of fine veins is spread. When the leaf is still young you find tufts
of soft, downy hairs on the under-side, and at first each leaf hangs
straight down from its stalk as if it had not strength to rise and face
the sunlight. But they soon raise themselves, and gradually their pale
green colour darkens, though the Lime tree leaf never becomes so dark,
nor is it as glossy, as the leaf of the Beech tree.
In September the Lime tree leaves turn pale yellow: rather a colourless
yellow, very different from the rich gold and red-brown of the Beech,
and they fall with the first touch of frost.
You may sometimes find leaves which are marked with large black,
sooty-looking spots. These spots are caused by a tiny insect which has
made its home on the leaf.
If you sit beneath the branches of the Lime on a warm summer day you
will hear the constant hum of myriads of bees which are buzzing round
the tree. They are gathering honey from the Lime tree flowers, whose
delicious perfume is scenting the air.
From the spot where next year’s leaf bud will grow there hangs a long
stalk; at the end of this stalk there droops a cluster of flowers
(4), and at the base of each flower cluster stands a long slender
leaf called a bract. This bract looks like a pale yellow wing, and is
covered all over with a network of fine veins.
The flowers have five greeny white petals and five pale green sepals.
In the centre is a small seed-vessel like a tiny pea, and from it there
rises a slender green pillar which ends in five sticky points. Closely
surrounding this seed-vessel is a ring of many stamens. Each stamen has
a white stalk with an orange-coloured head, and among these stamens lie
the drops of sweet juice which attract the bees.
The stamen dust is ripe before the sticky points of the seed-vessel
on the same plant are ready for it; but the bees, when they bend down
to suck the honey juice, brush against the ripe stamen heads, and
their backs become covered with the fine powder. Away they fly to the
flowers on another Lime tree, and the powder will probably be rubbed
off on one where the seed-vessel is ready to receive it.
When the seed is ripe you see many little downy fruit-balls (5), each
hanging from a slender stalk. In warm countries this seed ripens into a
small nut which is ground down and made into a kind of chocolate. But
it never ripens in England.
In some countries there are large forests of Lime trees, and the air is
filled with the busy hum of the bees. The peasants make large holes in
the tree trunks, and these holes the bees fill with honeycomb, which
the peasants easily remove and sell. This Lime tree honey is much
prized for its fine flavour.
The wood of the Lime tree is not hard enough for building purposes, but
it is greatly in demand for carving. It is light and soft, and much of
the beautiful wood decoration in our churches is carved from Lime tree
wood. It does not easily become worm-eaten as do so many of our harder
woods.
We read that in old days the soldiers’ shields were made of Lime tree
wood, as the blow of a weapon was deadened when striking it.
[Illustration: PLATE VIII
THE ELM
1. Elm Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Ready Buds
4. Flower Spray
5. Stamen Flower enlarged
6. Seed Flower enlarged
7. Fruit Clusters and Wing]
The inner bark of the tree has always been valuable. From it are made
those mats of light brown grass which gardeners use to protect their
delicate plants during winter; and these tails of dried-looking
grass with which they tie bunches of flowers instead of using string,
are also made from the Lime tree bark. This inner bark is called “bass”
or “bast,” and is chiefly made in Russia and Sweden.
It is from this bass or string that the tree gets its name, which
is not really Lime, but Line or Linden, and is so called in other
countries. We in Britain have got into the bad habit of mispronouncing
the word. The true Lime tree is a cousin of the Orange and Lemon
trees, and bears a yellow fruit called Limes. But the Linden tree is
no relation of this Lime tree, and is so called because it is the tree
from which we get gardener’s dried string or line, and we must remember
that our popular name is a wrong one, and not the true name of the tree.
PLATE VIII
THE COMMON ELM AND WYCH OR BROAD-LEAVED ELM
There are two kinds of Elm which grow abundantly in this country, and
both are lofty, noble trees. The Common Elm (1) you will recognise
easily, because its rough black trunk is clothed right down to the
ground with a dense mass of brushwood. This brushwood is really a
forest of small branches, and shoots, and twigs which spring from the
Elm tree root; and if you separate some of these young shoots and plant
them alone they will grow into young Elm tree saplings.
In winter you will always know the Common Elm by its brushwood
clothing, and in early spring, in March, after there have been a few
sunny days, you will see tiny green leaf buds opening in this brushwood
sheaf before the large upper branches show any signs of life.
The Common Elm is one of our tallest trees. It has a thick rough trunk,
on which are many large gnarled bosses or knobs. The bark of the tree
is very rugged and is covered with many deep furrows.
The branches of this Elm do not grow gracefully in sweeping curves like
those of the Ash tree; they have a dwarf, zig-zag appearance, and often
they are twisted and knotted.
The young twigs that grow on these branches are short and tiny, a
network of little bushy sprays growing close to the branch, and their
bark is downy and corky when it is young, but becomes hard as the
season advances.
In early spring these tiny twigs bear many small scaly buds (3) like
beads. These beads open very early, before the end of April, and from
each there bursts a bunch of flowers (4). What you notice first in this
flower tuft is the crowd of reddish stamens with large purple heads.
But if you gently pull to pieces one of these flower bunches, you will
find that the stamens are not growing loose, but that they are held
together in groups of five or more, in a dark green or purplish vase
(5). This vase is funnel-shaped, and widens out round the mouth into
four scallops. The oval seed-vessel (6) is at the bottom, hidden from
sight. Do not forget to notice that in the Elm tree the stamens and
seed-vessel grow close together in one flower.
The stamens soon shrivel and fall off, and their place is taken by
bunches of flat green wings (7), each with a tiny knob in the centre,
which is the fruit. These green shields, or wings, serve the same
purpose as the keys or wings of the Ash tree. They are thin and light
like paper, and in the Common Elm each shield is deeply notched at one
end, almost to the centre seed.
When the seed is ripe the wind blows these bunches of papery shields
away from the twigs, and they are carried long distances.
The Elm tree seed is almost ripe before the leaves (2) begin to sprout.
The leaf buds are pink and downy, and the young leaves are folded
fan-ways inside. Each leaf has a short stalk, and is small and narrow,
with two rows of unequally-sized teeth round the edge. These leaves
are rough and harsh above, with many hairs along the centre rib, hairs
like those on the Nettle, which is a member of the same family as the
Elm, but these hairs, though they irritate, do not actually sting. In
October the leaves turn yellow, and after a touch of frost they fall in
showers.
Sometimes you will notice large black spots disfiguring the leaves.
These spots are caused by a minute plant which makes its home on the
leaf and in the end destroys it. After the leaves have fallen, they lie
on the ground till spring comes again, then this black plant increases
rapidly, and soon covers all the leaf, which quickly decays.
Cattle love the Elm tree leaves when they are green and young, and in
some places they are stripped from the trees in sackfuls to feed the
cows.
Many insects make their home on the Elm tree. The caterpillar of the
large tortoise-shell butterfly feeds on the leaves, and there is an
insect beetle that burrows little tunnels in the wood and loosens the
bark from the tree. If you pick up some pieces of Elm tree wood where a
woodman has been sawing, you will see curious markings like the veins
of a skeleton leaf, tunnelled in the wood. These are made by a tiny
beetle, and are very injurious to the tree.
But the beetle has an enemy that comes to the tree’s rescue. Sometimes
on a still day if you are sitting quietly in the woods, you will hear
a gentle tap-tapping close beside you. This is the woodpecker, a bird
which is perched on the rough bark of the Elm tree, and with his bill
he pecks at the tree in search of insects which form his favourite meal.
Birds love the Elm trees, as their shade is not too dense to shut
out the sunshine, and you will often find rooks’ nests in the upper
branches, tossed and swayed by the gales.
The Elm tree is useful for many purposes. Farmers plant it in their
hedgerows, as grass will grow freely above its roots.
In Italy the Elms are trained to carry the Vines. The young trees have
all their lower branches cut off, leaving the bare stem like a living
pole; round this pole the slender vine is twined, and its graceful
trails hang in festoons from the crown of Elm branches which are left
at the top of the pole to give shade. In poetry you read of the Vine
tree wedded to the common Elm, which it clasps with its clinging arms.
Elm tree wood is very valuable as timber. These rough bosses which grow
on the trunk are prized by cabinet-makers, who find the wood curiously
veined and streaked.
The inner lining of the bark is very tough, and is made into ropes and
garden string or bast, as in the Lime tree. And the wood is sought for
all purposes where durability is needed; it lasts well in water, and is
much in demand for ship-building.
The Wych Elm or Broad-leaved Elm resembles the Common Elm in many ways,
but there are several small differences you must note. There is no
brushwood sheaf clothing the base of the Wych Elm trunk; it is bare and
rough right down to the ground. The leaves are larger and much broader,
resembling those of the Hazel, and the branches of the Wych Elm are
long and spreading and much more graceful than the twisted boughs of
its sister Elm.
If you look carefully at the green wings that surround the tiny seed of
the Wych Elm and compare it with those of the Common Elm, you will find
that the seed lies nearly in the centre of the wing, and that the notch
which is cut at the end of the wing is smaller than the deep notch of
the Common Elm.
The Wych Elm is far the more graceful of the two trees, and it grows
much more quickly than its rugged sister.
The name Wych is supposed to be Scotch. Small pieces of the wood were
said to be effective as charms against witches, and country dairy-maids
used to place a tiny bit of this Elm wood in the churn so that the
witches could not prevent the milk from becoming butter!
[Illustration: PLATE IX
THE ASH
1. Ash Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. “Keys” or “Spinners” Ash Fruit
4. Black Buds
5. Leaf Scars
6. Stamen enlarged
7. Seed enlarged
8. Ash Flowers]
PLATE IX
THE ASH
“If the oak before the ash,
Then you’ll only have a splash;
If the ash before the oak,
Then you’re sure to have a soak.”
--Old Saying.
If the Oak is well named the King of the woods, to the Ash belongs the
honour of being called Queen, the wood’s fairest. She is a queen with
an ancient history. In the dim long ago there must have been Ash trees,
for we read that the great spear of Achilles was an “ashen spear”;
also, that the gods held council under the boughs of a great Ash tree:
on its highest branches sat an eagle; round its root a serpent lay
coiled; and a tiny squirrel ran up and down the branches carrying
messages from one to the other.
In much later times the Ash tree was held to have magic powers of
healing. Sick babies were said to be cured if they passed through a
cleft made in its trunk; and there are many tales of men and animals
who recovered from illness on touching an Ash twig gathered from a tree
in which a shrew mouse had been buried.
Nowadays we have grown so wise that we think differently about these
things, and we love the Ash tree because of its beauty, and are
grateful for the many ways in which the wood is useful to us.
You should try to find an Ash tree (1) in early spring. It is one of
the easiest trees to recognise before it is clothed in leaves.
The trunk is very straight, and has none of the knobs and bosses which
grow on the Oak and Elm tree trunks. When the Ash tree is still young
the bark is a pale grey colour--ash-colour, we call it--and it is very
smooth. But as the tree grows older the bark cracks into many irregular
upright ridges, which remind you of the rimples left by the waves on a
sandy sea-shore.
At first the lower branches grow straight out from the trunk, but soon
they curve gracefully downwards; then they rise again, and the tips
point upward toward the sky.
Notice the tips of these branches--they are quite different from all
other tree tips. In an Ash tree you will not see a network of delicate
branching twigs outlined against the sky. Each branch ends in a stout
pale grey twig, which is slightly flattened at the tip, as if it had
been pinched between two fingers when still soft. Beyond this flattened
tip you see two fat black buds (4), and there are smaller black buds at
the sides of the twig. It is these curious black buds at the tips and
on the sides of the twig which will make it easy for you to distinguish
the Ash tree from every other.
Long after the other trees have put on their young green leaves the
Ash tree stands bare and leafless, waiting till the frost and cold
winds are gone before its black buds will unfold. Then out it comes,
flowers first. The sooty buds at the sides of the twig open, and you
see that they have dark brown linings, and that in the middle of each
bud there lies a thick bunch of purple stamen heads (6), crowded
together like grains of purple corn; these are the Ash tree flowers (8).
Ash tree flowers have no petals and no sepals; they have only a green,
bottle-shaped seed-vessel (7), which stands between two stamens with
pale green stalks and fat purple-coloured heads. Sometimes there is not
even a seed-vessel; you may find nothing but a crowded bunch of purply
stamens. This latter kind of Ash tree cannot produce any fruit.
In a few weeks these stamens shrivel and the purple heads fall off.
The seed-vessels, too, become very different. They change into long
flat green wings, which hang each from its own stalk in a cluster at
the end or from the side of the branch. These silky green wings are
called “keys” (3), or in some places, “spinners”; at one end they are
notched, and at the other, close to the stalk, lies the fruit. Long
after the Ash tree leaves are withered and fallen you can see these
bunches of “keys,” grown brown and shrivelled, still clinging to the
branches. When wintry weather comes they are torn off by the wind, and
the winged seed, spinning round and round in the air, is carried a long
distance.
You will see Ash trees growing high up on rocky precipices, where only
the birds or the wind could have left the seed.
By the month of May, when the keys of the Ash are fully formed, the
green leaves (2) begin to appear. They are beautiful feathery leaves,
full of lightness, and grace, and strength. Each leaf is made up of
from four to eleven pairs of leaflets, shaped like a lance, with
toothed edges, and these are placed opposite each other on a central
stalk: there is nearly always a single leaflet at the end. The leaves
are pale green, and when they first open you see a soft browny down on
the leaf ribs, but this soon wears off. They droop gracefully from the
twigs, which you can now see require to be stout and strong to carry
such large wind-tossed feathers.
But the Ash tree leaves are among the first to fall. Whenever the cold
winds come they wither, and a single night of frost will strew them in
hundreds on the ground. Where the leaf stalk joined the twig you will
see a curious scar (5) shaped like a horse-shoe, and next year a black
bud will appear inside this scar. The Ash tree will live for several
hundred years. It is not fully grown up till it is forty or fifty years
old, and till then you will not find any bunches of keys, with their
seeds, growing on the tree.
[Illustration: PLATE X
THE FIELD MAPLE
1. Field Maple in Autumn
2. Leaf Spray
3. Flower Spike
4. Fruit]
Notice that the ground beneath the branches of the Ash tree is usually
bare. Many of its roots spread out to a great distance close below the
surface, and they are so greedy, and require so much nourishment for
the tree, that there is none left for other plants. Some farmers think
that the raindrops which drip from the feathery Ash leaves are hurtful
to other plants, so they are unwilling to plant Ash trees in their
fields and hedgerows.
The wood of the Ash is very valuable, and will bring as much money as
that of the Oak or Elm. It is used for all kinds of work--for furniture
and for ship-building, and for making wheels and poles, and it lasts
well and does not readily split.
PLATE X
THE FIELD MAPLE
There are many mistakes made in naming the Maple and Plane trees.
The Sycamore or False Plane tree, the Oriental Plane, and the Field
Maple are often called wrongly by each other’s names. So you must
note carefully the differences between them. The Sycamore and the
Field Maple are cousins, but the Oriental Plane is not even a distant
relation of these, and only resembles them in the shape of its leaves.
It is not really difficult to distinguish one from the other.
The Field Maple (1) is nearly always a small tree which you find
growing in the hedgerows, where it is more like a large bush than a
tree. You rarely find it standing alone in a wide park, bearing great
branches heavily clothed with leaves, as you find the Sycamore or Great
Maple. In England it is a common hedgerow tree, but it is not native to
Scotland and is seldom found there.
Early in spring you find the long slender shoots covered with buds,
from which burst small leaves of a beautiful bright crimson colour.
These leaves (2) are toothed round the edges and are shaped like a hand
with five short fingers; in the Field Maple the fingers are blunt at
the points, not sharp as are those of the Sycamore and of the Oriental
Plane.
As the spring advances those pretty crimson leaves become dark green
above and a light green on the under-side, and they lose the soft down
which covered them, but even when fully out they are never so large
as those of the Sycamore. When autumn draws near, with its cold winds
and frosty nights, the Field Maple leaves change colour once more and
become brilliant yellow; you will see them shining in the hedgerows
like a bush of gold.
Many of the leaves are disfigured by small red spots, and if you look
at one of these spots with a magnifying-glass you will see that is
caused by a tiny insect which has made this little red nest in which to
lay its eggs.
The leaves of the Field Maple, like those of the Sycamore, are placed
opposite each other on the twig; in the Oriental Plane they grow
alternately, one a little way above the other on opposite sides of
the spray. There is a great deal of sugary juice in Maple leaves, and
cattle love to eat them. In some countries they are stripped from the
trees and kept for winter fodder for the cows.
The bark of the Field Maple is noted for its strange corky nature and
its curious growth. It grows in upright ridges, deeply furrowed, which
look as if they could easily be broken off. In the Oriental Plane the
bark is quite smooth, and it peels off in large flakes, leaving patches
of different colours on the tree trunk.
In April, when the leaves are still unfolding, the Field Maple brings
out its spikes of flowers (3). You will at once notice that these
flower clusters stand erect, and do not droop in pointed tassels like
those of the Sycamore. Now, look at the flowers in an Oriental Plane,
and you will discover that they bear no resemblance either to those of
the Sycamore or of the Field Maple, with which it is often confused.
They do not even grow in clusters, but in round, prickly balls which
are threaded on a slender green chain.
The flowers of the Field Maple are what botanists call “perfect
flowers,” which means that each flower has all its parts complete
within itself. In every bloom you will find five narrow green sepals
and five narrow green petals; within the ring of petals stand eight
yellow-headed stamens, and seated in the centre of the flower is a
seed-vessel with a small wing at each side and with two curly horns
standing up at the top. There is plenty of honey juice hidden among
these stamens, and the bees buzz all day long around the Maple blossoms.
As the season advances, the petals and sepals and stamens fall off,
but the seed-vessel grows larger and larger, till you find bunches of
winged seeds (4) standing erect where the flowers once grew.
Notice that in this tree the seeds are close together beside the stalk,
and that the wings stand straight out from the seeds and are not bent
into the shape of the letter U, as they are in the Sycamore. These
bunches of winged seeds are frequently tinged with bright crimson, and
are very attractive among the glossy green leaves.
In autumn the strong winds strip them from their stalks and the wings
bear the seed far from the parent tree. Some botanists tell us that
these seeds require to lie in the ground for more than a year before
they begin to grow.
[Illustration: PLATE XI
THE SYCAMORE
1. Sycamore Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Fat Bud
4. Flower Spike
5. Winged Fruit]
The Field Maple is full of sugary sap, but nothing is made of it in
this country, as the trees do not yield enough to make it worth while.
But in Canada the sap is drawn from the trees and made into sugar.
I am sure you must have seen the brown blocks of Maple sugar in the
confectioners’ windows.
The wood of the Field Maple is too small to be of much use, but it is
strangely and beautifully marked and veined with spots and stripes like
the skin of a tiger or panther, and is eagerly bought for decorative
purposes. The knots that grow on the roots were said to be worth their
weight in gold, and in old history books you read that the thrones of
great kings were made of Maple. Nowadays the wood is largely used for
making small articles such as plates, and cups, and trays, and it can
be cut so thin without breaking that the light may be seen through it.
In France the long slender Maple shoots are used for coachmen’s whips.
PLATE XI
THE SYCAMORE, OR GREAT MAPLE, OR MOCK PLANE
There is a good deal of confusion in people’s minds as to the right
name for this familiar tree. Sycamore is not an English word, but is
made from a Greek word meaning fig or mulberry. The tree has been so
called because many years ago people believed that it was a relation of
the fig tree which grows so abundantly by the roadside in Palestine.
The leaves are a little alike, but there is no real resemblance between
our English Great Maple and the Eastern Sycamore: the name has been
given by mistake.
Another mistaken name given to this tree is Plane tree. The Great
Maple is only a mock Plane tree or false Plane tree; it is not even a
relation of the real Plane any more than it is a relation of the Fig or
Sycamore. But mistakes even in names are very difficult to correct, and
in many places, particularly in Scotland, you will find that Sycamore
(1) or Plane tree is the name usually given to the Great Maple.
It is a large heavy tree, with a great central trunk covered with a
gnarled bark which peels off in flakes, leaving patches of different
shades. From every side of this central trunk there grow stout branches
covered with masses of thick foliage, the thickest and heaviest foliage
of any British tree.
If you look at the Sycamore tree as it stands in an open field, or in a
hedgerow, with grass growing close to its very trunk, I think what will
strike you most is how evenly it has grown all round. There are so many
trees that grow all to one side if they are much exposed to a cold
wind. Look at the Beech, or the Hawthorn, or the Elm on the crest of a
ridge, and you will at once know from which direction the wind blows
strongest and coldest, by seeing how the tree puts out all its best
branches on the sheltered side. But the Sycamore tree is indifferent to
cold, or even to the salt sea winds; it sends out its branches equally
on every side, and there is always a thick roof of leaves at the top.
The Sycamore tree prefers a dry soil, in which it grows very quickly;
and it will not die if transplanted.