Forest Trees and Forest Scenery

by G. Frederick Schwarz

Spray of the Sugar Maple

Spray of the Red Maple

The red maple has a more airy look. This is due partly to the character of the leaf, but primarily to that of the branchwork. The main branches spread out in easy, flowing lines, much as they do in the sugar maple; but they assume an ampler range, and the last divisions, the twigs, take on decided curves, rising to right and left. On these the leaves multiply, each leaf poised lightly upon its curved petiole. As compared with the leaf of its congener, that of the red maple is firmer and a shade lighter, especially underneath. It is also more agile in the wind. The effect of the whole is more that of a shower of foliage than of pillowed masses. The curving lines, the elastic spring of every part, and a kind of freedom among the many leaves, make the red maple one of the cheerfullest of trees.

The sugar maple is the larger of the two, and seeks the intervales and uplands, where its size is well set off in the landscape. The red maple, which finds its natural home along riverbanks and in moist places, is interesting at all seasons. When young it is particularly attractive in summer where it fringes lakes and streams. In winter its bright, red twigs present a pleasing contrast to the gray bark or to the snow-covered earth. In the earliest days of spring the little scarlet blossoms break out in tufts that soon ripen into brilliant little keys, looking very pretty where they intermingle with the pale green of the opening leaves.

There is, in fact, more color in the woods in the opening days of spring than is generally admitted or noticed. Many kinds of trees unfold their leaves in some tender shade of rose or golden brown; while others lend a distinct color to a whole section of forest by the opening of their early blossoms.

The maples, however, are chiefly famous for their wonderful richness of color in the fall of the year; particularly the sugar and the red maple, whose brilliancy at this season it would be difficult to match. They exhibit, in truth, a gamut of beautiful tones, from pale yellow to deep orange, and from bright scarlet to vivid crimson. They are among the first to change the color of their leaves, but are quickly followed by other species of trees, whose varying hues blend together and enrich the autumn landscape. The “scarlet” and “red” oaks now justify their names; the flowering dogwood and the sweet gum show their soft depth of purple; the milder tulip tree takes on a golden tint and shimmers in the sun, mingling with ruddy hornbeams, browned beeches, variegated sassafras trees, or the fiery foliage of the tupelos. The swamps are aflame with the brilliancy of red maples, contrasting with the quieter tones of alders and willows.

We may speak of brilliancy and color in our leafy woods at the ebb-tide of the year; but to know their beauty well we must walk among the trees. Nor can pictures tell us all the truth about the tints of autumn. How should we receive from them the atmospheric effects that nature gives, and the indescribable blending and softening that comes from innumerable rays of diffused and reflected light? The beauty also changes from day to day and from hour to hour, for weeks.

Some of the other broadleaf trees deserve to be noticed, though in less detail, as objects of beauty in the forest. The honey locust, one of our largest trees of this class, is distinguished principally for the elegant forms of its branches. The smaller divisions, the twigs, follow a zigzag course which in itself is not beautiful, but the effect is so bound up with the complex spiral evolutions of the larger divisions, the boughs and branches, that the result is only to heighten the elegance of the latter. The foliage of this tree is very delicate, being composed of numerous elliptically shaped leaflets, that are gathered into sprays that hang airily among the bold and sweeping boughs.