Family Fagaceæ
Although the beech, chestnut, and oaks are divided into three separate genera, they all belong to the family Fagaceæ. It is an interesting family in winter and deserves careful study, particularly the oaks, which have always been more or less confusing at first sight.
There is one native beech and one native chestnut, and there are eleven oaks in the Northeastern States.
American Beech Fagus americana
A beautiful, spreading tree 60 to 100 feet high, with a clean, close-fitting, smooth, gray bark. Buds narrow and sharp-pointed, with many overlapping scales. Twigs smooth, slender, and reddish brown, with alternate leaf-scars. Fruit a prickly burr inclosing two triangular, sharp-ridged nuts, the burr hanging on the trees well into the winter.
The beech is not so graceful as the elm, nor so lofty as the pine, nor so stalwart as the oak, but there is not a tree in the woods so distinctly lovable. In every detail the beech has a dainty, lady-like beauty, and among the leafless trees of the winter woods it is as fair as a flower, with its clean gray bole, its polished brown stems, and its slender, pointed, lance-like buds. There is no other tree with which the beech may be confused, and its characteristics are so pronounced and unvarying that there is little difficulty in recognizing it immediately in passing. When it has grown up partly shaded by other trees it has a lofty bearing, but when it has developed in open ground it is round-headed and spreading in shape. The beech trees from which the following photograph was taken were once shaded by other trees, and show this in the height they have attained and the absence of spreading, lateral branches.
BEECH TREES
Fagus Americana
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The wood is hard, strong, and very close-grained and is used for making chairs, shoe lasts, the handles of tools, and for fuel. In old trees where the heartwood predominates the wood is red, and in younger trees where the sapwood is more conspicuous the wood is white, and these differences in color gave rise to the popular belief among woodcutters that there are two species of beech. Michaux accepted this theory, which has since become obsolete. The nuts are sweet and edible, and are sold in Canada and some of the Western and Middle States.
The generic name, Fagus, comes from the Greek phago (to eat), in allusion to the nuts, which have always been used as food.
The beech is found from Nova Scotia to Florida and west to Texas.
European Beech Fagus sylvatica
A large tree with spreading branches and a smooth, gray trunk. Buds narrow and sharp-pointed. Twigs slender, smooth, and reddish brown in color, with alternate leaf-scars.
Although the beech stands alone in having no other tree like it, yet it is extremely difficult to tell the American beech from the European species which is planted commonly in our parks and gardens. The bark of the European beech is a darker gray in color, its buds are grayer than those of the American, and the inner scales of the bud have a tendency towards being more hairy along their edges; for the rest we must trust to our intuition in telling the trees apart, unless we are in the woods and know that there the only indigenous beech is the American.
From the time of Virgil the praises of the beech have been sung in both poetry and prose. Passienus Crispus, the orator, who married the Empress Agrippina, was so fond of it that “he not only delighted to repose beneath its shade, but he frequently poured wine on its roots, and used often to embrace it.” Evelyn and Cook recommended it, Boutcher thought that it “hardly had an equal,” Mathews called it “the Hercules and Adonis” of the sylva of Great Britain, and among the English poets Beaumont and Fletcher, Leigh Hunt, Gray, Campbell, and Wordsworth all loved and admired it for its rare beauty and vigor. Gilpin, however, does not join this chorus of praise; in his “Remarks on Forest Scenery” he calls it “an overgrown bush,” and explains at some length his reasons for thinking that it lacks picturesque beauty.
In Europe the wood has been used for more purposes than in America, and it also ranks high as fuel. In France oil is made from beechnuts, used in lamps and for cooking. The specific name, sylvatica, is from the Latin which means belonging to the woods.
TRUNK OF A YOUNG BEECH
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The purple beech is a variety of this tree, which has been propagated from the original sport found in a German forest over a hundred years ago. Plants from the seeds of the purple beech have a tendency to revert to the original green, and to insure its peculiar colored foliage gardeners perpetuate it by layers. It is a highly artificial tree, and unless it is carefully placed in appropriate surroundings its effect is far from pleasing.
Chestnut Castanea dentata
One of the largest of our forest trees. The bark is dark hard, and rugged, with coarse ridges on old trees. Light brown buds. Alternate leaf-scars. Recent shoots are coarse and channelled with two grooves running down from the base of each leaf-scar, closely set with white or gray dots. Fruit ripe in October.
At all times a giant among trees, the chestnut seems perhaps most remarkable in winter when the massive trunk and lofty branches can be fully appreciated. There is much beauty in the bark of this tree, the fissures sweep boldly up and down the trunk with broad, smooth spaces between the furrows and give a most pleasing impression.
It is interesting to find that the chestnut is one of the exceptions in nature to the rule that every tree has an unvarying mathematical arrangement of leaves on the stem. This regular distribution of leaves on the stem to economize space and light is called phyllotaxy, and different trees follow various systematic arrangements. When the leaves or leaf-scars are alternate on the stem, as they are in those of the chestnut, the arrangement is spiral and one leaf follows another up the stem in ranks of two, three, five, or more in definite order according to the kind of tree. In the chestnut, however, the phyllotaxy is frequently variable in different twigs of the same tree, and it follows an unruly, wayward leaf arrangement.
The wood of the chestnut is light, soft, and not strong, but it is used for making cheap furniture. It is also made into rails, posts, and railroad ties, as it is durable when used in contact with the soil. The nuts are sweet and edible and have great market value. The trees bear fruit when they are very young, and some Western farmers find that orchards of these trees bring better returns than the same amount of land in farm products.
The chestnut is closely allied to the sweet or Spanish chestnut of Europe. The nuts of the American species are sweeter than those of the Spanish chestnut, but they are much smaller. From a French experiment it was found that the kernel of the chestnut yields sixteen per cent of good sugar.
CHESTNUT
Castanea dentata
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1. Red Oak. 2. Scarlet Oak. 3. Black Oak. 4. Pin Oak.
5. Swamp White Oak. 6. White Oak. 7. Mossy-cup Oak.
8. Post Oak. 9. Chestnut Oak.
The generic name was taken from Castanea, a town in Thessaly, and the specific name, dentata (having teeth), refers to the serrations of the leaf. The chestnut is found throughout the Northeastern States.
Oaks Quercus
There are in all nearly three hundred different oaks which have been described by botanists, and fifty of these are found in North America, exclusive of Mexico. The oaks are large trees of temperate climates, and both in Europe and America few trees have the same varied and general usefulness. The extraordinary strength in the great, horizontal branches, their breadth and lateral sweep, and the rugged boldness of the trunk have long associated the oak with all that stands for strength, duration, and unswerving vitality. An oak never seems out of place; no matter whether we find it growing in unbroken forests, on a country estate, in a little garden, or by the roadside, it always harmonizes with its surroundings and adds to the composition of the landscape.
Oaks are divided into two groups, the white oaks and the black oaks. In New England there are eleven native oaks, six white oaks and five black. The white oak, the swamp white, the mossy cup, the chestnut, the dwarf chestnut, and the post oak belong to the first group, and the black oak, the red, the scarlet, the pin, and the bear or scrub oak belong to the second group.
The oak is distinguished from all other trees by its acorn.
The general characteristics of the oaks in winter are as follows:—
The upper lateral buds cluster at the top of the twig.
The buds have a tendency towards being five-sided in shape.
The bud scales are close and overlapping.
The leaf-scars project from the stem.
The bundle-scars are scattered over the leaf-scar.
The pith is five-angled. By cutting a twig across, the pith can be seen in the centre in the form of a five-rayed star.
The leaves very often remain on oaks through the winter.
The following characteristics distinguish the white oaks from the black oaks:—
The bark of the white oaks is lighter in color than that of the black oaks, and it flakes off in strips instead of breaking away in coarse ridges, as it does in the black oaks.
WHITE OAK
Quercus alba
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The acorns of the white oaks mature in one year, those of the black oaks take two years to ripen, so that these young acorns are found on the branches of the black oaks in winter.
The leaves of the white oaks have rounded lobes, and the lobes of the black oak leaves are tipped with a sharp bristle point.
The generic name, Quercus, comes from the Celtic quer (fine) and cuez (a tree), or possibly it may be derived from the Greek choiros, a pig, because in Europe pigs formerly fed on the acorns of oak trees.
White Oak Quercus alba
A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high, with a trunk often six feet in diameter. The bark is light gray; the twigs smooth and light gray; the recent shoots light reddish or grayish brown; alternate leaf-scars. Small, round buds, smooth and short, about as long as they are wide. Acorns in a shallow, rough cup, often sweet and edible.
The white oak seems to figure in one’s earliest associations with the woods in winter. The sound of the withered leaves rustling in the wind is peculiarly suggestive of cold weather and dreariness, and invariably strikes the keynote of the woods on a bleak December day. Towards the end of winter the leaves are blown away or fall off, and then the beautiful ramifications and stalwart limbs of the trees are fully revealed. I have often noticed in the country that when one large, old white oak is found growing in an open pasture, there are usually five or six more of the same size and age within a short distance. This may be accounted for by the fact that in the early New England days these trees were in great demand for ship-building, and farmers waited for the most promising trees to reach maturity before selling them. On some farms these oaks happened to escape the axe, and have not only outlived the men who spared them, but stand for landmarks now, long after the farms themselves have been deserted and forgotten.
The wood of the white oak is very heavy and hard, and durable in contact with the soil. It is used in the construction and interior finish of buildings and in ship-building, for making carriages, cabinets, agricultural implements, baskets, and for fences and railroad ties. It also makes excellent firewood.
The specific name refers to the light color of the wood and bark in contrast with that of the black oaks. It is found from Southern Maine to Northern Florida and westward.
Swamp White Oak Quercus platanoides
A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high, common in swamps and where the soil is moist. The bark shags off along the branches, and the trunk is more deeply fissured than that of the white oak. The twigs are coarser than those of the white oak, often shorter in length, and the stems are rounder. Short, thick-set buds and alternate leaf-scars. Acorns set in a shallow cup, often mossy-fringed at the margin; the nut is sweet and edible.
TRUNK OF A WHITE OAK
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When once the swamp white oak’s peculiarities are known it is seldom confused with any other oak, even in winter. Its unkempt appearance, the peeling away of the bark along the branches, and its generally straggling habit of growth distinguish it quite as much in the winter as at any other season of the year; it is at all times the untidy member of the oak family. The branches begin very low down on the trunk of this oak, and one can distinguish the tree from a distance in this way. Emerson says that in warm and sheltered situations it is a neat and beautiful tree, but that when it is too much exposed to the east or north wind it shows the effect by its ragged appearance; as one sees the tree generally through Southeastern New England one deduces from its appearance that the prevalent winds are those from the east and north.
The wood is heavy, hard, strong, and tough, and is used for the same things that that of the white oak is used for, and is not distinguished from it commercially.
The specific name, platanoides (platanus-like), comes from the generic name of the plane tree or buttonwood, and refers to the bark of the young trees, which, like that of the buttonwood, separates and curls off in large thin flakes along the branches.
The swamp white oak grows in low, wet ground throughout the Northeastern States.
Mossy Cup, Overcup or Bur Oak Quercus macrocarpa
A large tree, sometimes 160 feet high. The bark is corky, with corky ridges along the twigs. The buds are like those of the swamp white oak, but the scales are more pointed. Often the dried stipule or a piece of it is left, as it is persistent in this species. Alternate leaf-scars. The acorn is almost entirely enclosed in a thick cup with a mossy fringed border.
The curious corky ridges along the twigs distinguish the mossy cup oak at all seasons of the year, and its aspect in winter is unusual and picturesque, owing to this peculiarity.
MOSSY CUP OAK
Quercus macrocarpa
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The branches are irregular, the buds are small, and the acorns are large and enclosed for more than half their length in a cup covered with prominent scales and bordered with a thread-like fringe. Michaux says that these threads do not appear when the tree is in the midst of a forest or when the summers are not very warm.
The wood of the mossy cup oak is even more valuable than that of the white oak. It is heavy, strong, hard, tough, close-grained, and durable in contact with the soil. It is used for the same purposes as that of the white oak.
One can easily trace the family resemblance between the mossy cup oak and the cork tree of Southern Europe, which yields the cork of commerce.
The specific name, macrocarpa, comes from two Greek words meaning large fruit, and refers to the cups and acorns. The mossy cup oak is found in the West and in certain localities in New England. It is found on the banks of the Penobscot River in Maine, on the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont, and among the Berkshire Hills, near Stockbridge, and on the banks of the Ware River in Massachusetts.
Chestnut or Rock Chestnut Oak Quercus prinus
A middle-sized or small tree usually, although it is sometimes 100 feet high. The bark does not flake. The buds are pointed,—an exception for the white oaks. The buds are long in proportion to their width. There is no pubescence on the bud, the edges of the scales are bleached and have turned gray, the centres remaining a rich reddish brown. Smooth, glossy twigs, move apt to be ridged than those of the white oak. Alternate leaf-scars. The acorn is covered nearly halfway with a thick cup. The kernel is sweetish and edible.
The chestnut oak is distinguished in winter by its beautiful smooth bark and by its pointed buds, entirely unlike those of the other white oaks. It sometimes grows to be a large tree, but in New England it is usually middle-sized or small.
The wood is heavy, hard, strong, and close-grained, and is used for making fences, railway ties, and for fuel. The bark is rich in tannin, and is used for tanning leather.
The specific name was derived from the Greek, and was the ancient name for an oak tree.
The chestnut oak is found on the banks of the Saco River and near Mount Agamenticus in Southern Maine, among the Blue Hills and in rich woods in Massachusetts, and it becomes more common as one goes south.
A YOUNG POST OAK
Quercus minor
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The dwarf chestnut, or chinquapin oak (Quercus prinoides), is the smallest member of the oak family in New England, and seldom grows to be more than two or three feet high. It is found in Massachusetts and in the South and West.
It is a small shrub of no commercial value, although its little branches are rich in tannin. The specific name, prinoides, means prinus-like, the name of the chestnut oak, and refers to the general resemblance between the two species.
Post or Rough Oak Quercus minor
A medium-sized tree, 40 to 50 feet high. Buds and twigs stumpy and thick set with short branching. Buds very round and rusty. Twig persistently rough, alternate leaf-scars, the bark is hard and rough. Acorn enclosed in a deep, saucer-shaped cup.
The branches of the post oak are so thick set, short, and crooked that this oak is seldom confused with any other. It rarely grows to be more than twenty-five or thirty feet high, and the many low, crooked branches, crowded together at the base of the trunk, give, as Emerson says, the effect of the top of a tree whose trunk is under ground. The leaves of the post oak are often held through the winter, and they are so stiff, rough, and abundant that they are, in themselves, a distinguishing mark. The specimen in the Arnold Arboretum, from which the accompanying photograph was taken, holds its leaves later in the spring than any of the other oaks.
The wood is heavy, close-grained, hard, and durable, but it is difficult to season. It is used in the construction of houses, in the manufacture of carriages, and for cooperage, fencing, railway ties, and for fuel.
The specific name, minor (smaller), refers to the height of this oak as compared with that of the larger members of the family.
The post oak is found from Southern Massachusetts—on Cape Cod, on the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Naushon—to Northern Florida and, in certain localities, west to Eastern Kansas.
Black Oak Quercus velutina
A large tree, 70 to 80 and (rarely) 150 feet high. Bark thick, rough, and dark. Twigs smooth, with a bitter taste. Alternate leaf-scars. Buds very downy, sharp-pointed, and large. The acorns are set in a deep, conspicuously scaly cup. The kernel is bitter.
BLACK OAK
Quercus velutina
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The black oak is distinguished by its rough, dark outer bark and rich yellow inner bark (which is seen when a small cut is made with a penknife), and its downy pointed buds. On young trees as well as old ones, the bark is very rough at the base of the trunk, and this roughness extends upwards in old trees.
The round, thin, brittle balls found on black oaks and known as oak-apples are produced by an insect which injures the leaf by puncturing it and depositing an egg. This causes irritation and an abnormal growth, from which the apple is formed. The grub which lives inside this excrescence becomes a chrysalis in the autumn, and changes to a fly in the spring, when it gnaws its way out by making a little hole through the shell.
The wood of the black oak is heavy, hard, and strong, but not tough, and it is liable to check in drying. The bark is rich in tannin, and it makes a yellow dye,—quercitron,—obtained from the inner bark. Used medicinally the bark is an astringent.
The specific name, velutina, was taken originally from the Latin word vellus, meaning shorn wool, and was applied by botanists to this tree on account of the fleecy character of the recent stems and leaves. The black oak is found growing throughout New England and in the South and West.
Red Oak Quercus rubra
A large tree, 60 to 150 feet high. The bark is fissured in long clefts, with broad, smooth places between, giving the trunk a fluted column effect. Large, sharp-pointed buds, with close scales. The red oak buds resemble to some extent those of the chestnut oak, but there is a fine hair on the scales of the red oak buds, while the scales of the chestnut oak buds are bleached and have no hair. Where the base of the bud joins the stem the buds of the red oak are more constricted than those of the chestnut oak, and the chestnut oak buds seem more sessile. Alternate leaf-scars. Acorn set in a shallow cup of fine scales.
The red oak is a lofty, wide-spreading tree of great beauty. “No other oak,” Emerson says, “flourishes so readily in every situation, no other is of so rapid growth, no other surpasses it in beauty of foliage and of trunk; no oak attains, in this climate, to more magnificent dimensions; no tree, except the white oak, gives us so noble an idea of strength.”
It is perhaps, of all the black oak group, the easiest to distinguish in winter on account of the smooth spaces between the fissures of the bark on its trunk, and its pointed buds, which are much less downy than those of the black oak.
The wood is heavy, hard, and strong, but it is not particularly valuable. It is used in the construction and interior finish of houses and for making cheap furniture.
RED OAK
Quercus rubra
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The specific name, rubra, was given to it on account of the rich, red midrib and veins of the leaves.
It is the oak which is found farthest north, and it grows in all kinds of soil from Nova Scotia southward to Northern Georgia. The red oak was one of the earliest American trees introduced into Europe.
Scarlet Oak Quercus coccinea
A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high. The bark is grayish and not deeply furrowed. Slender twigs, with small, alternate leaf-scars. Small buds, the tips being half as hairy as those of the black oak, while the bases are smooth. The acorn is one-half or more enclosed in a coarsely scaled cup. Its kernel is bitter.
The scarlet oak is the most brilliant member of the oak family. In summer its leaves are a shining green, in autumn they turn more glowingly red than those of any other oak, and in winter its buds and stems are smooth, and show more color than those of the other members of the genus. Its outline is less spreading in shape than those of oaks generally, and the bark of the trunk is not so coarsely furrowed as the black oak’s, nor so smooth as that of the red oak.
The wood is heavy and hard, and is used for the same purposes as red oak.
The specific name, coccinea (of a scarlet color), refers to the hue of the foliage in the autumn.
The scarlet oak is found growing throughout the Northeastern States and also in the South and West.
Pin Oak Quercus palustris
A small or medium-sized tree in New England, although it reaches the height of 120 feet in the forests of the West. It is excurrent in growth. In its youth the branches are rigid and horizontal, and have a tendency to droop stiffly towards the ground. The branches and twigs are persistent, some of the twigs often becoming small, stiff, pin-like spurs, which are a distinctive characteristic of the tree. The buds are small and the twigs slender. Alternate leaf-scars. The acorn is half an inch long, in a shallow, saucer-shaped cup with thin scales.
TRUNK OF A RED OAK
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The outline of the pin oak is not in the least like that of any other oak after its leaves have fallen; for while most oaks are distinguished by their far-reaching lateral branches which divide a short distance at the trunk, the pin oak carries its main stem to the top of the tree, and the lateral branches grow from the trunk, forming a pyramidal head. In the forests where it grows in swamps and wet places, it loses this shape, but even then the branches are characteristically rigid and grow near together. The pyramidal shape of this tree, its small, delicate buds and branches, and the pin-like twigs, from which it takes its name of pin oak, make it easily recognized as we see it growing in our parks and gardens.
The wood is hard and strong, where the tree is found growing commonly, and is used in the construction of houses and for shingles and clapboards.
The specific name is from the Latin paluster, an adjective meaning swampy or boggy, and has reference to the moisture-seeking characteristics of the tree.
The pin oak is found growing on the banks of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts, but it occurs more commonly in the South and West.
The scrub or bear oak (Quercus pumila) is a dwarfed, straggling bush, three to ten feet high, and found on sandy, barren, and rocky hills from Maine to Carolina. Its specific name, pumila (dwarf), was given to it on account of its size and crooked manner of growth.
PIN OAK
Quercus palustris
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Chapter VIII
THE ELMS AND THE HACKBERRY
The Slippery Elm and the American Elm.