOMER GREENE
+
+"The story presents a picture of truth and honor that cannot fail to
+have a vivid impression upon the reader."--_Toledo Blade._
+
+Lucas--Slowcoach
+
+BY E. V. LUCAS
+
+"The record of an English family's coaching tour in a great
+old-fashioned wagon. A charming narrative, as quaint and original as its
+name."--_Booknews Monthly._
+
+Mabie--Book of Christmas
+
+BY H. W. MABIE
+
+"A beautiful collection of Christmas verse and prose in which all the
+old favorites will be found in an artistic setting."--_The St. Louis
+Mirror._
+
+Major--The Bears of Blue River
+
+BY CHARLES MAJOR
+
+"An exciting story with all the thrills the title implies."
+
+Major--Uncle Tom Andy Bill
+
+BY CHARLES MAJOR
+
+"A stirring story full of bears, Indians, and hidden
+treasures."-_Cleveland Leader._
+
+Nesbit--The Railway Children
+
+BY E. NESBIT
+
+"A delightful story revealing the author's intimate knowledge of
+juvenile ways."--_The Nation._
+
+Whyte--The Story Book Girls
+
+BY CHRISTINA G. WHYTE
+
+"A book that all girls will read with delight--a sweet, wholesome story
+of girl life."
+
+Wright--Dream Fox Story Book
+
+BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT
+
+"The whole book is delicious with its wise and kindly humor, its just
+perspective of the true value of things."
+
+Wright--Aunt Jimmy's Will
+
+BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT
+
+"Barbara has written no more delightful book than this."
+
+
+THE BEST NEW BOOKS AT THE LEAST PRICES
+
+Each volume in the Macmillan Libraries sells for 50 cents, never more,
+wherever books are sold.
+
+THE MACMILLAN STANDARD LIBRARY
+
+  ADDAMS--The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets.
+  BAILEY--The Country Life Movement in the United States.
+  BAILEY & HUNN--The Practical Garden Book.
+  CAMPBELL--The New Theology.
+  CLARK--The Care of a House.
+  CONYNGTON--How to Help: A Manual of Practical Charity.
+  COOLIDGE--The United States as a World Power.
+  CROLY--The Promise of American Life.
+  DEVINE--Misery and Its Causes.
+  EARLE--Home Life in Colonial Days.
+  ELY--Evolution of Industrial Society.
+  ELY--Monopolies and Trusts.
+  FRENCH--How to Grow Vegetables.
+  GOODYEAR--Renaissance and Modern Art.
+  HAPGOOD--Lincoln, Abraham, The Man of the People.
+  HAULTAIN--The Mystery of Golf.
+  HEARN--Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation.
+  HILLIS--The Quest of Happiness.
+  HILLQUIT--Socialism in Theory and Practice.
+  HODGES--Everyman's Religion.
+  HORNE--David Livingstone.
+  HUNTER--Poverty.
+  HUNTER--Socialists at Work.
+  JEFFERSON--The Building of the Church.
+  KING--The Ethics of Jesus.
+  KING--Rational Living
+  LONDON--The War of the Classes.
+  LONDON--Revolution and Other Essays.
+  LYON--How to Keep Bees for Profit.
+  MCLENNAN--A Manual of Practical Farming.
+  MABIE--William Shakespeare: Poet, Dramatist, and Man.
+  MAHAFFY--Rambles and Studies in Greece.
+  MATHEWS--The Church and the Changing Order.
+  MATHEWS--The Gospel and the Modern Man.
+  PATTEN--The Social Basis of Religion.
+  PEABODY--The Approach to the Social Question.
+  PIERCE--The Tariff and the Trusts.
+  RAUSCHENBUSCH--Christianity and the Social Crisis.
+  RIIS--The Making of an American Citizen.
+  RIIS--Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen.
+  RYAN--A Living Wage: Its Ethical and Economic Aspects.
+  ST. MAUR--A Self-supporting Home.
+  SHERMAN--What is Shakespeare?
+  SIDGWICK--Home Life in Germany.
+  SMITH--The Spirit of the American Government.
+  SPARGO--Socialism.
+
+_THE BEST NEW BOOKS AT THE LEAST PRICES_
+
+Each volume in the Macmillan Libraries sells for 50 cents, never more,
+wherever books are sold.
+
+  TARBELL--History of Greek Art.
+  VALENTINE--How to Keep Hens for Profit.
+  VAN DYKE--The Gospel for a World of Sin.
+  VAN DYKE--The Spirit of America.
+  VEBLEN--The Theory of the Leisure Class.
+  WELLS--New Worlds for Old.
+  WHITE--The Old Order Changeth.
+
+
+THE MACMILLAN FICTION LIBRARY
+
+  ALLEN--A Kentucky Cardinal.
+  ALLEN--The Reign of Law.
+  ATHERTON--Patience Sparhawk.
+  CHILD--Jim Hands.
+  CRAWFORD--The Heart of Rome.
+  CRAWFORD--Fair Margaret: A Portrait
+  DAVIS--A Friend of Cæsar.
+  DRUMMOND--The Justice of the King.
+  ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN.
+  GALE--Loves of Pelleas and Etarre.
+  HERRICK--The Common Lot.
+  LONDON--Adventure.
+  LONDON--Burning Daylight
+  LOTI--Disenchanted.
+  LUCAS--Mr. Ingleside.
+  MASON---The Four Feathers.
+  NORRIS--Mother.
+  OXENHAM--The Long Road.
+  PRYOR---The Colonel's Story.
+  REMINGTON--Ermine of the Yellowstone.
+  ROBERTS--Kings in Exile.
+  ROBINS---The Convert.
+  ROBINS--A Dark Lantern.
+  WARD--David Grieve.
+  WELLS--The Wheels of Chance.
+
+
+THE MACMILLAN JUVENILE LIBRARY
+
+  ALTSHELER--The Horsemen of the Plains.
+  BACON--While Caroline Was Growing.
+  CARROLL--Alice's Adventures and Through the Looking Glass.
+  DIX--A Little Captive Lad.
+  GREENE--Pickett's Gap.
+  LUCAS--Slow Coach.
+  MABIE--Book of Christmas.
+  MAJOR--The Bears of Blue River.
+  MAJOR--Uncle Tom Andy Bill.
+  NESBIT--The Railway Children.
+  WHYTE--The Story Book Girls.
+  WRIGHT--Dream Fox Story Book.
+  WRIGHT--Aunt Jimmy's Will.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Getting Acquainted with the Trees, by 
+J. Horace McFarland
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+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE TREES ***
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