covered with soft downy pink scales. The Horse Chestnut is the only
other tree which bears such large buds, but they are dark and very
sticky.
In country places the children call the largest buds at the end of
the Sycamore twig “cocks,” and the smaller buds which grow along the
sides they call “hens.” When these buds open early in May you see how
beautifully the leaves are folded fan-ways inside. Each leaf (2) is
shaped like a large hand with five bluntly-pointed fingers; the edges
are coarsely toothed, and the leaf is dark green above and a paler
green underneath. They grow on long stalks, which are a reddish pink
colour so long as the leaves are young, and each stalk is scooped into
a hollow at the end, so that it may fit closely to the twig.
These leaves are not placed alternately on opposite sides of the
branch, as in the Beech or Elm: they grow in clumps, or bouquets, and
each pair of leaves is placed cross-ways to the pair above. Those that
come out first have long stalks and are the largest; then the second
pair is smaller, and the third pair smaller still, till the bouquet is
finished with two tiny leaves in the centre.
Notice that the leaves of the Sycamore are often marked with sticky
drops. By old writers these drops are called honey-dew. It is believed
that the sap of the Sycamore is sugary, and some of this sugary juice
escapes through the leaf pores to the surface. These handsome leaves
are often spotted with small black dots, which are caused by a tiny
plant. This plant makes its home on the Sycamore leaf, and unknowingly
disfigures its kind host.
Before the leaves are quite out the flowers appear. They grow in
drooping spikes (4), or large tassels of a pale yellowish green colour.
Each tassel is made up of many separate flowers, and most of these
flowers have a calyx with five to twelve narrow strap-shaped sepals,
and a corolla of the same number of yellow-green petals. There is
also a ring of slender stamens standing round a flat green cushion or
disc. In the centre sits the seed-vessel, which has two curved horns
at the top. But in the flower tassel you may also find flowers in
which some of the parts are awanting: one flower will have stamens,
but no seed-vessel, and its neighbour will have a seed-vessel and no
stamens, while in a third the petals may be awanting. You must examine
each flower till you find one which is perfect. These Sycamore flowers
contain much honey, nearly as much as those of the Lime tree; and the
bees are glad to hover round the tree flowers, which blossom long
before those in the meadow are open.
After the flowers are withered the seed (5) develops wings like the
Ash and the Elm. But these wings are very different from those of any
other tree. They are shaped like the letter U, with the two seeds at
the bottom of the letter where it joins the stalk. Each seed is like a
small pea, and is snugly packed in a horny case lined with the softest
and silkiest down. When it is ripe the wind blows the winged seeds from
the tree and carries them a long way. They fall into the ground, where
the horny case prevents the young seed from rotting during the cold
winter months before it is time for it to begin to sprout. Then when
spring comes the baby seed bursts its covering and sends up two tiny
green ribbon leaves which are the beginning of a new Sycamore tree. The
wings of the Sycamore seed are beautifully tinged with pink.
The wood of the Sycamore or Great Maple is white and very soft, but
it is closely grained. Sometimes you see big knobs on the tree trunk
where a branch has died or been broken off, and cabinet-makers prize
these knobs, as the wood is very curiously marked with beautiful veins
and streaks. Maple wood will polish as smooth as satin, and the backs
of violins are often made of it. In old books we read of table-tops
that were made of curiously marked pieces of Maple, and it is told that
more than eight hundred pounds was given for one of these Maple tables.
In Scotland the Sycamore tree was often called the dool tree, or tree
of mourning, because the nobles used to hang disobedient servants or
vanquished foes on its strong branches; and at Cassilis, in Ayrshire,
there is a Sycamore tree which is well known to have been used for this
cruel purpose.
PLATE XII
THE ORIENTAL PLANE
There are two kinds of Plane tree which have come to us as strangers
from foreign lands and have taken kindly to our cold climate and biting
winds. These are the Oriental or Eastern Plane and the Occidental or
Western Plane. The differences between them are not great, and the one
which you will most easily remember is, that in the Oriental Plane the
leaf stalk is green, whereas in the Occidental Plane tree it is
purply red. We owe a special debt of gratitude to these Plane trees
because they add beauty to so many of the dingy streets and squares in
our big cities.
[Illustration: PLATE XII
THE ORIENTAL PLANE TREE
1. Oriental Plane Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Stamen Flower Balls
4. Seed Flower Balls
5. Fruit]
The trunk of the Oriental Plane (1) is very smooth, and is usually
ash-grey in colour; sometimes it is a very dark green. The outer layer
of this trunk peels off in flakes, leaving large patches of greenish
yellow, and these give the tree a curious speckled appearance. It is a
tall, handsome tree, and if you look at it from a distance you see that
the broad leaves group themselves into large masses with a wide space
between each mass. This you can only see in a full-grown tree, and such
trees are rarely met with in our dusty towns.
On account of its leaves the Oriental Plane tree is frequently confused
with the Sycamore, so you must notice carefully wherein they differ.
The leaves (2) of the Oriental Plane are shaped like a hand with five
sharply-pointed fingers, and each finger is cut all round into sharp
teeth. The leaves are very smooth, and light, and fine, and are as thin
as paper. They will lie quite flat if you lay them on a table. Each
leaf is placed alternately with its neighbour on the twig, the second
leaf growing on the opposite side of the twig, but a little further up
than the first leaf. In the Sycamore you remember that the leaves grow
in pairs placed exactly opposite each other, and that the second pair
is always placed cross-ways to the first pair? These Oriental Plane
leaves are so smooth that the rain easily washes all dust and soot from
them, and this is why this tree manages to live in a city better than
those which have crinkled, or hairy, or sticky leaves, which catch and
keep the choking dust.
In most trees the leaf buds are to be found growing between the base of
the leaf stem and the twig which supports it. You will find no trace
of such buds in the Oriental Plane; they are carefully hidden, and are
tenderly protected in a marvellous way.
You see that the base of the leaf stalk is considerably swollen, and
that round it there is a line? If you gently pull the leaf, it will
come apart from the twig at this line, and then you will discover that
the swollen part of the leaf stalk is hollow, and is fitted like a cap
over the tiny leaf bud, which is cosily sheltered within. This baby
leaf bud is very sensitive to cold, and has many wrappings as well as
the leaf cap. Its outer case is lined with sticky gum, which keeps out
any damp; then come many small scales covered with soft fur, and inside
these lie the tiny leaves, wrapped in a quilt of soft, silky down. This
silky down is golden-brown in colour, and it remains on the young leaf
till it is quite grown up. Sometimes the young buds are tempted by
bright sunshine to throw off their winter coverings too soon. Then if
biting frost comes they all die, and the tree will bear no more buds
that year. The Plane tree gets its name from a Greek word which means a
shield, and this name was given because its broad, flat leaves cast a
very welcome shade in hot Eastern lands.
In winter it is easy to recognize the Oriental Plane by its curious
seeds. Hanging on the bare branches are strings of round bristly
fruit-balls (5), three or four, or even five, threaded like large beads
on a long slender chain. There are no seed balls such as these on the
Sycamore tree, nor on its cousin the Field Maple.
These seed balls are very interesting. Early in spring you see them
dangling in the air, and you must pluck one of the green chains and
examine its round beads. In one ball are grouped together bunches of
purple stamens (3), which have a few pointed, dry scales at the base
of each group. As soon as these stamens are ripe and their pollen
dust has been blown away, these balls shrivel and fall off. But close
beside them, on a similar green chain, are dangling the seed balls (4).
Inside these balls there is a soft green cushion, and all over this
cushion are stuck small green seeds shaped like pears, each with a tiny
point like a stalk standing up at the top. After the stamen dust has
fallen on these seeds they enlarge into a small hard nut, and a tuft
of bristly down grows up from the base of each seed. The ball becomes
a dark brown colour, and it dangles all winter on the tree; then in
spring, when the leaves are ready to burst their coverings, these brown
balls fall to the ground and the dry seeds are blown away, each seed
floating in the air by the aid of its bristly down.
In America these Eastern and Western Plane trees are called Button
trees, because the seed balls resemble old-fashioned buttons.
The wood of the Oriental Plane is used by piano-makers, coach-builders,
and cabinet-makers. It is a light brown colour, and is said to be very
tough.
PLATE XIII
THE WHITE POPLAR OR ABELE TREE
In the old Greek legends we read that Hercules won a victory over
Kakos on Mount Aventine. On the mountain grew a thick grove of Poplar
trees, and Hercules, overjoyed with his triumph, bound a branch of the
graceful leaves around his brow as a sign of victory. Soon afterwards
he went down into the infernal regions, the place of tears and gloom,
and when he came back to earth it was seen that the upper side of
his leafy garland was darkened with the smoke of Hades, but that the
under-side of the leaves had been washed silver white with the sweat
which streamed from his brow. Ever since that day the leaves of the
Aventine Poplar grow white on the under-side, and in course of time its
seeds were brought by travellers to Britain, and the tree has taken
kindly to our less sunny land. So the tale runs.
[Illustration: PLATE XIII
THE WHITE POPLAR
1. White Poplar or Abele Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Seed Catkin
4. Stamen Catkin]
It is by these dark green leaves with their thick white lining that
you will always know the White Poplar or Abele tree (1), and when you
learn how many relations it has, and how closely they resemble each
other, you will be glad to have this marked distinction by which you
may easily know this member of the family.
The Poplar, like the Willows, prefers to grow in damp places. The most
perfect trees are found in meadows close to a river. In France the
people plant them along the river banks, and from far away you can
trace the windings of the water by the tall Poplar spires which edge
its banks.
The Poplars are very fast-growing trees; they will shoot up to a great
height in the life-time of a man, and for this reason they are often
planted where a screen is quickly required. The lower part of the trunk
is dark and is deeply furrowed, but the upper is a dingy yellow colour,
and on it there are many black streaks.
Early in March the White Poplar begins to flower. It is one of the
catkin-bearing trees, and high on the upper branches there dance and
dangle long slender woolly tails of a purplish red colour. These are
the stamen catkins (4), and you must pick one to pieces and see how
beautifully it is made.
The stamens are grouped together in little bunches of from eight to
thirty on a round disc, and at the foot of this disc, on one side,
rises a scale which is green on the lower half and reddish brown on
the upper half. This scale is deeply and irregularly toothed all round
the edge, and is surrounded with fine silk which stands up like a fan.
These bunches of stamens are placed all round the catkin tail, with the
scales nearly covering the purple stamen heads. As soon as the pollen
dust in the stamen heads is ripe and the wind has shaken it out of
their dust-bags, the catkin shrivels and falls to the ground. You will
find the ground strewn with them in early spring.
But the White Poplar has another catkin flower which bears the seeds,
and this flower grows on a separate tree. These seed catkins (3) are
stouter and shorter, and are not nearly so noticeable as the long
stamen catkins. The green seed-vessel sits in a tiny cup, and on the
top of the seed you see a cross of four yellow rays. On one side of
the cup rises a scale which is brown at the upper edge and is fringed
with down as in the stamen catkin. The wind brings the stamen dust to
the four yellow rays on the top of the little seed-vessel, but if there
should be no stamen-bearing trees growing near, then the White Poplar
can produce no new seeds; it remains barren.
The leaves (2) of the White Poplar are triangular in shape and are
deeply jagged all round. When in bud the sides of the leaf are rolled
towards the centre, so that the under-side of the leaf, with its thick
white lining, is turned outward. The young branches and buds are also
thickly covered with fine white down.
The Poplar leaves never seem to be still; they dance and sparkle in
the sunshine, and even on quiet days you will see them fluttering. In
autumn these leaves turn golden yellow before they fall.
The wood of the White Poplar is too quickly grown to be very durable.
It is largely used for making children’s toys, because it does not
readily split when nails are driven into it. It will not burn easily,
and for this reason it makes good floors for dwelling-houses.
Besides the White Poplar or Abele tree there are two other Poplars
which are fairly common in this country. One is the Lombardy Poplar,
which grows tall and slender like a church spire; its branches rise
upward like the flame of a torch, and the tree trunk is clothed to the
very ground with withered branches, which never spread outwards, but
grow close to the main stem. There is no difficulty in recognising the
Lombardy Poplar.
The Black Poplar is also common in many parts of Britain. Its leaves
are not lined with white; they are heart-shaped, with no jagged edges,
but with dainty little teeth cut evenly all round. The heads of the
stamens, which grow in groups on the catkin tail, are very dark purple,
and they hang from the end of twigs, which are rough with the scars of
last year’s leaves.
PLATE XIV
THE ASPEN
“Variable as the shade
By the light, quivering aspen made.”
--Scott.
The Aspen (1) is a member of the Poplar family, and in many ways it
resembles its cousins. But you will always know an Aspen tree by its
leaves (2). These are never still unless when a storm is brooding and
the air is perfectly calm; at all other times they shake and quiver
incessantly, and you can hear the gentle rustle they make as each leaf
rubs against its neighbour. In the Scottish Highlands the country
people tell you that the Aspen trembles because at the Crucifixion the
cross of Christ was made of Aspen, and the tree must always shudder at
the recollection of the cruel purpose it served.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV
THE ASPEN
1. Aspen Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Stamen Catkins
4. Seed Catkin]
The Aspen is usually found growing in copses, or in meadow lands,
where it flourishes best in a damp soil; but it is also found on
mountain ground, and is very common in the north of Scotland. It is
not a long-lived tree: the heart of it begins to decay after fifty or
sixty years, just at the age when many of our most familiar trees are
at their finest. The wood is very soft, and is of little use either for
building or for manufacturing purposes; but it is beautifully white,
and sculptors use it for decorative carving; also many of the wooden
blocks required by engravers for printing are made of Aspen wood.
The Aspen is one of our catkin-bearing trees. Early in spring you will
see dangling on the branches long fluffy tails, which you must pluck
and examine carefully. There are two kinds of flowering catkins on the
Aspen, and both kinds may be found growing on the same tree. Sometimes
you find them close beside each other on the same branch.
In the stamen catkin (3) you see many bunches of tiny stamens with
bluey-purple heads: these bunches are dotted all over the catkin tail,
and each stamen bunch is nearly hidden by a large scale which rises at
one side. This scale is green in the lower half and pale brown in the
upper half, and its edges are cut into deep jagged points. This jagged
scale lies above the stamen bunch, so that you can just see their heads
appearing under the torn edge of the scale. Each stamen is surrounded
by a mass of soft grey woolly down, which makes all the catkin look
fluffy and silky.
The seed catkin (4) of the Aspen looks much the same as the stamen
catkin; it is a long, dangling fat tail, covered with fluffy grey down;
but it has no stamens. This catkin bears the seed-vessels, and each
seed-vessel resembles a small green pea sitting in a tiny green cup.
This pea splits open at the top, and you see four pale pink points
rising from the opening. These points are waiting for the stamen dust
to reach them, and as soon as that happens they shrivel and disappear;
then the seed busies itself in preparing the new plant. Above each
green seed-vessel there stands a scale with the edge cut into large
torn-looking points. These scales nearly cover the seed-vessel, and
they look like brown splashes on the bed of soft fluffy down.
When the seeds are ripe the catkins fall from the tree; the seeds
separate from the tail, and the wind blows them a long distance by the
aid of the fluffy down which surrounds each seed.
[Illustration: PLATE XV
THE WHITE WILLOW
1. White Willow Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Pussy Buds
4. Stamen Catkin
5. Seed Catkin]
The Aspen leaves (2) are very dainty and pretty. Each leaf grows at the
end of a long slender stalk which is flattened like a ribbon, and is
placed edge-ways to the twig. The stalk is not strong enough to hold
the leaf upright, so it droops, unless when the breeze lifts it in the
air, and then you hear a constant rustle-rustle, as if the leaves
were whispering to each other. These Aspen leaves are nearly round,
and they have evenly-cut teeth on the edges. They are rather small and
are dark in colour, and there is no white lining underneath except the
soft down which you often find on very young leaves, and which soon
disappears.
Through the grass beside its root the Aspen sends up a great many young
shoots which are called suckers. The leaves on these young suckers are
heart-shaped, and the edges are quite smooth, without any teeth.
Cattle are very fond of these young leaves, so are deer, and goats, and
even the beaver. In some places people strip the Aspen leaves from the
trees and give them to the cattle, which eat them greedily.
PLATE XV
THE WHITE WILLOW
To distinguish different members of the Willow family is very
difficult. It contains many brothers and sisters who are so much alike
that you would require to study nothing but willows for many a day if
you wished to know each from the other.
In this book are described three different Willows. The first is a
lofty tree with a thick trunk and spreading branches; the second is
usually a bushy mass of slender twigs bending over the river bed; and
the third is a small creeping shrub which twines itself among the roots
of the heather, and carpets the ground with masses of silky down. And I
think if you know well these three kinds of Willow, you should be able
to group the other members of the family around them.
The White Willow (1) is the name given to the largest Willow tree, and
very beautiful it is in early spring when the leaves unfold. It has a
thick trunk covered with rough, rugged bark, and it sends out large
branches, from which grow many smooth, slender twigs. The leaves (2)
appear about the middle of May, long narrow leaves which taper to a
point, and from a distance you would think that the edges were quite
smooth. But when you pick a leaf you find that there are dainty little
teeth cut all round the edge. These narrow leaves are covered on both
sides with a silky grey down; this gives them a pale, silvery-grey
colour, and from a distance you can easily recognise a White Willow
tree by the glistening of this beautiful grey foliage, so different
from the vivid young green of the Larch and the yellow-green of the
Limes and Sycamores.
The White Willow produces two kinds of flowers, and these grow in
catkins on different trees. The stamen catkins are the prettiest, and
they appear about the same time as the young leaves. At first these
stamen catkins are small egg-shaped buds, closely covered with silky
grey down--pussy buds (3) the children call them; but they open very
quickly, and in a few days you will see, dropping from the branches,
small green catkins which curl slightly like caterpillars. Each catkin
is covered with closely-shut scales, and by the time the leaves are out
the scales of these stamen catkins unclose (4). Behind each scale there
rises a pair of stamens on long slender stalks. These stamen stalks
are hairy on the lower half, and so are the catkin scales. The heads
of the stamens are sometimes tinged with red, and between each pair
of stamens there lies a honey bag. Notice how constantly the bees are
heard buzzing among the Willow branches. When the stamen heads are ripe
they burst open, and the fine dust inside is carried by the wind to a
Willow tree, on which the seed catkins grow.
These seed catkins (5) are covered with greenish scales, which are
tightly pressed together at first. But in the warm spring sunshine the
scales unclose, and from the foot of each scale rises a small green
pear-shaped seed-vessel which has two tiny straps standing up at the
top. The wind wafts the stamen dust to the tree, and some of it falls
on these two small straps, which act as messengers and carry the dust
down to the inside of the seed-vessel, where the plant makes ready the
new seed. Unless you have a seed-bearing tree and a stamen-bearing
tree growing within reach of each other, you cannot have any new seeds;
but it is possible to increase the number of Willow trees by cutting
off branches and planting them in a particular way in the ground, when
they will send out roots and grow.
There are two other kinds of White Willow which are found nearly as
frequently as the one I have just described, and neither is difficult
to recognise. The Golden Willow is the name usually given to one,
on account of its twigs, which are a bright shade of yellow-green,
and these golden twigs are very noticeable in winter beside the dark
branches of the Elms and Beeches. In this Willow the stamens and scales
of the dust-producing catkins are the colour of a canary’s feathers,
and in the spring sunshine they glisten like gold. This is the
loveliest of all the Willow trees.
The third White Willow is known as the Crack Willow, because the
branches are very easily broken; a knock will snap them from the tree
trunk. If ever you try to gather a twig from other Willow trees, you
will find how difficult it is to separate it from the branch. The thin
green peel, with the leaves clinging to it, comes away in your hand,
leaving the bare white twig still clinging to the branch, and without
a knife you will scarcely force them apart. But the twigs of the Crack
Willow may be snapped across easily, and the large branches are
readily broken on a windy night.
[Illustration: PLATE XVI
THE GOAT WILLOW
1. Goat Willow or Sallow Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Pussy Buds
4. Stamen Catkins
5. Seed Catkins]
The wood of the White and of the Golden Willow is valuable, and is much
used by builders for floors and rafters. Coopers say it makes excellent
casks, and many of our best cricket bats are made from Willow wood.
When straw is scarce people are said to make hats from Willow sprays.
They gather the small branches and split them into long, thin strips,
and these are woven into fine plaits, which are then joined together.
PLATE XVI
THE GOAT WILLOW OR SALLOW
“In Rome upon Palm Sunday
They bear true palms,
The cardinals bow reverently
And sing old psalms.
Elsewhere these psalms are sung
Beneath the olive branches,
The holly-bush supplies their place
Amid the avalanches.”