Trees Every Child Should Know: Easy Tree Studies for All Seasons of the Year

by Julia Ellen Rogers

CONTENTS

PAGE [How to Know the Trees] 3 AUTUMN STUDIES The Nut Trees: [The Shagbark Hickories] 9 [The Disappointing Hickories] 12 [The Black Walnut] 16 [The Butternut] 18 [The English Walnut] 19 [The Chestnut and Chinquapin] 22 [The Beech] 26 [The Witch Hazel] 29 [The Oak Family] 33 The White Oak Group: [The White Oak] 37 [The Bur or Mossy-cup Oak] 39 [The Live Oak] 41 [The Post Oak] 44 [The Swamp White Oak] 45 [The Chestnut Oak] 46 The Black Oak Group: [The Black Oak] 47 [The Red Oak] 50 [The Scarlet Oak] 51 [The Pin Oak] 52 [The Willow Oak] 54 [Trees with Winged Seeds] 55 [Tree Seeds that have Parachutes] 62 [The Autumn Berries in the Woods] 64 [The Changing Colour of the Autumn Woods] 74 WINTER STUDIES [Trees We Know by Their Bark] 83 [Trees We Know by Their Shapes] 93 [Trees We Know by Their Thorns] 98 [The Needle-leaved Evergreens] 101 [The Five-leaved Soft Pines] 108 [The White Pine] 109 [The Great Sugar Pine] 112 [The Nut Pines] 114 [The Hard Pines] 118 [The Southern Pitch Pines] 119 [The Longleaf Pine] 119 [The Shortleaf Pine] 121 [The Cuban Pine] 123 [The Loblolly Pine] 124 [The Northern Pitch Pines] 125 [The Cedars, White and Red] 127 [Two Conifers Not Evergreen] 131 [The Larches] 131 [The Bald Cypress] 134 [The Hollies] 136 [The Burning Bush] 139 SPRING STUDIES [The Awakening of the Trees] 143 [Trees that Bloom in Early Spring] 146 [The American Elm and Its Kin] 150 [The Maple Family] 154 [The Willow Family] 163 [Why Trees Need Leaves] 169 [Leaves of All Shapes and Sizes] 173 SUMMER STUDIES [Trees with the Largest Flowers] 183 [Trees Most Showy in Bloom] 189 [Trees that Bloom in Midsummer] 192 [The Early Berries in the Woods] 197 [The Sassafras] 200 [The Ash Family] 203 [The Horse-chestnut and the Buckeyes] 208 [The Buckeyes] 211 [The Locusts and Other Pod-bearers] 214 [Wild Apple Trees and Their Kin] 221 [The Cherries] 226 [The Plums] 229 [The Serviceberries] 232 [Valuable Sap of Trees] 233 [The Uses of Trees] 237

[Identification Keys to Tree Groups and Families] 251 [Index] 261

ILLUSTRATIONS

[The Glory of Autumn Trees] Frontispiece FACING PAGE [Three Pignuts, Three Shagbarks, and Two Pecans; Flowering Twig of the Shagbark Hickory] 16 [Black Walnut and Butternut; Twig of Butternut] 17 [Buds and Flowers of the Beech Tree] 32 [Catkins of a Hornbeam and a Birch; Catkins and Acorn Flowers of an Oak] 33 [Leaves, Acorns, and Twigs of the Bur Oak] 48 [The Horizontal Limbs of the Pin Oak Form a Regular Pyramidal Head] 49 [Cone Fruits of a Birch, a Pine, a Magnolia, and a Fir] 64 [Clusters of the Winged Seeds of Hornbeam and White Ash] 65 [The Flowering Dogwood Covers Its Bare Branches with Blossoms in May] 76 [Flowering Dogwood, in Flower and Fruit, the Winter Flower Buds, and Alligator Skin Bark] 77 [We Recognise Birches by their Silky, Tattered Bark] 84 [The Beech Trunk Is Clothed in Smooth, Pale Grey Bark] 85 [The Loose, Stripping Bark Gives Its Name to the Shagbark Hickory] 86 [Bark of Hackberry, Black Birch and Hornbeam] 87 [Warty, Ridged Bark of the Sweet Gum, the Swinging Seed Balls, and Winged Seeds] 90 [Bark and Seed Balls of the Sycamore] 91 [The Lombardy Poplar] 92 [The Live Oak of the South] 93 [Fruiting Branch of a Cockspur Thorn] 96 [Clustered Thorns on Trunk of Honey Locust Tree; Flowers and Foliage of the Black Locust] 97 [Cones of Hemlock and Norway Spruce] 112 [Pine Twig with Cones, and Clustered Staminate Flowers] 113 [Thousands of Little Balsam Firs Supply the Market with Christmas Trees] 114 [Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Outdoor Study] 115 [The Spiny-leaved, Red-berried Holly] 126 [What Would Christmas Be Without Holly Branches and Wreaths for Decoration!] 127 [“The Grizzly Giant,” a Sequoia Over Three Hundred Feet High] 128 [Scaly-leaved Evergreens] 129 [The Opening Buds of the Shagbark Hickory] 144 [Catkins and Leaves of the Trembling Aspen] 145 [Flower Buds, Blossoms, Seeds, and Leaf of the American Elm] 148 [Elm Tree in Bloom] 149 [Buds and Flowers of the Red Maple] 156 [Seeds of the Red Maple] 157 [The Sugar Maple] 176 [Leaves of the Black Willow; Pussy Willow Twigs] 177 [Leaves and Flowers of the Ear-leaved Cucumber Tree] 192 [The Orange-yellow Flower Cups and Squared Leaves of the Tulip Tree] 193 [Flowers, Fruit, and the Three Different Leaf Patterns of the Sassafras Tree] 194 [Waxy Flowers of the Evergreen Magnolia] 195 [Fruits, Leaves, and Flowers of the Basswood Tree] 206 [The Chestnut Tree] 207 [An Old Apple Orchard] 224 [Nothing Tastes as Good as Ripe Apples Picked Right off the Tree!] 225 [Flowers and Fruit of the Wild Black Cherry] 240 [The Delicate, White Flower Clusters of the Serviceberry Tree] 241

HOW TO KNOW THE TREES

The best time to begin to study the trees is to-day! The place to begin is right where you are, provided there is a tree near enough, for a lesson about trees will be very dull unless there is a tree to look at, to ask questions of, and to get answers from. But suppose it is winter time, and the tree is bare. Then you have a chance to see the wonderful framework of trunk and branches, the way the twigs spread apart on the outer limbs, while the great boughs near the trunk are almost bare. Each branch is trying to hold its twigs out into the sunshine, and each twig is set with buds. When these buds open, and most of them send out leafy shoots, the tree will be a shady summerhouse with a thick, leafy roof that the sun cannot look through. Among the big branches near the trunk very few leaves will be found compared with the number the outer twigs bear.

How can we tell whether the tree is alive or dead in winter? Break off a twig. Is there a layer of green just inside the brown bark? This is the sign that the tree is alive. Dead twigs are withered, and their buds are not plump and bright. The green is gone from under the bark of these twigs.

Under each bud is the scar of last year’s leaf, and if you look on the ground you are pretty sure to find a dead leaf whose stem fits exactly into that scar. If there are a number of these leaves under the tree, you may feel sure that they fell from the tree last autumn. Look carefully among the leaves, and on the branches for the seeds of this tree. If there is an acorn left on the tree, you may be sure that you have the tree’s name!

The name is the thing we wish first to know when we meet a stranger. If an acorn is found growing on a tree, that tree has given us its name, for trees that bear acorns are all oaks. An acorn is a kind of nut, and there are many kinds of oaks, each with its own acorn pattern, unlike that of other oaks. Yet all acorns sit in their little acorn cups, and we do not confuse them with nuts of other trees. So we know the family name of all trees whose fruits are acorns. They are all oaks, and there are fifty kinds in our own country, growing wild in American forests. But if those of all countries are counted, there are in all more than three hundred kinds.