The Dogwood Family.
The Flowering Dogwood is the most beautiful sight of our May woodlands. The wood of this tree is very hard. Nobody seems to know how it received its common name. It is covered with clusters of red berries in the fall and at that time its leaves turn a bright red.
The Olive Family.
To this family belong the Ash trees, so called on account of the appearance of the under-surface of their leaves. There is a superstition that the ash tree is peculiarly likely to be struck by lightning. Its wood is largely used because of its lightness and elasticity; such articles as the handles of tools, oars, and carriage shafts are made of ash wood. White ash sometimes grows very tall; the black ash favors rivers and swamp-land and is not of such a sturdy growth as the white. The fruit of both form in clusters.
The Bignonia Family.
The Catalpa in June or July is covered with white blossoms mottled with yellow and purple. It is often called "The Bean Tree" because its fruit is like a long bean in form. These beans hang on a tree nearly all winter.
The Oak Family.
This is one of the handsomest of our tree families. The common white oak grows to a height of eighty to one hundred feet, the trunk often reaching a diameter of four feet. The leaves of the chestnut oak and those of the yellow oak resemble the leaves of the chestnut tree. The acorns of the red oak are very large, but the kernels are so bitter that the squirrels leave them untouched upon the ground. The leaves of the scarlet oak are very finely cut and assume brilliant colors in the late fall. There are many other varieties of oaks: straggling little scrub oaks, laurel oaks with laurel-like leaves, and the willow oaks of the Southwestern states.
WHITE OAK.