on your twigs and see if they are all alike. Is one kind more soft
and furry than the other? Are they of different colors?
4. Take one of the furry pussies. Describe the little bract, which
is like a protecting hood at its base. What color is the fur? After
a few days, what color is the pussy? Why does it change from silver
color to yellow? Pick one of the catkins apart and see how the fur
protects the stamens.
5. Take one of the pussies which is not so furry. Can you see the
little pistils with the Y-shaped stigmas set in it? Is each little
pistil set at the base of a little scale with fringed edges?
6. Since the pollen-bearing catkins are on one tree and the
seed-bearing catkins are on the other, and since the seeds cannot
be developed without the pollen, how is the pollen carried to the
pistils? For this answer, visit the willows when the pussies are all
in bloom and listen. Tell what you hear. What insects do you see
working on the willow blossoms? What are they after?
7. What sort of seed has the willow? How is it scattered? Do you
think the wind or water has most to do with planting willow seed?
_Work for May or September_--8. Describe willow foliage and leaves.
How can you tell willow foliage at a distance?
9. What sort of roots has the willow? Why are the willows planted
along the banks of streams? If you wished to plant some willow trees
how would you do it? Would you plant seeds or twigs?
10. For what purposes is willow wood used? How are the twigs used?
Why are they specially fitted for this use? What is pollarding a
tree? What medicine do we get from willow bark?
11. Do you find willow cones on your willows? Cut one of these cones
through and see if you can find any seeds? What is in the middle of
it? What do you think made the scales of the cone? Do you think this
little insect remains in here all winter?
12. In winter, hunt the lower branches of willows for leaves rolled
lengthwise making a winter cradle for the young caterpillars of the
viceroy.
_Supplementary reading_--Trees in Prose and Poetry, p. 137.
THE COTTONWOOD, OR CAROLINA POPLAR
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: T]
The sojourner on our western plains where streams are few and
sluggish, disappearing entirely in summer, soon learns to love the
cottonwoods, for they will grow and cast their shade for men and
cattle where no other tree could endure. The cottonwood may be
unkempt and ragged, but it is a tree, and we are grateful to it for
its ability to grow in unfavorable situations. In the Middle West
it attains its perfection, although in New York we have some superb
specimens--trees which are more than one hundred feet in height
and with majestic trunks, perhaps five or six feet through. The
deep-furrowed, pale gray bark makes a handsome covering. The trunk
divides into great out-swinging, widely spaced branches, which bear a
fine spray on their drooping ends. Sargent declares that at its best
the cottonwood is one of the statliest inhabitants of our eastern
forests. The variety we plant in cities we call the Carolina poplar,
but it is a cottonwood. It is a rapid grower, and therefore a great
help to the “boom towns” of the West and to the boom suburbs in the
East; although for a city tree its weak branches break too readily
in wind storms in old age. However, it keeps its foliage clean, the
varnished leaves shedding the dust and smoke; because of this latter
quality it is of special use in towns that burn soft coal.
The cottonwood twigs which we gather for study in the spring are
yellowish or reddish, those of last year’s growth being smooth and
round, while those showing previous growth are angular. The buds are
red-brown and shining, and covered with resin which the bees like to
collect for their glue. The leaf buds are slender and sharp-pointed;
the flower buds are wider and plumper.
The two sexes of the flowers are borne on separate trees. The trees
bearing pollen catkins are so completely covered with them that they
take on a very furry, purplish appearance when in blossom. These
catkins are from three to five inches long and half an inch thick,
looking fat and pendulous; each fringed scale of the catkin has at
its base a disc looking like a white bracket, from which hang the
reddish purple anthers; these catkins fall after the pollen is shed
and look like red caterpillars upon the ground.
The seed-bearing flowers are very different; they look like a string
of little, greenish beads loosely strung. Each pistil is globular and
set in a tiny cup, and it has three or four stigmas which are widened
or lobed; as it matures, it becomes larger and darker green, and
the string elongates to six or even ten inches. The little pointed
pods open into two or more valves and set free the seeds, which are
provided with a fluff of pappus to sail them off on the breeze; so
many of the seeds develop that every object in the neighborhood
is covered with their fuzz, and thus the tree has gained its name
“cottonwood.”
[Illustration: _Staminate catkin of cottonwood._
Drawn by Anna Stryke.]
The foliage of the cottonwood is like that of other poplars,
trembling with the breeze. The heavy, subcircular leaf is supported
on the sidewise flattened petiole, so that the slightest breath of
air sets it quaking; a gentle breeze sets the whole tree twinkling
and gives the eye a fascinating impression as of leaves beckoning.
The leaf is in itself pretty. It is from three to five inches long,
broad, slightly angular at the base and has a long, tapering, pointed
tip. The edge is saw-toothed, and also slightly ruffled except near
the stem where it is smooth; it is thick and shining green above and
paler beneath. The long, slender petiole is red or yellowish, and the
leaves are placed alternate on the twigs.
In the autumn the leaves are brilliant yellow. The wood is soft,
weak, fine-grained, whitish or yellowish, and has a satiny luster; it
is not durable. It is used somewhat for building and for furniture,
in some kinds of cooperage, and also for crates and woodenware; but
its greatest use is for making the pulp for paper. Many newspapers
and books are printed on cottonwood paper. It is common from the
Middle States to the Rocky Mountains and from Manitoba to Texas.
LESSON CXCVII
THE COTTONWOOD
_Leading thought_--The cottonwood is a poplar. It grows rapidly and
flourishes on the dry western plains where other trees fail to gain
a foothold. It grows well in the dusty city, its shining leaves
shedding the smoke and dirt.
_Method_--Begin this study in spring before the cottonwoods bloom.
Bring in twigs in February, give them water and warmth, and watch the
development of the catkins. Afterwards watch the unfolding of the
leaves and study the tree.
_Observations_--1. What is the color of the bark on the cottonwood?
Is it ridged deeply? What is the color of the twigs? Are they round
or angular, or both? Describe the winter buds and bud-scales. Can you
tell which bud will produce leaves and which flowers?
2. Describe the catkin as it comes out. Has this catkin anthers and
pollen, or will it produce seed? Do you think the seeds are produced
on the same trees as the pollen?
[Illustration: _Seed-pod of poplar, shut and open._]
3. Find a pollen-bearing catkin. Describe the stamens. Can you see
anything but the anthers? On what are they set? What color are they?
What color do they give to the tree when they are in blossom? What
happens to the catkins after their pollen is shed?
4. Find a seed-bearing catkin. How long is it? Do you see why this
tree is called the necklace poplar? Describe the pistils which make
the beads on the necklace.
5. When do the seeds ripen? If you have been near the tree, how do
you know when they are ripe? How long is the catkin with the ripened
seeds? How many balls on the necklace now? What is the color? How
many seeds come out of each little pod? How are the seeds floated on
the air? Why do we call this tree “cottonwood?”
[Illustration: _Cottonwoods._
Courtesy of U. S. Forest Service.]
6. How large is the largest cottonwood that you know? Sketch it to
show the shape of the tree. Are the main branches large? Do they
droop at the tips?
7. How does the foliage of the cottonwood look? Does it twinkle with
the wind? Examine the leaves upon a branch and see why they twinkle.
Are the petioles round or flat? Are they flattened sidewise or up
and down? Are they stiff or slender? Describe the leaves, giving
their shape, veins, edges, color and texture above and below. Are
the edges ruffled as well as toothed? Is the leaf heavy? If a breeze
comes along how would it affect such a heavy, broad leaf on such a
slender, thin petiole? Blow against the leaves and see how they move?
Do you understand, now, why they twinkle? Can you see why the leaves
shed smoke and dust, when used for shading city streets?
8. Why is the cottonwood used as a shade tree? Do you think it makes
a beautiful shade tree? How long does it take it to grow? What kind
of wood does it produce? For what is it used?
_Supplementary reading_--Trees in Prose and Poetry, pp. 139–149.
[Illustration: _The growing fruit of the cottonwood._
Photo by Cyrus Crosby.]
[Illustration: _Pistillate blossoms of white ash._
Photo by G. F. Morgan.]
THE WHITE ASH
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: M]
Myths and legends cluster about the ash tree. It was, in the Norse
mythology, the tree “Igdrasil,” the tree of the universe, which was
the origin of all things. It is a pity that it was not the Tree of
Life in the Garden of Eden, for if another myth is true, no snake
will go near it or cross its branches. There is a widespread belief
that it draws lightning, just as the beech repels the thunderbolts.
“As straight as a white ash tree” was the highest compliment that
could be paid to the young pioneer; so straight is its fiber and
so strong its quality, that the American Indians made their canoe
paddles from it.
The ashes have the most beautiful bark in the world. It is divided
into fine, vertical ridges, giving the trunks the look of being
shaded with pencil lines; the bark smooths out on the lower
branches. But even more characteristic than the bark, are the ash
branches and twigs; the latter are sparse, coarse and clumsy, those
of the white ash being pale orange or gray and seemingly warped into
curves at the ends; they are covered with whitish gray dots, which
reveal themselves under the lens to be breathing-pores.
The white ash loves to grow in rich woods or in rich soil anywhere,
even though it be shallow; at its best, it reaches the height of
130 feet, with a trunk six feet through. Its foliage is peculiarly
graceful; the leaves are from eight to twelve inches long and are
composed of from five to nine leaflets. The leaflets have little
petioles connecting them with the middle stem; in shape they
are ovate with edges obscurely toothed or entire; the two basal
leaflets are smaller than the others and the end one largest; in
texture, they are satiny, dark green above, whitish beneath, with
feather-like veins, often hairy on the lower side. The petioles are
swollen at the base. The leaves are set opposite upon the twig;
except the horsechestnut, the ashes are our only trees with compound
leaves which have the leaves opposite. This character alone readily
distinguishes the ashes from the hickories. The autumn foliage has a
very peculiar color; the leaves are dull purple above and pale yellow
below; this brings the sunshine color into the shadowy parts of the
tree, and gives a curious effect of no perspective. Notwithstanding
this, the autumn coloring is a joy to the artistic eye and is very
characteristic.
The seeds of the ash are borne in crowded clusters; the delicate
stem, from three to five inches long, is branched into smaller stems
to which are joined two or three keys, and often several of these
main stems come from the same bud at the tip of last year’s wood so
that they seem crowded. The seed is winged, the wing being almost
twice as long as the seed set at its base. Thoreau says: “The keys of
the white ash cover the trees profusely, a sort of mulberry brown, an
inch and a half long, and handsome.” The seeds cling persistently to
the tree, and I have often observed them being blown over the surface
of the snow as if they were skating to a planting place.
[Illustration: _Bole of white ash showing the beautiful bark._
Photo by Ralph Curtis.]
The flowers appear in April or May, before the leaves. The pistillate
flowers make an untidy fringe, curling in every direction around the
twigs. The chief flower stem is three to four inches long, quite
stout, pale green, and from this arise short, fringed stems, each
carrying along its sides the knobs on little stems--which are the
pistillate flowers. Each tiny flower seems to be bristling with
individuality, standing off at its own angle to get its own pollen.
The flower has the calyx four-lobed; the style is long and slender
and is divided into a V-shaped purple stigma.
The staminate flowers appear early in the spring, and look like knobs
on the tips of the coarse, sparse twigs; they consist of masses of
thick, green anthers with very short, stout filaments; each calyx is
four-lobed. These flowers are attached to a five-branching stem;
but the stem and its branches cannot be seen unless the anthers are
plucked off, because they hang in such a crowded mass. Later the
leaves come out beyond them.
[Illustration: _Staminate blossoms of white ash._
Photo by G. F. Morgan.]
The leaf buds in winter are very pretty; they are white, bluntly
pointed, with a pale gray half-circle below, on which was set last
year’s leaf. Another one of nature’s miracles is the bouquet of
leaves coming from one of the big four-parted terminal buds, which is
made up of four scales, two of which are longer and narrower than the
others. Within the bud each little compound leaflet is folded like a
sheet of paper lengthwise, and folded with the other leaflets like
the leaves of a book; and when they first appear they look like tiny,
scrawny, birds’ claws. But it is not merely one pair of leaves that
comes from this bud, but many, each pair being set on a twig opposite
and at right angles to the next pair on either side. Even as many
as five pairs of these splendid compound leaves come from this one
prolific bud. As they push out, the green stem of the new wood grows,
thus spacing the pairs properly for the making of beautiful foliage.
LESSON CXCVIII
ASH TREES
_Leading thought_--The ashes are our most valuable timber trees; the
white ash is one of the most beautiful and useful of them all. It
does not make forests, but it grows in them, and its wood is of great
value for many things.
_Method_--The pupils should all see the tree where it grows. The
questions should be given to them for their field note-books. The
lesson should begin in the fall and be continued in the spring.
_Observations_--1. What is there about the bark of the ash tree which
distinguishes it from other trees? Where does the white ash grow?
What is the height and thickness of the ash tree you are studying?
2. The ash leaf is a compound leaf; of how many leaflets is it
composed? What is the texture and shape of the leaflets? Describe
the veins. Do the leaflets have petioles (petiolules)? Are the edges
of the leaflets toothed? Which of the leaflets is largest? Which
smallest? Is the petiole swollen at the base? How are the leaves
arranged on the twigs? How does this distinguish the ashes from all
other of our trees having compound leaves? How do the hickories have
their leaves arranged? What color is the ash foliage in autumn?
3. Describe the seeds of the ash and the way they are arranged on
their stems. Where are they placed on the tree? How long do they
cling? How does the snow help to scatter them?
4. When does the white ash blossom? Are the pistillate and staminate
flowers together or separate? Find and describe them.
5. What are our uses for ash timber? For what are the saplings used?
How did the Indians use the white ash? Write a theme on all the
interesting things you can find about the ash trees.
6. How many species of the ash trees do you know?
_Supplementary reading_--Trees in Prose and Poetry, pp. 60–71.
* * * * *
“_I care not how men trace their ancestry,
To ape or Adam; let them please their whim;
But I in June am midway to believe
A tree among my far progenitors,
Such sympathy is mine with all the race,
Such mutual recognition vaguely sweet
There is between us. Surely there are times
When they consent to own me of their kin,
And condescend to me and call me cousin,
Murmuring faint lullabies of eldest time,
Forgotten, and yet dumbly felt with thrills
Moving the lips, though fruitless of the words._”
--From “Under the Willows,” LOWELL.
[Illustration: _A baldwin apple tree._]
THE APPLE TREE
_Teacher’s Story_
_As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my
beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great
delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste._
--THE SONG OF SOLOMON.
[Illustration: A]
An old-fashioned orchard is always a delight to those of us who love
the picturesque. The venerable apple tree with its great twisted
and gnarled branches, rearing aloft its rounded head, and casting
its shadow on the green turf below, is a picture well worthy of the
artist’s brush. And that is the kind of orchard I should always
have, because it suits me, just as it does bluebirds, downies and
chickadees, as a place to live in. However, if I wished to make money
by selling apples, I should need to have an orchard of comparatively
young trees, which should be straight and well pruned, and the ground
beneath them well cultivated; for there is no plant that responds
more generously to cultivation than does the apple tree. In such
an orchard, a few annual crops might be grown while the trees were
young, and each year there should be planted in August or September
the seed of crimson clover or of some other good cover-crop. This
would grow so as to protect the ground from washing during the heavy
rains and thaws of fall and winter, and in the spring it would be
plowed under to add more humus to the soil.
The apple originally came from southwestern Asia and the neighboring
parts of Europe, but it has been cultivated so long that we have
no accounts of how it began. The prehistoric lake-dwellers of
Switzerland ate this fruit. In this country the apple thrives best on
clay loam, although it grows on a great variety of soils; where wheat
and corn grow, there will the apple also grow. In general, the shape
of the apple tree head is rounded or broadly pyramidal; however,
this differs somewhat with varieties. The trunk is short and rather
stocky, the bark is a beautiful soft gray and is decidedly scaly,
flaking off in pieces which are more or less quadrangular. The wood
is very fine-grained and heavy. On this account for many years it was
used for wood-engraving and is also a favorite wood for wood-carving;
it makes a most excellent fuel. The spray is fine, and while at the
tips of the limbs it may be drooping or horizontal, it often grows
erect along the upper sides of the limbs, each shoot looking as if
it were determined to be a tree in itself. The leaves are oval, with
toothed edges and long petioles. When the leaves first appear each
has two stipules at its base. The shape of the apple leaves depends
to some extent upon the variety of the apple.
[Illustration: _Cleft-graft._
One-half natural size.]
[Illustration: _Scion for cleft-grafting._
One-half natural size.]
[Illustration: _The graft waxed._]
It has long been the practice not to depend upon the seeds for
reproducing a variety; for, since the bees do such a large work in
pollenating the apple flowers, it would be quite difficult to be sure
that a seed would not be a result of a cross between two varieties.
Therefore, the matter is made certain by the process of grafting or
budding. There are several modes of grafting, but perhaps the one in
most common use is the cleft-graft. A scion which is a twig bearing
several buds, is cut from a tree of the desired variety, and its
lower end is cut wedge-shaped. The branch of the tree to be grafted
is cut off across and split down through the end to the depth of
about two inches; the wedge-shaped end of the scion is pressed into
this cleft, so that its bark will come in contact with the inner edge
of the bark on one side of the cleft branch. The reason for this is
that the growing part of the tree is the cambium layer, which is just
inside of the bark, and if the cambium of the scion does not come in
contact with the cambium of the branch they will not grow together.
After the graft becomes well-established, the other branches of the
tree are cut off and the tree produces apples only from that part of
it which grows from the graft. After the scion has been set in the
stock, all of the wounded parts are covered with grafting wax, which
keeps in the moisture and keeps out disease germs.
[Illustration: _Shield-budding._
The T-shaped slit and the bud.
One-half natural size.]
[Illustration: _The bud set in the slit._
One-half natural size.]
[Illustration: _The bud tied._]
Budding is done on a similar principle, but in a different fashion.
A seedling apple tree about a year and a half old has a T-shaped
slit cut into its bark; into this suture a bud, cut from a tree of
the desired variety is inserted, and is bound in with yarn. The next
spring this tree is cut back to just above the place where the bud
was set in, and this bud-shoot grows several feet; the next year
the tree may be sold to the orchardist. Budding is done on a large
scale in the nurseries, for it is by this method that the different
varieties are placed on the market.
Most varieties of apple trees should be set forty feet apart each
way. It is possible, if done judiciously, to raise some small crops
on the land with the young orchard, but care should be taken that
they do not rob the trees of their rightful food. The dwarf varieties
begin to bear much sooner than the others, but an orchard does not
come into full bearing until after it has been planted fifteen or
twenty years. The present practice is to prune a tree so that the
trunk shall be very short. This makes the picking of the fruit much
easier and also exposes the tree less to wind and sun-scald.
There are certain underlying principles of pruning that every child
should know: The pruning of the root cuts down the amount of food
which the tree is able to get from the soil. The pruning of the top
throws the food into the branches which are left and makes them more
vigorous. If the buds at the tips of the twigs are pruned off, the
food is forced into the side buds and into the fruit, which make
greater growth. Thinning the branches allows more light to reach
down into the tree, and gives greater vigor to the branches which are
left. A limb should be pruned off smoothly where it joins the larger
limb, and there should be no stump projecting; the wound should be
painted so as not to allow fungus spores to enter.
We should not forget that we have a native apple, which we know as
the thornapple. Its low, broad head in winter makes a picturesque
point along the fences; its fine, thick spray, spread horizontally,
makes a fit framework for the bridal bouquet which will grow upon it
in June; and it is scarcely less beautiful in autumn, when covered
with the little, red apples called “haws.” Though we may refrain from
eating these native apples, which consist of a bit of sweet pulp
around large seeds, the codling-moth finds them most acceptable.
LESSON CXCIX
THE APPLE TREE
_Leading thought_--The tree of each variety of apple has its own
characteristic shape, although all apple trees belong to one general
type. The variety of the apple grown upon the tree is not determined
by the kind of seed which is planted to produce the tree, but by the
process of grafting or budding the young tree.
_Method_--A visit to a large, well-grown orchard in spring or autumn
will aid in making this work interesting. Any apple tree near at hand
may be used for the lesson.
_Observations_--1. How tall is the largest apple tree you know? What
variety is it? How old is it? How can you distinguish old apple trees
from young ones at a glance?
2. Choose a tree for study: How thick is its trunk? What is the shape
of its head? Does the trunk divide into large branches or does it
extend up through the center of the head?
3. What sort of bark has it? What is the color of the bark?
4. Does the spray stand erect or is it gnarled and querly? Does the
spray grow simply at the ends of the branches or along the sides of
the branches?
5. Are the leaves borne at the tip of the spray? Are the leaves
opposite or alternate? Describe or sketch an apple leaf. Does it have
stipules at its base when it first appears?
6. What is the character of apple-tree wood? What is it used for?
7. Did this tree come from a seed borne in an apple of the same
variety which it produces? What is the purpose of grafting a tree?
What is a scion? How and why do we choose a scion? How do we prepare
a branch to receive the scion? If you should place the scion at the
center of the branch would it grow? Where must it be placed in order
to grow? How do we protect the cut-end of the branch after it is
grafted? Why?
8. What is meant by the term “budding?” What is the difference
between grafting and budding? Describe the process of budding.
9. Where is budding done on a large scale? How do nurserymen know
what special varieties of apples their nursery stock will bear? How
old is a tree when it is budded? How old when it is sold to the
orchardist?
10. Why should the soil around apple trees be tilled? Is this the
practice in the best-paying orchards?
11. What is often used as a cover crop in orchards? When is this
planted? For what purpose?
12. How far apart should apple trees be set? How may the land be
utilized while the trees are growing? How old must the apple tree be
to come into bearing?
13. Is the practice now to allow an apple tree to grow tall? Why is
an apple tree with a short trunk better?
14. What does it do to a tree to prune its roots? What does it do to
a tree to prune its branches?
15. How does it affect a tree to prune the buds at the tips of the
twigs?
16. How does it affect a tree to thin the branches? Describe how a
limb should be pruned and how the wound thus made should be treated.
Why?
HOW AN APPLE GROWS
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration]
An apple tree in full blossom is a beautiful sight. If we try to
analyze its beauty we find that on the tip of each twig there is
a cluster of blossoms, and set around them, as in a conventional
bouquet, are the pale, soft, downy leaves. These leaves and blossoms
come from the terminal winter buds, which are protected during winter
by little scales which are more or less downy. With the bursting of
the bud, these scales fall off, each one leaving its mark crosswise
on the twig, marking the end of the year’s growth; these little
ridges close together and in groups mark the winters which the twig
has experienced, and thus reveal its age.
There is a difference in varieties of apples and in the season as
to whether the blossoms or the leaves push out first. The white,
downy leaves at first have two narrow stipules at the base of their
petioles. They are soft, whitish and fuzzy, as are also the flower
stem and the calyx, which holds fast in its slender, pointed lobes
the globular flower bud. We speak of the lobes of the calyx because
they are joined at the base, and are not entirely separate as are
sepals. The basal part of the calyx is cup-shaped, and upon its rim
are set the large, oval petals, each narrowing to a slender stem
at its base. The petals are set between the sepals or lobes of the
calyx, the latter appearing as a beautiful, pale green, five-pointed
star at the bottom of the flower. The petals are pink on the outside
and white on the inside, and are veined from base to edge like a
leaf; they are crumpled more than are the cherry petals.
The many pale, greenish white stamens of different lengths and
heights stand up like a column at the center of the flower. They are
tipped with pale yellow anthers, and are attached to the rim of the
calyx-cup. They are really attached in ten different groups but this
is not easy to see.
The five pale green styles are very silky and downy and are tipped
with green stigmas. The pistils all unite at their bases making a
five-lobed, compound ovary. The upper part of this ovary may be seen
above the calyx-cup, but the lower portion is grown fast to it and
is hidden within it. The calyx-cup is what develops into the pulp of
the apple, and each of these pistils becomes one of the five cells
in the apple core. If one of the stigmas does not receive pollen, its
ovary will develop no seed; this often makes the apple lop-sided.
When the petals first fall, the calyx-lobes are spread wide apart;
later they close in toward the center, making a tube. To note exactly
the time of this change is important; since the time of spraying for
the codling moth is before the calyx-lobes close. These lobes may be
seen in any ripe apple as five little, wrinkled scales at the blossom
end; within them may be seen the dried and wrinkled stamens, and
within the circle of stamens, the sere and blackened styles.
[Illustration: _Just ready to spray. A pear and two apples from which
the petals have recently fallen and with calyx lobes widely spread._
Photo by M. V. Slingerland.]
There may be five or six, or even more blossoms developed from one
winter bud, and there may be as many leaves encircling them, forming
a bouquet at the tip of the twig. However, rarely more than two of
these blossoms develop into fruit, and the fruit is much better when
only one blossom of the bouquet produces an apple; if a tree bears
too many apples it cannot perfect them.
The blossoms and fruit are always at the end of the twigs and spurs
of the apple tree, and do not grow along the sides of the branches
as do the cherry and the peach. However, there are many buds which
produce only leaves; and just at the side and below the spur, where
the apple is borne, a bud is developed, which pushes on and continues
the growth of the twig, and will in turn be a spur and bear blossoms
the following year.
[Illustration: _Apple blossoms._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
LESSON CC
HOW AN APPLE GROWS
_Leading thought_--The purpose of the apple blossom is to produce
apples which shall contain seeds to grow into more apple trees.
_Method_--This lesson should begin with the apple blossoms in the
spring and should continue, with occasional observations, until the
apples are well grown. If this is not possible, the blossom may be
studied, and directly afterward, the apple may be observed carefully,
noting its relation to the blossom.
_The Apple Blossom_
_Observations_--1. How are the apple buds protected in the winter? As
the buds open what becomes of the protecting scales? Can you see the
scars left by the scales after they have fallen. How does this help
us to tell the age of a twig or branch?
2. As the winter buds open, which appear first--the flowers or the
leaves? Do they both come from the same bud? Do all the buds produce
both flowers and leaves?
3. Study the bud of the apple blossom. Describe its stem; its
stipules; its calyx. What is the shape and position of the lobes, or
sepals, of the calyx? Why do we usually call them the “lobes of the
calyx” instead of sepals?
4. Sketch or describe an open apple blossom. How many petals? What
is their shape and arrangement? Can you see the calyx-lobes between
the petals as you look down into the blossom? What sort of a figure
do they make? Are the petals usually cup-shaped? What is their color
outside and inside? Why do the buds seem so pink and the blossoms so
white?
5. How many stamens are there? Are they all of the same length? What
is the color of the filaments and anthers? On what are they set?
6. How many pistils do you see? How many stigmas are there? Are the
ovaries united? Are they attached to the calyx?
7. Describe the young leaves as they appear around the blossoms. What
is their color? Have they any stipules? Why do they make the flowers
look like a bouquet?
8. After the petals fall, what of the blossom remains? What part
develops into the apple? Does this part enclose the ovaries of the
pistils? How can you tell in the ripe apple if any stigma failed to
receive pollen?
9. What is the position of the calyx-lobes directly after the petals
fall? Do they change later? How does this affect spraying for the
codling moth?
10. Watch an apple develop; look at it once a week and tell what
parts of the blossom remain with the apple.
11. How many blossoms come from one winter bud? How many leaves? Do
the blossoms ever appear along the sides of the branches, as in the
cherries? How many blossoms from a single bud develop into apples?
12. Since the apple is developed on the tip of the twig how does the
twig keep on growing?
13. Compare the apple with the pear, the plum, the cherry and the
peach in the following particulars; position on the twigs; number of
petals; number and color of stamens; number of pistils; whether the
pistils are attached to the calyx-cup at the base.
THE APPLE
_Teacher’s Story_
“_Man fell with apples and with apples rose,
If this be true; for we must deem the mode
In which Sir Isaac Newton could disclose,
Through the then unpaved stars, the turnpike road,
A thing to counterbalance human woes._”
--BYRON.
[Illustration: A]
Apples seem to have played a very important part in human history,
and from the first had much effect upon human destiny, judging from
the trouble that ensued both to Adam and to Helen of Troy from
meddling, even though indirectly, with this much esteemed fruit. It
is surely no more than just to humanity--shut out from the Garden of
Eden--that the apple should have led Sir Isaac Newton to discover
the law which holds us in the universe; and that, in these later
centuries, apples have been developed, so beautiful and so luscious
as almost to reconcile us to the closing of the gates of Paradise.
While it is true that no two apples were ever exactly alike, any more
than any two leaves, yet their shapes are often very characteristic
of the varieties. From the big, round Baldwin to the cone-shaped
gillyflower, each has its own peculiar form, and also its own colors
and markings and its own texture and flavor. Some have tough skins,
others bruise readily even with careful handling; but to all kinds,
the skin is an armor against those ever-present foes, the fungus
spores, myriads of which are floating in the air ready to enter the
smallest breach, and by their growth bring about decay. Even the tip
of a branch or twig swayed by the wind, may bruise an apple and cause
it to rot; windfalls are always bruised and will not keep. Greater
care in packing, wrapping, picking and storing, so as to avoid
contact with other apples, is a paying investment of labor to the
apple grower.
The cavities at the stem and basin-ends of the fruit are also
likely to have, in the same variety, a likeness in their depth or
shallowness, and thus prove a help in identifying an apple. At the
blossom, or basin, end of the fruit may be seen five scales, which
are all that remain of the calyx-lobes which enclosed the blossom;
and within them are the withered and shrunken stamens and styles.
[Illustration:
a, _cavity_; b, _basin_; c, _calyx lobes_; d, _calyx tube with the
withered stamens attached_; e, _carpels_; f, _outer core-lines,
terminating at a point where stamens are attached_; g, _fibres
extending from stem to basin_. _Transverse section of apple showing
the five carpels and the ten outer core-lines._ ]
When the fruit is cut, we see that the inner parts differ as much in
the different varieties as do the outer parts. Some have large cores,
others small. The carpels, or seed-cells, are five in number, and
when the fruit is cut across through the center these carpels show
as a pretty, five-pointed star; in them the seeds lie, all pointing
toward the stem. Some apples have both seeds and carpels smooth
and shining, while in others they are tufted with a soft, fuzzy
outgrowth. The number of seeds in each cell varies; the usual number
is two. In case a carpel is empty, the apple is often lopsided, and
this signifies that the stigma of that ovary received no pollen. The
apple seed is oval, plump and pointed, with an outer shell, and a
delicate inner skin covering the white meat; this separates readily
into two parts, between which, at the point, may be seen the germ.
The entire core, with the pulp immediately surrounding the seed
cells, is marked off from the rest of the pulp by the core-lines,
faint in some varieties but distinct in others. In our native
crab-apples this separation is so complete that, when the fruit is
ripe, the core may be plucked out leaving a globular cavity at the
center of the apple.
Extending from the stem to the basin, through the center of the
apple, is a bundle of fibers, five in number, each attached to the
inner edge of a carpel, or seed-box. Other bundles of fibers pass
through the flesh about half way between the core and the skin.
Delicate as they are, so that no one observes them in eating the
fruit, they show clearly as a second core-line, and each terminates
at a point in the calyx-tube where the stamens were attached--as can
be easily seen by dissecting an apple. In transverse section, these
show as ten faint dots placed opposite each outer point and inner
angle of the star at the center formed by the carpels. Sometimes the
seed-cells are very close to the stem, and the apple is said to have
a sessile core; if at the center of the fruit, it has a medium core;
if nearest to the blossom end, it has a distant core. This position
of the core marks different varieties.
[Illustration: _Basket of apples._]
Apples even of the same variety, differ much in yield and quality
according to the soil and climate in which they grow. The snow apple
grows best in the St. Lawrence Valley, and New York State is noted
for the fine flavor of the Esopus spitzenburg, the northern spy, and
the Newtown pippin, all of which originated and grow best within its
boundaries. Thus, each locality has its favorite variety.
Too often in passing through the country, we see neglected and
unprofitable orchards, with soil untilled, the trees unpruned and
scale-infested, yielding scanty fruit, fit only for the cider mill
and the vinegar barrel. This kind of orchard must pass away and give
place to the new horticulture.
_References_--Popular Apple Growing, Green; The American Apple
Orchard, Waugh; The Apple and How to Grow It, Farmers’ Bulletin 113,
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
LESSON CCI
THE APPLE
_Leading thought_--The apple is a nutritious fruit, wholesome and
easily digested. The varieties of apple differ in shape, size, color,
texture and flavor. A perfect apple has no bruise upon it and no
worm-holes in it.
_Method_--Typical blossoms of different varieties of apples should
be brought into the schoolroom, where the pupils may closely observe
and make notes about their appearance. Each pupil should have one or
two apples that may be cut in vertical and transverse sections, so
that the pulp, core-lines, carpels and seeds may be observed. After
this lesson there should be an apple exhibit, and the pupils should
be taught how to score the apples according to size, shape, color,
flavor and texture.
_Observations_--1. Sketch the shape of your apple. Is it almost
spherical, or flattened, or long and egg-shaped, or with unequal
tapering sides? How does the shape of the apple help in determining
its variety?
2. What is the color of the skin? Is it varied by streaks, freckles
or blotches? Has it one blushing cheek the rest being of a different
color?
3. Is the stem thick and fleshy, or short and knobby, or slender and
woody and long? Does each variety have a characteristic stem?
4. Is the cavity or depression where the stem grew narrow and deep
like a tunnel, or shallow like a saucer?
5. Examine the blossom end, or basin. What is its shape? Can you
find within it the remnants of the calyx-lobes, the stamens and the
pistils of the flower?
6. What is the texture of the skin of the apple? Is it thin, tough,
waxy or oily? Has it a bloom that may be rubbed off? From what sort
of injury does the skin protect the apple?
_Experiment 1._ Take three apples of equal soundness and peel one of
them; place them on a shelf. Place one of the unpeeled apples against
the peeled one, and the other a little distance from it. Does the
peeled apple begin to rot before the other two? Does the unpeeled
apple touching the peeled one begin to decay first at the point of
contact?
_Experiment 2._ Take an apple with a smooth, unblemished skin and
vaccinate it with some juice from an apple that has begun to decay;
perform the operation with a pin or needle, pricking first the
unsound fruit and then the sound one; this may be done in patterns
around the apple or with the initials of the operator’s name. Where
does this apple begin to decay? What should these two experiments
teach us as to the care and storage of fruit?
7. Cut an apple through its center from stem to blossom end.
Describe the color, texture and taste of the pulp. Is it coarse or
fine-grained? Crisp or smooth? Juicy, or dry and mealy? Sweet or
sour? Does it exhale a fragrance or have a spicy flavor?
8. Is the flesh immediately surrounding the core separated from the
rest of the pulp by a line more or less distinct? This is called the
core-line and differs in size and outline in different varieties. Can
you find any connection between the stem and blossom ends and the
core? Can you see the fibrous threads which connect them?
9. Cut an apple transversely across the middle. In what shape are the
seed-cells arranged in the center? Do the carpels, or seed-cells,
vary in shape in different varieties? Are they closed, or do they all
open into a common cavity? Can you see, between the core-lines and
the skin, faint little dots? Count, and tell how they are arranged in
relation to the star formed by the core.
10. The stiff, parchment-like walls of the seed-cells are called
carpels. How many of these does the apple contain? Do all apples have
the same number of carpels? Are the carpels of all varieties smooth
and glossy, or velvety? How many seeds do you find in a carpel? Do
they lie with the points toward the stem-end or the blossom-end of
the apple? Where are they attached to the apple? Describe the apple
seed--its outer and inner coat and its “meat.” Can you find the germ
within it which will, after the seed is planted, produce another
apple tree?
11. Is the core at the center of the apple, or is it nearer to the
stem-end or to the blossom-end of the fruit? Are all apples alike in
this particular?
12. Describe fully all the varieties of apples which you know, giving
the average size, texture and color of the skin, the shape of the
cavities at the stem and blossom ends, the color, texture and flavor
of the pulp, and the position within the apple of the core.
_Supplementary reading_--Trees in Prose and Poetry, pp. 43–59.
THE PINE
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: N]
None other of our native trees is more beautiful than the pine. In
the East, we have the white pine with its fine-tasselled foliage,
growing often 150 to 200 feet in height and reaching an age of from
two to three hundred years. On the Pacific coast, the splendid
sugar pine lifts its straight trunk from two to three hundred feet
in height; and although the trunk may be from six to ten feet in
diameter yet it looks slender, so tall is the tree. A sugar pine cone
on my desk measures 22 inches in length and weighs almost one pound,
although it is dried and emptied of seed.
There is something majestic about the pines, which even the most
ignorant feel. Their dark foliage outlined against wintry skies
appeals to the imagination, and well it may, for it represents an
ancient tree-costume. The pines are among the most ancient of trees,
and were the contemporaries of those plants which were put to sleep,
during the Devonian age, in the coal beds. It is because the pines
and the other evergreens belong essentially to earlier ages, when the
climate was far different than it is to-day, that they do not shed
their leaves like the more recent, deciduous trees. They stand among
us, representatives of an ancient race, and wrap their green foliage
about them as an Indian sachem does his blanket, in calm disregard of
modern fashion of attire.
All cone-bearing trees have typically a central stem from which the
branches come off in whorls, but so many things have happened to the
old pine trees that the evidence of the whorls is not very plain; the
young trees show this method of growth clearly, the white pine having
five branches in each whorl. Sometimes pines are seen which have two
or three stems near the top; but this is a story of injury to the
tree and its later victory.
[Illustration: _The young and the mature cones of white pine._
Photo by Ralph Curtis.]
The very tip of the central stem in the evergreens is called “the
leader,” because it leads the growth of the tree upward; it stretches
up from the center of the whorl of last year’s young branches, and
there at its tip are the buds which produce this year’s branches.
There is a little beetle which seems possessed of evil, for it likes
best of all to lay its rascally eggs in the very tip of this leader;
the grub, after hatching, feeds upon the bud and bores down into
the shoot, killing it. Then comes the question of which branch of
the upper whorl shall be elected to rise up and take the place of
the dead leader; but this is an election which we know less about
than we do of those resulting from our blanket ballots. Whether the
tree chooses, or whether the branches aspire, we may not know; but
we do know that one branch of this upper whorl arises and continues
the growth of the tree. Sometimes there are two candidates for this
position, and they each make such a good struggle for the place that
the tree grows on with two stems instead of one--and sometimes with
even three. This evil insect injures the leaders of other conifers
also, but these are less likely to allow two competitors to take the
place of the dead leader.
The lower branches of many of the pines come off almost at right
angles from the bole; the foliage is borne above the branches, which
gives the pines a very different appearance from that of other trees.
The foliage of most of the pines is dark green, looking almost
black in winter; the pitch pine has the foliage yellowish green,
and the white pine, bluish green; each species has its own peculiar
shade. There is great variation in the color and form of the bark of
different species. The white pine has nearly smooth bark on the young
trees, but on the older ones it has ridges that are rather broad,
flat and scaly, separated by shallow sutures, while the pitch pine
has its bark in scales like the covering of a giant alligator.
[Illustration: _A part of a necklace of pitch pine needles._]
The foliage of the pine consists of pine needles set in little
bundles on raised points which look like little brackets along the
twigs. When the pine needles are young, the bundle is enclosed in a
sheath making the twig look as if it were covered with pin-feathers.
In many of the species this sheath remains, encasing the base of the
bundle of needles; but in the white pine it is shed early. The number
of leaves in the bundle helps to determine the tree; the white pine
has five needles in each bunch, the pitch pine has three, while the
Austrian pine has two. There is a great difference in the length and
the color of the needles of different species of pine. Those of the
white pine are soft, delicate and pliable, and from three to four
inches in length; the needles of the pitch pine are stiff and coarse
and about the same length; the white pine needles are triangular in
section, and are set so as to form distinct tassels, while those of
the Austrian pine simply clothe the ends of the twigs. The needles
of the pine act like the strings of an aeolian harp; and the wind,
in passing through the tree, sets them into vibration, making a
sighing sound which seems to the listener like the voice of the tree.
Therefore, the pine is the most companionable of all our trees and,
to one who observes them closely, each tree has its own tones and
whispers a different story.
[Illustration: _Austrian pine in blossom showing staminate flowers._
Photo by G. F. Morgan.]
The appearance of the unripe cone is another convincing evidence
that mathematics is the basis of the beautiful. The pattern of the
overlapping scales is intricate and yet regular--to appreciate it
one needs to try to sketch it. Beneath each scale, when it opens
wide, we find nestled at its base two little seeds in twin boxes;
each provided with a little wing so that it can sail off with the
wind to find a place to grow. The shape of the scales of the cone
is another distinguishing character of the pine, and sketching the
outside of scales from several different species of pine cones will
develop the pupils’ powers of observation; the tip of the scale may
be thickened or armed with a spine, and one wonders if these spines
are for the purpose of discouraging the squirrels from stealing the
green seeds.
The pine cone requires two years for maturing; the pistillate flower
from which it is developed is a tiny cone with each scale spread wide
and standing upright to catch the pollen for the tiny ovule nestled
within it. The pistillate flower of the white pine grows near the
tip of the new twig, and is pinkish in color. In the Austrian pine
it is the merest pink dot at first, but after a little shows itself
to be a true cone with pink-purple scales, which stand up very erect
and makes a pretty object when viewed through a lens; each scale is
pink at its three-pointed tip, with pink wings just below, the inner
portions being pale green. The cone is set just beside the growing
tip of the twig, is pointed upward, and its sheath-scales are turned
back like chaff around its base.
[Illustration: _White pine, staminate blossoms and empty cones._
Photo by Morgan.]
In June when the new shoots of the pine twigs stand up like pale
green candles on a Christmas tree, at their bases may be found the
staminate catkins set in radiating whorls, making galaxies of golden
stars against the dark green background of foliage. In the Austrian
pine, one of these pollen catkins may be an inch or two long and a
half-inch in width; each little scale of this cone is an anther sac,
filled to bursting with yellow pollen. From these starry pollen cones
there descends a yellow shower every time a breeze passes; for the
pine trees depend upon the wind to sift their pollen dust into the
lifted cups of the cone scales, which will close upon the treasure
soon. The pollen grains of pine are very beautiful when seen through
a microscope; and it seems almost incredible that the masses of
yellow dust sifted in showers from the pines when in blossom, should
be composed of these beautiful structures. When the pine forests on
the shores of the Great Lakes are in bloom, the pollen covers the
waves for miles out from the shores.
[Illustration: _White pine._]
[Illustration: _Yellow pine on the brink of the Little Yosemite
Valley._
Photo by G. K. Gilbert. Courtesy of U. S. Geological Survey.
]
If we examine the growing tips of the pine branches, we find the
leaves look callow and pin-feathery. The entire leaf is wrapped in a
smooth, shining, silken sheath, at the tip of which its green point
protrudes. The sheath is tough like parchment and is cylindrical
because the pine needles within it are perfectly adjusted one to
another in cylindrical form. The sheath is made up of several layers,
one over the other, and may be pulled apart. The new leaves are borne
on the new, pale green wood.
The uses of pines are many. The lumber of many of the species,
especially that of the white pine, is free from knots and is used
for almost everything from house-building to masts for ships. In the
Southern States, the long-leafed pines are tapped for resin, which
is not the sap of the tree, as is generally supposed. Pine sap is
like other sap; the resin is a product of certain glands of the tree,
and is of great use to it in closing wounds and thus keeping out
the spores of destructive fungi. It is this effort of the tree to
heal its wounds that makes it pour resin into the cuts made by the
turpentine gatherers. This resin is taken to a distillery, where the
turpentine is given off as a vapor and condensed in a coiled tube
which is kept cold. What is left is known as “rosin.”
[Illustration: _The mountain pine of the Sierras._
This species stands upright normally and is often over one hundred
feet high; but on the mountain tops, exposed to wind and snow, its
trunk reclines on the ground and its branches look like shrubs, as
shown in the foreground. Trees of the same species, wind-beaten but
standing are shown in the background.
Photo by G. K. Gilbert. Courtesy of the U. S. Geological Survey.
]
LESSON CCII
THE PINE
_Leading thought_--The pines are among our most ancient trees. Their
foliage is evergreen but is shed gradually. The pollen-bearing and
the seed-bearing flowers are separate on the tree. The seeds are
winged and are developed in cones.
_Method_--At least one pine tree should be studied in the field.
Any species will do but the white pine is the most interesting. The
Austrian pine which is commonly planted in parks is a good subject.
The leaves and cones may be studied in the schoolroom, each pupil
having a specimen.
_Observations_--1. What is the general shape of the pine tree? Is
there one central stem running straight up through the center of the
tree to the top. Do you find any trees where this stem is divided
into two or three near the top? Describe how the pine tree grows.
What is the “leader?” What happens if the leader is injured? How do
the topmost branches of the young pine look? Do they all come off
from the same part of the stem? How many are there in a whorl?
2. What color is the bark? Is it ridged or in scales?
3. Do the branches come off the main stem at right angles or do they
lift up or droop down? Where is the foliage borne on the branches?
What is the color of the foliage? Is the pine foliage ever shed or
does the pine leaf, when it comes, stay on as long as the tree lives?
4. Study the pine leaves. Why are they called needles? Note that
they grow several together in what we call a bundle. How many in
one bundle? Is the bundle enclosed in a little sheath at the base?
Are the bundles grouped to make distinct tassels? Study one of the
needles. How long is it? Is it straight or curved? Flexible or coarse
and stiff? Cut it across and examine it with a lens. What is the
outline in cross section? Why does the wind make a moaning sound in
the pines?
5. Study a pine cone. Does it grow near the tip of the branch or
along the sides? Does it hang down or stand out stiffly? What is its
length? Sketch or describe its general shape. Note that it is made
up of short, over-lapping scales. What pattern do the scales make
as they are set together? Describe or sketch one scale; has it a
thickened tip? Is there a spine at the tip of the scale?
6. Where in the cone are the seeds? Describe or sketch a pine seed.
How long is its wing? How is it carried and planted? When the cone
opens, how are the seeds scattered? What creatures feed upon the pine
seed?
7. Study the pine when in blossom, which is likely to occur in June.
This time is easily determined because the air around the tree is
then filled with the yellow pollen dust. Study the pollen-bearing
flower. Is it conelike in form? Does it produce a great deal of
pollen? If you have a microscope, look at the pollen through a
high objective and describe it. How many of the pollen catkins are
clustered together? On what part of the twigs are they borne? Where
are the pistillate flowers which are to form the young cones? How
large are they and how do they look at the time the pollen is flying?
Do they point upward or droop downward? Why? Look beneath the scales
of a little cone with a lens and see if you can find the flowers.
What carries the pine pollen to the flowers in the cone?
[Illustration: _White pine cone._]
8. Name all the uses for pine lumber that you know. Write an English
theme on how turpentine is produced from pines and the effect of this
industry upon pine forests. Where does resin appear on the pine? Of
what use is it to the tree? Do you think it is pine sap? What is the
difference between resin and rosin?
9. How long do the pine trees live? Write a story of all that has
happened to your neighborhood since the pine tree which you have been
studying was planted.
10. Make the following drawings: A bundle of pine needles showing the
sheath and its attachment to the twig; the cone; the cone scale; the
seed. Sketch a pine tree.
_Supplementary reading_--Trees in Prose and Poetry, pp. 32, 151, 152;
The Spirit of the Pine, Bayard Taylor; To a Pine Tree, Lowell; Nature
in Verse, pp. 15, 288.
THE NORWAY SPRUCE
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: T]
The Norway spruce is a native of Europe, and we find it in America
the most satisfactory of all spruces for ornamental planting; it
lifts its slender cone from almost every park and private estate in
our country, and is easily distinguished from all other evergreens
by the drooping, pendant habit of its twigs, which seem to hang
down from the straight, uplifted branches. We have spruces of our
own--the black, the white and the red spruces; and it will add much
to the interest of this lesson for the pupils to read in the tree
and forestry books concerning these American species. Chewing gum
and spruce beer are the products of the black and red spruce of
our eastern forests. The Douglas spruce, which is a fir and not a
spruce, is also commonly planted as an ornamental tree, but it is
only at its best on the Pacific Coast, where it is one of the most
magnificent of trees.
[Illustration: _Staminate blossoms and young cone of a Norway spruce._
Photo by G. F. Morgan.]
The Norway spruce tree is in form a beautiful cone, slanting from
its slender tip to the ground, on which its lower drooping branches
rest; the upper branches come off at a narrower angle from the sturdy
central stem than do the widespreading lower branches. On the older
trees, the twigs hang like pendulous fringes from the branches,
enabling them to shed the snow more readily--a peculiarity which is
of much use to the tree, because it is a native of the snowy northern
countries of Europe and also grows successfully in the high altitudes
of the Alps and other mountains. If we stroke a spruce branch toward
the tip, the hand slides smoothly over it; but brush backward
from the tip, and the hand is pricked by hundreds of the sharp,
bayonet-pointed leaves; this is another arrangement for letting the
snow slide off.
If we examine a twig of the present year’s growth, we can see on
every side of its brown stem the pointed leaves, each growing from a
short ridge; but the leaves on the lower side stretch out sidewise to
get the light, and those above lift up angularly. Perhaps the twig of
last year’s growth has shed its leaves which grew on the under side
and thus failed to reach the sun. The leaf of the spruce is curved,
stiff, four-sided and ends in a sharp point. It is dark yellowish
above and lighter beneath and is set stiffly on the twig. The winter
buds for next year’s growth may be seen at the tips of the twigs,
covered with little, recurved, brown scales quite flowerlike in form.
In the balsam fir, which is often planted with the Norway spruce,
these buds are varnished.
[Illustration:
_A cone of Norway spruce, showing that the spiral of the
scales is in rows of five._
Photo by Cyrus Crosby.]
The cones are borne on the tips of the branches and hang down. In
color they are pale, wood-brown; they are from four to six inches
long, and are very conspicuous. They are made up of broad scales
that are thin toward the notched tips; they are set around the
central stem in spirals of five rows. If we follow one spiral around
marking it with a winding string, it will prove to be the fifth row
above the place where we started. These manifold spirals can be seen
sometimes by looking into the tip end of a cone. The cone has much
resin on it, and is a very safe box for seeds; but when it begins to
open, squirrels impatiently tear it to pieces, harvesting the seeds
and leaving a pile of cone-scales beneath the tree to tell of their
piracy.
A Norway spruce in blossom is a beautiful sight; the little, wine-red
pistillate cones are lifted upwards from the tips of the twigs, while
short, terminal branches are laden with the pollen-bearing catkins,
which are soft and caterpillarish, growing on soft, white stems from
the base of scales which enclosed and protected them during the
winter; these catkins are filled with the yellow dust. The young
cones continue to stand upright after the scales have closed on the
pollen which has been sifted by the wind to the ovules which they
guard; and for some time they remain most ornamentally purplish red.
Before the cone is heavy enough to bend from its own weight, it turns
deliberately around and downward, as if the act were a wilful deed,
and then changes its color to green, ripening into brown in the fall.
The Norway spruce grows on the Alps abundantly, and like the youth
with the banner, “excelsior” is not only its motto but its scientific
name, (_Picea excelsa_). Here it grows to the height of one hundred
to one hundred and fifty feet. Its wood is valuable and its pitch is
marketed. In this country, it is used chiefly for ornamental planting
and for wind-breaks.
LESSON CCIII
THE NORWAY SPRUCE
[Illustration: _A Norway spruce._
Photo by Cyrus Crosby.]
_Leading thought_--The Norway spruce is one of the most valuable of
the trees which have come to America from Europe. It grows naturally
in high places and in northern countries where there is much snow;
its drooping twigs cannot hold a great burden of snow, and thus it
escapes being crushed.
_Method_--This lesson should begin in the autumn when the cones are
ripe. The tree should be observed by all of the pupils, and they
should bring in twigs and cones for study in the schoolroom. The
lesson should be taken up again in May when the trees are in blossom.
_Observations_--1. What is the general shape of the tree? Do the
lower branches come off at the same angle as the upper? If untrimmed,
what can you see of the trunk? Do the lower branches rest upon the
ground? What advantage would this be to the tree in winter? Do the
twigs stand out, or droop from the branches? Of what advantage is
this in case of heavy snow? What is the color of the foliage? Where
did the Norway spruce come from?
2. What is the color of the twig? How are the leaves set upon it? Are
there more leaves on the upper than on the under side of the twigs
of this year’s growth? Of last year’s growth? Brush your hand along
a branch toward the tip. Do the leaves prick? Brush from the tip
backward. Is the result the same? Why is this angle of the leaves to
the twig a benefit during snowstorms?
3. Take a single leaf. What is its shape? How many sides has it? Is
it soft or stiff? Is it sharp at the tip? Describe the buds which are
forming for next year’s growth. Look along the twigs and see if you
can discover the scales of the bud which produced last year’s growth?
4. Where are the cones borne? How long does it take a cone to grow?
Is it heavy? Is there resin on it? Note that the scales are set
in a spiral around the center of the cone. Wind a string around a
cone following the same row of scales. How many rows between those
marked with a string? Look into the tip of a cone and see the spiral
arrangement. Sketch and describe a cone-scale, paying special
attention to the shape of the tip. Try to tear a cone apart. Is this
easily done? Hang a closed cone in a dry place and note what happens.
5. Describe the seed, its wings and where it is placed at the base of
the scale. How many seeds under each scale? When do the cones open
of themselves to scatter the seed? Do you observe squirrels tearing
these apart to get the seed?
6. The Norway spruce blossoms in May. Find the little flower which
will produce the cone, and describe it. What color is it? Is it
upright or hanging down? Do the scales turn toward the tip or
backward? Why is this? Where are the pollen-catkins borne? How many
of them arise from the same place on the twig? Can you see the little
scales at the base of each pistillate catkin? What are they? Are they
very full of pollen? Do the insects carry the pollen for the Norway
spruce, or does the wind sift it over the pistillate blossoms? After
the pollen is shed, note if the scales of the young cones close up.
How long before the cones begin to droop? Do you think it is their
weight which causes them to droop?
7. What use do we make of the Norway spruce? What is it used for in
Europe?
* * * * *
“_All outward wisdom yields to that within,
Whereof nor creed nor canon holds the key;
We only feel that we have ever been
And evermore shall be._
_And thus I know, by memories unfurled
In rarer moods, and many a nameless sign,
That once in Time, and somewhere in the world,
I was a towering pine._
_Rooted upon a cape that overhung
The entrance to a mountain gorge; whereon
The wintry shade of a peak was flung,
Long after rise of sun._
_There did I clutch the granite with firm feet,
There shake my boughs above the roaring gulf,
When mountain whirlwinds through the passes beat,
And howled the mountain wolf._
_There did I louder sing than all the floods
Whirled in white foam adown the precipice,
And the sharp sleet that stung the naked woods,
Answer with sullen hiss._
_I held the eagle till the mountain mist
Rolled from the azure paths he came to soar,
And like a hunter, on my gnarled wrist
The dappled falcon bore._”
--From “The Spirit of the Pine,” BAYARD TAYLOR.
[Illustration:
_White pine._ _Norway spruce_
_Pitch pine_ _Hemlock_
]
THE HEMLOCK
_Teacher’s Story_
“_O’er lonely lakes that wild and nameless lie,
Black, shaggy, vast and still as Barca’s sands
A hemlock forest stands. Oh forest like a pall!
Oh hemlock of the wild, Oh brother of my soul
I love thy mantle black, thy shaggy bole,
Thy form grotesque, thy spreading arms of steel._”
--PATTEE.
[Illustration: I]
In its prime, the hemlock is a magnificent tree. It reaches the
height of from sixty to one hundred feet, is cone-shaped, its fine,
dense foliage and its drooping branches giving to its appearance
exquisite delicacy; and I have yet to see elsewhere such graceful
tree-spires as are the hemlocks of the Sierras, albeit they have
bending tips. However, an old hemlock becomes very ragged and rugged
in appearance; and dying, it rears its wind-broken branches against
the sky, a gaunt figure of stark loneliness. The hemlock branches are
seldom broken by snow; they droop to let the burden slide off. The
bark is reddish, or sometimes gray, and is furrowed into wide, scaly
ridges. The foliage is a rich dark green, but whitish when seen from
below. The leaves of the hemlock are really arranged in a spiral, but
this is hard to demonstrate. They look as though they were arranged
in double rows along each side of the little twig; but they are not
in the same plane and there is usually a row of short leaves on the
upper side of the twig. The leaf is blunt at the tip and has a little
petiole of its own which distinguishes it from the leaves of any
other species of conifer; it is dark, glossy green above, pale green
beneath, marked with two white, lengthwise lines. In June, the tip of
every twig grows and puts forth new leaves which are greenish yellow
in color, making the tree very beautiful and giving it the appearance
of blossoming. The leaves are shed during the third year. The hemlock
cones are small and are borne on the tips of the twigs. The seeds are
borne, two beneath each scale, and they have wings nearly as large as
the scale itself. Squirrels are so fond of them that probably but few
have an opportunity to try their wings. The cones mature in one year,
and usually fall in the spring. The hemlock blossoms in May; the
pistillate flowers are very difficult to observe as they are tiny and
greenish and are placed at the tip of the twig. The pollen-bearing
flowers are little, yellowish balls on delicate, short stems, borne
along the sides of the twig.
Hemlock bark is rich in tannin and is used in great quantities for
the tanning of leather. The timber, which is coarse-grained, is stiff
and is used in framing buildings and for railroad ties; nails and
spikes driven into it cling with great tenacity and the wood does not
split in nailing. Oil distilled from the leaves of hemlock is used as
an antiseptic.
The dense foliage of the hemlock offers a shelter to birds of all
kinds in winter; even the partridges roost in the young trees. These
young trees often have branches drooping to the ground, making an
evergreen tent which forms a winter harbor for mice and other
beasties. The seed-eating birds which remain with us during the
winter, feed upon the seeds; and as the cones grow on the tips of
the delicate twigs, the red squirrels display their utmost powers as
acrobats when gathering this, their favorite food.
[Illustration: _Hemlock branch showing young and mature cones._]
LESSON CCIV
THE HEMLOCK
_Leading thought_--This is one of the most common and useful and
beautiful of our evergreen trees. Its fine foliage makes it an
efficient winter shelter for birds.
_Method_--Ask the children the questions and request them to make
notes on the hemlock trees of the neighborhood. The study of the
leaves and the cones may be made in the schoolroom.
_Observations_--1. Where does the hemlock tree grow in your
neighborhood? What is the general shape of the tree? What sort of
bark has it? How tall does it grow? How are its branches arranged to
shed the snow?
2. What is the color of the foliage? How are the leaves arranged on
the twigs? Are all the leaves of about the same size? What is the
position of the smaller leaves?
3. Break off a leaf and describe its shape; its petiole. Does the
leaf of any other evergreen have a petiole? What is the color and
marking of the hemlock leaf above? Below? At what time of year are
the new leaves developed? How does the hemlock tree look at this
time? Does the hemlock ever shed its leaves?
4. Are the hemlock cones borne on the tip of the twigs or along the
side? How long does it take a cone to mature? When does it fall? How
many scales has it? Where are the seeds borne? How many seeds beneath
each scale? Describe and sketch a hemlock seed. How are the seeds
scattered? Study the tree in May, and see if you can find the blossom?
5. Make drawings of the following: The hemlock twig, showing the
arrangement of the leaves; single leaf, enlarged; cone; cone scale;
seed.
6. What creatures feed upon the hemlock seed? What birds find
protection in the hemlock foliage in winter?
7. For what purposes is hemlock bark used? What is the timber good
for? Is a nail easily pulled out from a hemlock board?
THE DOGWOOD
_Teacher’s Story_
_Through cloud rifts the sunlight is streaming in floods to
far depths of the wood,
Retouching the velvet-leafed dogwood to crimson as vital as
blood._
[Illustration: T]
There is no prettier story among the flowers than that of the bracts
of the dogwood, and it is a subject for investigation which any
child can work out for himself. I shall never forget the thrill of
triumph I experienced when I discovered for myself the cause of the
mysterious dark notch at the tip of each great white bract, which I
had for years idly noticed. One day my curiosity mastered my inertia,
and I hunted a tree over for a flower bud, for it was rather late
in the season; finally I was rewarded by finding the bracts in all
stages of development.
The flowering dogwood forms its buds during the summer, and of course
they must have winter protection; therefore, they are wrapped in
four, close-clasping, purplish brown scales, one pair inside and one
pair outside, both thick and well fitted to protect the bunch of tiny
flower buds at their center. But when spring comes, these motherly
bud-scales change their duties, and by rapid growth become four
beautiful white or pinkish bracts calling aloud to all the insect
world that here at their hearts is something sweet. For months they
brood the flowers and then display them to an admiring world. The
artistic eye loves the little notch at the tip of the bracts, even
before it has read in it the story of winter protection, of which it
is an evidence.
[Illustration: _Blossom and bud of dogwood, enlarged._]
The study of the flowers at the center is more interesting if aided
by a lens. Within each blossom can be seen its tube, set in the
four-lobed calyx. It has four slender petals curled back, its four
chubby, greenish yellow anthers set on filaments which lift them
up between the petals; and at the center of all is the tiny green
pistil. There may be twenty, more or less, of these perfect flowers
in this tiny, greenish yellow bunch at the center of the four great,
flaring bracts. These flowers do not open simultaneously, and the
yellow buds and open flowers are mingled together in the rosette. The
calyx shows better on the bud than on the open flower. It might be
well to explain to the pupils that a bract is simply a leaf in some
other business than that ordinarily performed by leaves.
The twigs have a beautiful, smooth bark, purplish brown above and
greenish below. The flowers grow at the tips of the twigs; and the
young leaves are just below the flowers and also at the tips of the
twigs. These twigs are spread and bent in a peculiar way, so that
each white flower-head may be seen by the admiring world and not be
hidden behind any of its neighbors. This habit makes this tree a
favorite for planting, since it forms a mass of white bloom.
[Illustration: _The flowers of dogwood._
Photo by Cyrus Crosby.]
The dogwood banners unfurl before the flowers at their hearts open,
and they remain after the last flower has received within itself
the gracious, vital pollen which will enable it to mature into a
beautiful berry. This long period of bloom is another quality which
adds to the value of the dogwood as an ornamental tree. At the time
the bracts fall, the curly petals also fall out leaving the little
calyx-tubes standing with style and stigma projecting from their
centers, making them look like a bunch of liliputian churns with
dashers. In autumn, the foliage turns to a rich, purplish crimson--a
most satisfying color.
During the winter, the flowering dogwood, which renders our forests
so beautiful in early spring, may be readily recognized by its bark,
which is broken up into small scales and mottled like the skin of a
serpent; and on the tips of its branches are the beautiful clusters
of red berries, or speaking more exactly, drupes. This fruit is
oval, with a brilliant, shining, red, pulpy covering which must be
attractive to birds. At its tip it has a little purple crown, in
the center of which may be seen the remnant of the style, but this
attractive outside covers a seed with a very thick, hard shell, which
is quite indigestible and fully able to protect, even from the attack
of the digestive juices of the bird’s stomach, the tender white
kernel within it, which includes the stored food and the embryo.
There are in the North two other common species of dogwood which have
dark blue fruit.
LESSON CCV
THE DOGWOOD
_Leading thought_--The petals are not the only means of attracting
insects to the flowers. Sometimes other parts of the plant are made
into banners to show insects where the nectar is to be found.
_Method_--Bring in a branch of the dogwood when it is in flower. The
branch should have upon it some flowers that are unopened. Study the
flower first, and ask the pupils to discover for themselves why the
great white bracts have a notch in the tip. A lens is a great help to
the interest in studying these tiny flowers.
[Illustration: _The flower buds of the dogwood are formed during the
previous season._]
_Observations_--1. What is there at the center of the dogwood flower?
How do the parts at the center look? Are they of the same shape? Are
some opened and others not? Take a penknife and cut out one that is
opened and describe it. Can you see how many petals this tiny flower
has? Describe its calyx. How many stamens has it? Can you see the
pistil? If a flower has a calyx and stamens and a pistil, has it not
all that a flower needs?
2. How many of these flowers are there at the center of the dogwood
“blossom?” What color are they? Would they show off much if it were
not for the great white banners around them? Do we not think of these
great white bracts as the dogwood flower?
3. Study one of these banners. What is its shape? Are the four white
bracts the same shape and size? Make a sketch of these four bracts
with the bunch of flowers at the center. What is there peculiar about
each one of these white bracts. Why should this notch be there? Find
one of the flower-heads which is not yet opened and watch it develop,
and then write a little story of the work done in the winter for the
flowers by these bracts and the different work done by them in the
spring, all for the sake of the precious blossoms.
4. Sketch the bracts from below. Is one pair wider than the other? Is
the wider pair inside or outside? Why is this so?
5. Where are the flowers of the dogwood borne? How are the twigs
arranged so as to unfurl all the banners and not hide one behind
another, so that the whole tree is a mass of white?
6. While studying the flowers, study where the young leaves come
from. Can you still see the scales which protected the leaf buds?
7. What kind of fruit develops from the dogwood blossoms? What colors
are its leaves in autumn?
THE VELVET, OR STAGHORN, SUMAC
_Teacher’s Story_
_The sumacs with flame leaves at half-mast, like wildfire
spread over the glade;
Above them, the crows on frayed pinions move northward in
ragged parade._
[Illustration: T]
The sumacs, in early autumn, form a “firing line” along the borders
of woodlands and fences, before any other plant but the Virginia
creeper has thought of taking on brighter colors. No other leaves can
emulate the burning scarlet of their hues. The sumacs are a glory to
our hills; and sometime, when Americans have time to cultivate a true
artistic sense, these shrubs will play an important part in landscape
gardening. They are beautiful in summer, when each crimson “bob” (a
homely New England name for the fruit panicle) is set at the center
of the bouquet of spreading, fernlike leaves. In winter nakedness
they are most picturesque, with their broadly branching twigs bearing
aloft the wine-colored pompons against the background of snow, and
calling to the winter birds to come and partake of the pleasantly
acid drupes. In spring, they put out their soft leaves in exquisite
shades of pale pinkish green, and when in blossom their staminate
panicles of greenish white cover them with loose pyramids of delicate
bloom.
Well may it be called velvet sumac, for this year’s growth of wood
and the leaf stems are covered with fine hairs, pinkish at first, but
soon white; if we slip our fingers down a branch, we can tell even
without looking where last year’s growth began and ended, because of
the velvety feel. The name staghorn sumac is just as fitting, for its
upper branches spread widely like a stag’s horns and, like them, the
new growth is covered with velvet.
The leaves are borne on the new wood, and therefore at the ends of
branches; they are alternate; the petiole broadens where it clasps
the branch, making a perfect nursery for the little next-year’s bud,
which is nestled below it. The leaves are compound and the number of
leaflets varies from eleven to thirty-one. Each leaflet is set close
to the midrib, with a base that is not symmetrical; the leaflets have
their edges toothed, and are long and narrow; they do not spread out
on either side the midrib like a fern, but naturally droop somewhat,
and thus conceal their undersides, which are much lighter in color.
The leaflets are not always set exactly opposite; the basal ones
are bent back toward the main stem, making a fold in the base of
each. The end leaflets are not always three, symmetrically set, but
sometimes are two and sometimes one, with two basal lobes.
The wine-colored “bob” is cone-shaped, but with a bunchy surface.
Remove all the seeds from it and note its framework of tiny branches,
and again pay admiring tribute to nature’s way of doing up compact
packages. Each seed is a drupe, as is also the cherry. A drupe is
merely a seed within a fleshy layer, all being enclosed in a firmer
outside covering; here, the outside case is covered with dark red
fuzz, a clothing of furs for winter, the fur standing out in all
directions. The fleshy part around the seed has a pleasantly acid
taste, and one of my childhood diversions was to share these fruits
in winter with the birds. I probably inadvertently ate also many a
little six-footed brother hidden away for winter safe-keeping, for
every sumac panicle is a crowded insect-tenement.
It is only in its winter aspect that we can see the peculiar way of
the sumac’s branching, which is in picturesque zigzags, ending with
coarse, wide-spreading twigs. As each terminal twig was a stem for
the bouquet of blossom and fruit set about with graceful leaves, it
needed room and this is reason enough for the coarse branching. The
wood of the sumac has a pith, and is coarse in texture.
[Illustration: _The stag-horn sumac._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
During late May the new growth starts near the end of last year’s
twig; the buds are yellowish and show off against the dark gray
twigs. From the center of these buds comes the fuzzy new growth,
which is usually reddish purple; the tiny leaves are folded, each
leaflet creased at its midrib and folded tightly against itself; as
the leaves unfold, they are olive-green tinted with red, and look
like tassels coming out around the old dark red “bob.” When the
sumacs are in blossom, we see in every group of them, two kinds; one
with pyramids of white flowers, and the other with pinkish callow
bobs. The structure of these two different flower-clusters is really
the same, except that the white ones are looser and more widely
spread. Each flower of the white panicle is staminate, and has five
greenish, somewhat hairy sepals and five yellowish white petals, at
the center of which are five large anthers. A flower from the bob is
quite different; it has the five hairy sepals alternating with five
narrow, yellowish white petals, both clasping the globular base, or
ovary, which is now quite covered with pinkish plush, and bears at
its tip the three styles flaring into stigmas.
[Illustration:
a, _Pistillate flower from a “bob.”_
b, _Staminate flower from the greenish panicle_.
]
The velvet sumac is larger than the smooth species (_Rhus glabra_),
and is easily distinguished from it, since the new wood of the latter
is smooth and covered with bloom but is not at all velvety. The
poison sumac, which is very dangerous to many people when handled, is
a swamp species and its fruit is a loose, drooping panicle of whitish
berries, very much like that of poison ivy; therefore, any sumac that
has the red bob is not dangerous. The poison species has the edges of
its leaflets entire and each leaflet has a distinct petiole of its
own where it joins the midrib.
There is much tannin in sumac and it is used extensively to tan
leather. The bobs are used for coloring a certain shade of brown. The
famous Japanese lacquer is made from the juice of a species of sumac.
LESSON CCVI
THE VELVET, OR STAGHORN, SUMAC
_Leading thought_--The sumac is a beautiful shrub in summer because
of its fern-like leaves; it is picturesque in winter, and its colors
in autumn are most brilliant. Its dark red fruit clusters remain upon
it during the entire winter. In June it shows two kinds of blossoms
on different shrubs, one is whitish and bears the pollen, the other
is reddish and is a pistillate flower, later developing into the seed
on the “bob,” or fruit cluster.
_Method_--Begin this study in October when the beautiful autumn color
of the leaves attracts the eye. Observations to be made in the field
should be outlined and should be answered in the field note-books.
The study of the fruit and leaf may be made in the schoolroom, and
an interest should be developed which will lead to the study of the
interesting flowers the following spring. The sumacs in autumn make a
beautiful subject for water-color sketches, and their peculiar method
of branching with their dark red seed clusters or bobs, make them
excellent subjects for winter sketching.
_Observations_--1. Why is this called the velvet sumac? Why is it
called the staghorn sumac? Look at the stems with a lens and describe
the velvet. Can you tell this year’s wood by the velvet? Is there any
velvet on last year’s wood? Is there any on the wood below? What is
there peculiar in the appearance of last year’s wood? What are the
colors of the hairs that make the velvet on this year’s growth? On
last year’s growth? What is the color of this year’s growth under the
velvet? Where are the leaves borne?
2. Look at the leaves. How many come off the stem between two, one of
which is above the other? Is the midrib velvety? What is its color at
base and at tip? What is the shape of the petiole where it joins the
stem? Remove the leaf. What do you find hidden and protected by its
broad base?
3. How many leaflets are there on the longest leaf which you can
find? How many on the shortest? Do the leaflets have little petioles,
or are they set close to the midrib? How does the basal pair differ
from the others? Are the leaflets the same color above as below? Are
the pairs set exactly opposite each other? Look at the three leaflets
at the tips of several leaves and see if they are all regular in
form. Draw a leaflet showing its base, its veins and its margin. Draw
an entire leaf, and color it as exactly as possible.
4. Study the fruit. Pick one of the bobs and note its general shape.
Is it smooth or bunchy? Sketch it. Remove one of the little bunches
and find out why it is of that shape. Remove all of the seeds from
one of last year’s bobs and see how the fruit is borne. Sketch a part
of such a bare stem.
5. Take a single seed; look at it through a lens and describe it.
What are the colors? Cut or pare away the flesh, and describe the
seed. What birds live on the sumac seeds in winter? How many kinds
of insects can you find wintering in the bob? Find a seed free from
insects and taste it.
_Winter study of the Sumac_--6. Study the sumac after the leaves have
fallen and sketch it. What is there peculiar in its branching? Of
what use to the plant is its method of branching? Break a branch and
look at the end. Is there a pith? What color is the wood and pith?
_May or June Study of the Sumac_--7. Where on the branch does the new
growth start? How are the tiny leaves folded? Look over a group of
sumacs and see if their blossoms all look alike. Are the different
kinds of blossoms found on the same tree or on different trees? Take
one of the white pyramidal blossom clusters; look at one of these
flowers with a lens and describe its sepals and petals. How many
anthers has it and where are they? This is a pollen-bearing flower
and has no pistil. How are its tiny staminate flowers arranged on the
stem to give the beautiful pyramid shape? This kind of flower cluster
is called a panicle.
8. Take one of the green bobs and see if it is made up of little
round flowers. Through a lens study one of these. How many sepals?
How many petals? Describe the middle of the flower around which the
petals and sepals clasp. Is this the ovary, or seed box? Can you see
the stigmas protruding beyond it? What insects visit these flowers?
9. How can you tell the velvet or staghorn sumac from the smooth
sumac? How can you tell both of these from the poison sumac?
10. To what uses are the sumacs put?
* * * * *
“_I see the partridges feed quite extensively upon the sumach
berries, at my old house. They come to them after every snow,
making fresh tracks, and have now stripped many bushes quite
bare._”
--THOREAU’S JOURNAL, Feb. 4, 1856.
THE WITCH-HAZEL
_Teacher’s Story_
_In the dusky, somber woodland, thwarting vistas dull and cold,
Thrown in vivid constellations, gleam the hazel stars of gold,
Gracious gift of wealth untold._
_Hazel blossoms brightly glowing through the forests dark and
drear,
Work sweet miracles, bestowing gladness on the dying year,
Joy of life in woods grown sere._
[Illustration: W]
Witch-hazel is not only a most interesting shrub in itself, but
it has connected with it many legends. From its forked twigs were
made the divining rods by which hidden springs of water or mines
of precious metals were found, as it was firmly believed that the
twig would turn in the hand when the one who held it passed over the
spring or mine. At the present day, its fresh leaves and twigs are
used in large quantities for the distilling of the healing extract so
much in demand as a remedy for cuts and bruises and for chapped or
sunburned skins. It is said that the Oneida Indians first taught the
white people concerning its medicinal qualities.
The witch-hazel is a large shrub, usually from six to twelve feet
high, although under very advantageous circumstances it has been
known to take a tree-like form and attain a height of more than
twenty feet. Its bark is very dark grayish brown, smooth, specked
with little dots, which are the lenticels, or breathing-pores. If the
season’s growth has been rapid, the new twigs are lighter in color,
but when stunted by drouth or poor soil, the new growth has a tint
similar to the old. The wood is white, very tough and fibrous, with
a pith or heart-wood of softer substance and yellow in color. The
leaves are alternate, and the leaf buds appear at the tips of the
season’s twigs, while the blossoms grow at the axils of the leaves.
[Illustration: _Witch-hazel._]
The witch-hazel leaf is nearly as broad as it is long, bluntly
pointed at its tip, with a stem generally less than one-half inch in
length. The sides are unequal in size and shape, and the edges are
roughly scalloped. The veins are straight, are depressed on the upper
side but very prominent beneath, and they are lighter in color than
the rest of the leaf. Witch-hazel leaves are likely to be apartment
houses for insects, especially the insects that make galls. Of these
there are many species, each making a different shaped gall. One of
the most common is a gall, shaped like a little horn or spur on the
upper side of the leaf and having a tiny door opening on the under
side of the leaf. If one of these snug little homes is torn open, it
will be found occupied by a community of little aphids, or plant-lice.
The witch-hazel blossoms appear at the axil of a leaf or immediately
above the scar from which a leaf has fallen, the season of bloom
being so late that often the bush is bare of leaves and is clothed
only with the yellow, fringe-like flowers. Usually the flowers are in
clusters of three, but occasionally four or five can be found on the
same very short stem. The calyx is four-lobed, the petals are four in
number, shaped like tiny, yellow ribbons, about one-half inch long
and not much wider than a coarse thread. In the bud, these petals
are rolled inward in a close spiral, like a watch-spring, and are
coiled so tightly that each bud is a solid little ball no larger than
a bird-shot. There are four stamens lying between the petals, and
between each two of these stamens is a little scale just opposite the
petal. The anthers are most interesting. Each has two little doors
which fly open, as if by magic springs, and throw out the pollen
which clings to them. The pistil has two stigmas, which are joined
above the two-celled seed-box, or ovary. The blossoms sometimes open
in late September, but the greater number appear in October and
November. They are more beautiful in November after the leaves have
fallen, since these yellow, starry flowers seem to bring light and
warmth into the landscape. After the petals fall, the calyx forms a
beautiful little urn, holding the growing fruit.
[Illustration:
1, _A queer little face--witch-hazelnut ready to shoot its seeds_. 2,
_Enlarged flower of witch-hazel showing the long petals_; p, _with
dotted line the pistil_; an, _anther_; a, _anther with doors open_;
c, _lobes of calyx_; sc, _scale opposite the base of petal_. ]
The nuts seem to require a sharp frost to separate the closely joined
parts; it requires a complete year to mature them. One of these nuts
is about half an inch long and is covered with a velvety green outer
husk, until the frost turns it brown; cutting through it discloses
a yellowish white inner shell, which is as hard as bone; within
this are the two brown seeds each ornamented with a white dot; note
particularly that these seeds lie in close-fitting cells. The fruit,
if looked at when the husk is opening, bears an odd resemblance to
a grotesque monkey-like face with staring eyes. Frosty nights will
open the husks, and the dry warmth of sunny days or of the heated
schoolroom, will cause the edges of the cups which hold the seeds,
to curve inward with such force as to send the seeds many feet away;
ordinarily they are thrown from ten to twenty feet, but Hamilton
Gibson records one actual measurement of forty-five feet. The
children should note that the surface of the seeds is very polished
and smooth, and the way they are discharged may be likened to that by
which an orange seed is shot from between the fingers.
LESSON CCVII
THE WITCH-HAZEL
_Leading thought_--The witch-hazel blossoms during the autumn, and
thus adds beauty to the landscape. It has an interesting mechanism by
which it can shoot its seeds for a distance of many feet.
[Illustration: _Flowers and fruit of witch-hazel._
Photo by G. F. Morgan.]
_Method_--This lesson divides naturally into two parts; a study of
the way the seeds are distributed is fitted for the primary grades,
and a study of the flower for more advanced grades. For the primary
grades the lesson should begin by the gathering of the twigs which
bear the fruit. These should be brought to the schoolroom--there
to await results. Soon the seeds will be popping all over the
schoolroom, and then the question as to how this is done, and why,
may be made the topic of the lesson. For the study of the flower and
the shrub itself, the work should begin in October when the blossoms
are still in bud. As they expand they may be studied, a lens being
necessary for observing the interesting little doors to the anthers.
_Observations_--1. Is the witch-hazel a shrub or a tree?
2. What is the color of the bark? Is it thick or thin, rough or
smooth, dark or light, or marked with dots or lines? Is there any
difference in color between the older wood and the young twigs? Is
the wood tough or brittle? Dark or light in color?
3. Do the leaves grow opposite each other or alternate? On what part
of the plant do the leaf buds grow?
4. What is the general shape of the leaf? Is it more pointed at the
base or at the tip? Are the leaves regular in form, or larger on one
side than the other? Are the edges entire, toothed or wavy? Are the
petioles short or long? Are the veins straight or branching? Are they
prominent? Are the leaves of the same color on both sides?
5. Are there many queer-shaped little swellings on the leaf above and
below? See how many of these you can find? Tell what you think they
are.
6. Do the flowers grow singly or in clusters? What is the shape and
color of the petals, and how many of them are there in each blossom?
Describe the calyx. If there are any flower buds just opening,
observe and describe the way the petals are folded within them.
7. How many stamens? With a lens observe the way the two little doors
to the anther fly open; how is the pollen thrown out? What is the
shape of the pistil? How many stigmas?
8. Does each individual flower have a stem or is there a common stem
for a cluster of blossoms? Do the flowers grow at the tips or along
the sides of the twigs? When do the witch-hazel flowers appear and
how long do they last?
9. Make a drawing of a witch-hazel nut before it opens. What is the
color of the outer husk when ripe? Cut into a closed nut and observe
the extreme hardness and strength of the inner shell.
10. Where are the seeds situated? Can you see that the shell, when
partially open, ready to throw out the seeds resembles a queer little
face? Describe the color and marking of the seeds; are they rough or
smooth? How far have you known the witch-hazel to throw its seeds?
Study the nut and try to discover how it throws the seeds so far.
_References_--Tree Book, Rogers; Our Northern Shrubs, Keeler;
Familiar Trees and Their Leaves, Mathews; Field, Forest and Wayside
Botany, Gray.
THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: A]
As a child I never doubted that the laurel wreaths of Grecian heroes
were made from mountain laurel, and I supposed, of course, that the
flowers were used also. My vision was of a hero crowned with huge
wreaths of laurel bouquets, which I thought so beautiful. It was a
shock to exchange this sumptuous headgear of my dreams for a plain
wreath of leaves from the green-bay tree.
However, the mountain laurel leaf is evergreen and beautiful enough
to crown a victor; in color it is a rich, lustrous green above,
with a yellow midrib, the lower side being of a much lighter
color. In shape, the leaf is long, narrow, pointed at each end and
smooth-edged, with a rather short petiole. The leaves each year grow
on the new wood, which is greenish and rough, in contrast with the
old wood, which is rich brownish red. The leaves are arranged below
the flower cluster, so that they make a shining green base for this
natural bouquet.
The flowers grow on the tips of the branching twigs, which are
huddled together in a manner that brings into a mass many flowers.
I have counted seventy-five of them in a single bunch; the youngest
flowers grow nearest the tip of the twig. The blossom stems are
pink, and afford a rich background for the starry open flowers and
knobby closed buds. The bud of the laurel blossom is very pretty
and resembles a bit of rose-colored pottery; it has a five-sided,
pyramidal top, and at the base of the pyramid are ten little
buttresses which flare out from the calyx. The calyx is five-lobed,
each lobe being green at the base and pink at the point. Each one of
the ten little buttresses or ridges is a groove in which a stamen
is growing, as we may see by looking into an opening flower; each
anther is “headed” toward the pocket which ends the groove. The
filament lengthens and shoves the anther into the pocket, and then
keeps on growing until it forms a bow-shaped spring, like a sapling
with the top bent to the ground. The opening flower is saucerlike,
pinkish white, and in form is a five-pointed star. At the bottom of
the saucer a ten-pointed star is outlined in crimson; and bowed above
this crimson ring are the ten white filaments with their red-brown
anthers stuffed cozily into the pockets, one pocket at the center of
each lobe, and one half-way between; each pocket is marked with a
splash of crimson with spotty edges. From the center of the flower
projects the stigma, far from and above the pollen-pockets.
[Illustration: _Diagram of flower of laurel._
p, pocket; st, stamen.]
Each laurel flower is thus set with ten spring-traps all awaiting the
visit of the unwary moth or bee which, when seeking the nectar at
the center of the flower, is sure to touch one or all of these bent
filaments. As soon as one is touched, up it springs and slings its
pollen hard at the intruder. The pollen is not simply a shower of
powder, but is in the form of a sticky string, as if the grains were
strung on cobweb silk. When liberating these springs with a pencil
point, I have seen the pollen thrown a distance of thirteen inches;
thus, if the pollen ammunition does not strike the bee, it may fall
upon some open flower in the neighborhood. The anthers spring back
after this performance and the filaments curl over each other at the
center of the flower below the pink stigma; but after a few hours
they straighten out and each empty anther is suspended above its own
pocket. The anthers open while in the pocket, each one is slit open
at its tip so that it is like the leather pocket of a sling.
After the corollas fall, the long stigma still projects from the tip
of the ripening ovary, and there it stays, until the capsule is ripe
and open. The five-pointed calyx remains as an ornamental cup for
the fruit. The capsule opens along five valves, and each section is
stuffed with little, almost globular seeds.
The mountain laurel grows in woods and shows a preference for rocky
mountain sides or sandy soil.
Another of the common species is the sheep laurel, which grows in
swampy places, especially on hillsides. The flowers of this are
smaller and pinker than the mountain laurel, and are set below the
leaves on the twig. Another species called the pale, or swamp,
laurel, has very small flowers, not more than half an inch in breadth
and its leaves have rolled-back edges and are whitish green beneath.
This species is found only in cold peat-bogs and swamps.
LESSON CCVIII
THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL
_Leading thought_--The laurel blossom is set with ten springs, and
each spring acts as a sling in throwing pollen upon visiting insects,
thus making sure that the visitor will carry pollen to other waiting
flowers.
_Method_--Have the pupils bring to the schoolroom a branch of laurel
which shows blossoms in all stages from the bud. Although this lesson
is on the mountain laurel, any of the other species will do as well.
_Observations_--1. How are the laurel leaves set about the blossom
clusters to make them beautiful? What is the shape of the laurel
leaf? What are its colors above and below? How do the leaves grow
with reference to the flowers? Do they grow on last year’s or this
year’s wood? How can you tell the new wood from the old?
2. Take a blossom bud. What is its shape? How many sides to the
pyramid-like tip? How many little flaring ridges at the base of the
pyramid? Describe the calyx.
3. What is the shape of the flower when open? How many lobes has it?
What is its color? Where is it marked with red?
4. In the open blossom, what do you see of the ten ridges, or keels,
which you noticed in the bud? How does each one of these grooves end?
What does the laurel blossom keep in these ten pockets? Touch one of
the ten filaments with a pencil and note what happens.
[Illustration: _Mountain laurel._
Photo by Verne Morton.]
5. Take a bud scarcely open. Where are the stamens? Can you see the
anthers? Take a blossom somewhat more open. Where are the anthers
now? From these observations explain how the stamens place their
anthers in the pockets. How do the filaments grow into bent springs?
6. Are the anthers open when they are still in the pocket? Look at an
anther with a lens and tell how many slits it has. How do they open?
Are the pollen grains loose when they are thrown from the anther? How
are they fastened together? Does this pollen mass stick to whatever
it touches?
7. What is the use to the flower of this arrangement for throwing
pollen? What insects set free the stamen-springs? Where is the nectar
which the bee or moth is after? Can it get this nectar without
setting free the springs? Touch the filaments with a pencil and see
how far they will sling the pollen.
8. Describe the pistil in the open flower. Is the stigma near the
anthers? Would they be likely to throw their pollen on the stigma of
their own flower? Could they throw it on the stigmas of neighboring
flowers?
9. How does the fruit of the laurel look? Does the style still cling
after the corolla falls? Describe the fruit-capsule. How does it
open? How do the seeds look? Are there many of them?
10. Where does the mountain laurel grow? What kind of soil does it
like? Do you know any other species of laurel? If so, are they found
in the same situations as the mountain laurel?
* * * * *
“_A childish gladness stays my feet,
As through the winter woods I go,
Behind some frozen ledge to meet
A kalmia shining through the snow._
_I see it, beauteous as it stood
Ere autumn’s glories paled and fled,
And sigh no more in pensive mood,
‘My leafy oreads are all dead.’_
_I hear its foliage move, like bells
On rosaries strung, and listening there,
Forget the icy wind that tells
Of turfless fields, and forests bare._
_All gently with th’ inclement scene
I feel its glossy verdure blend;--
I bless that lovely evergreen
As heart in exile hails a friend._
_Its boughs, by tempest scarcely stirred,
Are tents beneath whose emerald fold
The rabbit and the snowbound bird
Forget the world is white and cold._
_And still, ’mid ruin undestroyed,
Queen arbor with the fadeless crown,
Its brightness warms the frosty void,
And softens winter’s surliest frown._”
--From “The Mountain Laurel,” THERON BROWN.
[Illustration: _Brook study._
Photo by Verne Morton.]