Family Rosaceæ
The rose family is a very large order of trees, shrubs, and herbs belonging to temperate climates. There are numerous genera, including valuable fruit and ornamental trees which have been cultivated since the earliest times. Many of the species are so familiar that they scarcely need description in summer, but in winter the character of their buds and stems is less easily recognized, and unless the trees are well grown it is sometimes difficult to identify them.
Common Apple Tree Pyrus malus
A flat-topped tree, 20 to 40 feet high. The bark of the tree scales off in small, thin, brittle plates. The buds and the stems are small and somewhat woolly. The leaf-scars are alternate and inconspicuous, with three bundle-scars.
The low, flat-topped, broad-headed shape of the apple tree is so characteristic that it may be easily recognized in winter, even when there is no surrounding orchard to identify it. So strong in one’s mind is the association of blossoms with these trees, that even a bare old apple tree against a winter sky suggests the spring,—an apple tree always seems to be haunted by the ghosts of its pink blossoms. The literary history of this tree goes back to the mythologies of the Greeks, the Scandinavians, and the Druids, and it also figures prominently in early Christian as well as pagan legends. It has been cultivated for its fruit since prehistoric times, and there are hundreds of varieties of it in cultivation.
The wood is fine-grained, hard, and a rich reddish brown color. It is used for small purposes in turnery. The fruit, however, is the most valuable product of the tree, and cider has been made from it for hundreds of years. Its native country is uncertain, but it is probably indigenous to the Northwestern Himalayas and the forests along the Black Sea. It was introduced into Britain by the Romans, and it is widely naturalized in the United States.
The generic name, Pyrus, is the ancient classical name for the pear tree, and probably was originally taken from the Celtic word peren, from which the English word was derived. The specific name, malus, is the ancient classical name for the apple tree.
Common Pear Tree Pyrus communis
A pyramidal tree, 30 to 70 feet high. The bark is smooth, and the branches incline to be thorny, especially when the tree has escaped cultivation. Smooth stems and small pointed buds. Alternate inconspicuous leaf-scars, with three bundle-scars.
As distinctive in shape as the apple tree, but in striking contrast to it, the erect pyramidal head of the pear tree is easily recognized in winter, and its small, pointed buds and smooth stems offer other points of difference. Like the apple tree, the pear tree has been in cultivation for hundreds of years and there are innumerable varieties. It seems incongruous that so small a tree should live to a great age, but Bosc alludes to pear trees more than four hundred years old, and Knight tells of several which date back to the fifteenth century.
The wood is heavy and compact, and is used in Europe by wood engravers and turners. A drink called perry is made from pears in much the same way that cider is made from apples. It was considered an antidote to mushroom poisoning by the Romans, and in England it is still taken, “after a surfeit of that vegetable,” according to Loudon. The pear tree is a native of nearly all the elevated regions of Europe and Western Asia. Like the apple tree it was introduced into Britain by the Romans, and it is widely naturalized in the United States.
Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree Pyrus americana
A slender tree, or tall shrub, 20 to 30 feet high. Slender spreading branches with smooth bark. The twigs are downy, becoming smooth and brownish red in color. Large alternate leaf-scars. The buds are pointed, reddish in color, and gummy to the touch. The inner scales of the buds are coated with down. It has bright scarlet berry-like fruit, which remains on the tree through the winter.
A YOUNG BLACK CHERRY TREE
Prunus serotina
Page [171]
The mountain ash is seldom associated in our minds with apple and pear trees, but it belongs to the same genus nevertheless, and has absolutely nothing in common with the ash tree, as one might suppose. The American mountain ash is frequently planted as an ornamental tree, although the European species is more often cultivated than ours. The buds of the European mountain ash are blunter and more downy than those of the American, the bark is lighter in color, and the berries are larger, but apart from these differences the trees can scarcely be told apart in winter.
Pyrus sambucifolia, the elder-leafed mountain ash, is another native species which grows wild in the mountains of Northern New England and is found as far north as Greenland and westward. The range of Pyrus americana is more limited, but it is found from Newfoundland to North Carolina and westward.
Wild Black Cherry Prunus serotina
A tree or shrub, varying from 15 to 100 feet high. The bark is smooth on young trees, with conspicuous horizontal lenticels; on old trees it cracks and breaks off in small, thin, brittle scales. The branches are slender, rigid, reddish brown in color, and bitter to the taste. The buds are pointed, a light chestnut brown in color, with closely overlapping scales. Alternate leaf-scars.
The black cherry may be identified in winter by its bark and by the disagreeable bitter taste of its stems,—no other tree has a strong, peculiar, pungent taste like this. The bark of the young trees is really beautiful, it is so smooth and has such a rich reddish brown color; in some characteristics it resembles that of the black birch, but the larger, coarser lenticels distinguish it from that tree.
The black cherry is a valuable timber tree. The wood is light, strong, and hard, and takes a fair polish. It is used in cabinet making and for the interior finish of houses. The bark of the branches and roots is much used in medicine, and the ripe fruit is used to flavor alcoholic liquors.
The meaning of the generic name, Prunus, is unknown, but it is thought to be of Asiatic origin. The specific name, serotina (late flowering), refers to the blossoms of this tree, which appear in June, later than those of other cherries. It is found from Nova Scotia to Florida, and reaches its greatest size in the Western forests.
Prunus virginiana, the choke cherry, and Prunus pennsylvanica, the wild red, bird, or pin cherry, are two small trees found more or less frequently in the woods throughout the Atlantic States. They are both distinguished from the black cherry by their red instead of black fruit.
The common sweet cherry (Prunus avium), the common peach tree (Prunus persica), and the common garden plum (Prunus domestica) all belong to this genus and are widely cultivated in the United States. They are small trees with many varieties and are planted for their fruit.
The cherry was brought from Asia to Italy, and from there it was rapidly carried to all parts of Europe. The peach came originally from China, and was brought to Great Britain by the Romans, who got it from Persia during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. It was carried to North America by the first settlers at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The difficulty of raising peaches successfully in the Northern States is not so much due to the cold weather as to the swelling of the buds on warm winter days and in the early spring, which are afterwards destroyed if the thermometer goes below zero. An interesting experiment of whitewashing peach trees, to prevent the buds from absorbing heat on sunny days, was tried by Mr. Whitten of the Missouri Experiment Station, and it was found that whitened buds remained dormant until April, while unprotected buds swelled perceptibly in February and March. Eighty per cent of whitened buds passed the winter safely, where only twenty per cent of unwhitened buds escaped injury by premature swelling.
Shad Bush; Service Berry; June Berry Amelanchier canadensis
A small tree, 40 to 50 feet high, with smooth brown bark. Slender twigs. The buds are brown and covered with slightly downy, silky scales, and the leaf-scars are alternate.
The shad bush is strongly associated with the rich upland woods of New England, and in the early spring its white flowers are among the first to appear among the budding trees and shrubs, when the streams are full and the shad begin to rise. In winter there are no marked characteristics by which it may be known, apart from its general resemblance to other genera in the family, and its delicate twigs, small pointed buds with overlapping scales, and inconspicuous leaf-scars.
The wood is close-grained, heavy, and exceedingly hard, and is used for the handles of tools and other small implements.
The generic name, Amelanchier, is the Savoy name for the medlar. The shad bush is found from Newfoundland to Northern Florida and westward.
Chapter XIV
THE WILLOWS AND POPLARS
WHITE WILLOWS
Salix alba
Page [178]