Trees You Want to Know

By DONALD CULROSS PEATTIE
Illustrations of the eastern trees from the classic “Sylva of North America” by Francois Andre Michaux; illustrations of western trees by Ethel Bonney Taylor.
COPYRIGHT 1934 WHITMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY RACINE, WISCONSIN
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
Every American wants to have at least a speaking acquaintance with the trees that make up our great national heritage, the unequalled forests of North America. The camper, the tramper, the woodsman, the gardener, the motorist, and the inquisitive school girl and boy, all wish to know the names, the uses, and the ranges of our native trees. There are more than 400 tree species in North America, north of Mexico, and in so small a book it is impossible to include all. Species from every section of the country have been selected so that this little book is as serviceable near San Francisco as near New York, in Alaska as in Georgia, and throughout Canada.
The names of trees are confusing to learn only because lumbermen, farmers, foresters, guides, and botanists all have different names for the same tree. Again, one name, like Bull Pine or Scrub Oak, may be applied to a dozen kinds of trees, in different regions. It has been thought best in most cases to use only one name, chosen from the least provincial and most literate sources. The Latin names are those now used at the great Arnold Arboretum, except in a few cases that might confuse the beginner.
Measurements and other characterizations of trees in the text apply to mature growths of the season or to trees at the height of their life cycle, not to early spring condition, nor to the appearance of saplings or ancient, decrepit trees. Particularly the shape as described applies to trees growing in the open. Under crowded forest conditions all trees tend to have spindling outlines. At the limits of their ranges many trees become mere shrubs. They develop most luxuriously near their centers of distribution.
California Nutmeg
Shape with a pyramidal head, becoming round topped in age, 15-90 ft. tall. Bark smoothish, thin, dark gray-brown, fissured into narrow ridges. Branches spreading, slightly pendulous. Needles flat, scattered along the twigs, the undersides marked with two whitish lines. Fruit olive-like or plum-like, green becoming purple-streaked, consisting in a fleshy aril in an open pit of which is buried the nutmeg-like seed. Range: n. Coast Ranges and central Sierra Nevada of Calif. Of tree size only near the coast, this curious tree is unlike any other in America except FLORIDA YEW ( Torreya floridana ) a little tree, rare in nw. Fla. with dark purple flesh on the fruit. PACIFIC YEW ( Taxus brevifolia ) has short, slender, yellowish-green needles and a scarlet fleshy coat around the seed. Alaska to Mont., and Sierra Nevada.