most difficult of all. In it there are many different varieties, and
you would require to plant one of each kind in your garden, as a
gentleman in England has done, and study them carefully for many years
to discover the points wherein each Willow differs from the other.
Though the Goat Willow or Sallow (1) sometimes grows into a tall tree,
it is more often seen as a bush--a bush with a short, rough stem, which
does not rise far above the ground, and which sends up many tall,
slender branches, covered with smooth, purplish brown peel or skin.
Early in March, before the snowdrops have withered, you will find the
Goat Willow in every hedge and coppice bursting into scaly brown buds.
It is one of our earliest trees, and after a few days of warm sunshine
the brown scales unclose and the branches are dotted with the softest
and silkiest little pussy buds (3), shaped like tiny eggs and covered
with grey down.
These buds grow alternately on the smooth stem with a small space
between each bud. In a few days the baby buds have changed, and you may
find two Willow bushes growing quite near each other on which the buds
are very different. For those woolly buds are the flower catkins, and
the Goat Willow bears two kinds of flowers, which do not grow on the
same tree.
The bees have found out that the Willow is in flower; you can hear a
swarm of them buzzing in the leafless branches, and you wonder where
there is any honey to be found. On one tree the soft grey downy buds
have grown larger, and they are now golden yellow catkins (4). The
whole bud is covered with dainty yellow-headed stamens, nestling in
pairs among oval scales edged with silky down, and it is at the base of
these yellow-headed stamens that the bee finds the sweet drops of honey
juice.
For many hundreds of years branches of the Goat Willow or Sallow have
been carried in this country to church on Palm Sunday in remembrance
of the branches of palm which the people strewed in front of Christ
when He entered Jerusalem. Troops of boys and girls go into the country
lanes and coppices to gather Willow-palms, which they sometimes pluck
so roughly and carelessly that the tree remains broken and ruined for
the rest of the year. These silky stamen catkins of the Goat Willow are
one of the most welcome signs of the return of spring.
But there are other Willow flowers to be looked at: flowers which may
not be so attractive, but which bear the seeds and make ready the new
plants. These flowers are silky too, and underneath the soft down is an
egg-shaped catkin (5), covered with small pear-shaped green seeds. Each
seed has a thick yellow point at the top, and at the base there rises
a scale which is pointed like a cat’s ear and is covered with long,
silky hairs. When the stamen flowers are ripe their yellow heads burst,
and the fine dust which fills them falls on the backs of the bees who
are sipping the honey juice. Then they fly away to find another honey
flower, and they often alight on a seed catkin, where the pollen dust
is shaken off among the little yellow points which are waiting for it
to help in the making of the new seeds. Each flower catkin sits upright
on a tuft of small pale green leaves.
The leaves (2) of the Goat Willow are very different from those of the
other Willows; they are broad and oval, with edges which are crinkled
or waved all round and with a network of fine veins covering the leaf.
These leaves, when they first come out, are covered with white down,
but by the time they are full grown they are dark and shiny on the
upper side, and are only downy beneath.
There is another bushy Willow which perhaps you might mistake for the
Goat Willow or Sallow: this is the Purple Osier. It grows in boggy
marshes, by the banks of slow-running streams, and it too has silky
grey catkins. But you will easily recognise the Purple Osier by two
things. It has long, slender stems like whips, rising straight from the
tree trunk. These slender stems are covered with a fine purple skin or
peel, and if you try to pick an Osier stem the peel comes away in your
hand, leaving the white Willow stem still growing. These Osier stems
are valuable for making baskets, and are grown in great quantities for
this purpose.
The second point in which the Purple Osier differs from the Goat
Willow is this: if you gather a yellow catkin and look at the
yellow-headed stamens which cover it, you will see that the slender
stalks of the stamens are joined together, making one stalk with two
yellow heads, whereas in the Goat Willow or Sallow each yellow stamen
head sways at the end of its own stalk.
There is one other Willow tree I should like to tell you about, because
it is so curious. It is a tree which creeps close to the ground, and
which is found growing in great quantities in the Highlands among the
grass and heather. It is called the Dwarf Willow, and it too has silky
catkins which grow on the tough wiry branches.
You might not notice these stamen catkins, but you could not help
noticing the seed catkins. These cover the ground with tufts of white
cotton wool like thistle-down, and when you lift one of these tufts
you find that the pear-shaped green seed-vessels have split down the
centre to allow many tiny seeds to escape, and each seed is winged with
a tuft of silky down. After all the seeds have flown away on the wind,
the withered seed-vessels still remain on the catkin, no longer green,
but a rusty red-brown colour, which is very noticeable among the small
glossy green leaves.
PLATE XVII
THE SCOTCH PINE OR SCOTCH FIR
The Scotch Pine (1), or, as it is often called by mistake, the Scotch
Fir, is one of our noblest trees; it is tall, and rugged, and sturdy,
with a beauty which lies in its strength and dignity rather than in its
grace. In bygone days large tracts of Scotland were clothed with vast
forests of Scotch Pine, under whose gloomy branches many wolves roamed
and the wild deer wandered in herds. But the owners of these noble
forests cut down the trees to get money for the timber, and the wolves
have disappeared. There is now only a scanty remnant of the great army
of Pine trees which once clothed the northern lands of Britain.
Those vast forests were not planted by man. The young trees sprang from
seeds which had fallen from the woody fruit cones, and were carried by
rooks or other birds to places where human beings rarely trod. There
the young seeds grew and sent out their greedy roots. If the soil was
good and plentiful they produced a strong carrot-shaped root, which
bored deep into the ground and gave the tree such a firm hold that no
storm could tear it up. But if the ground had only a little earth on
the surface and there were hard rocks beneath, then the roots crept
like serpents near the surface of the soil, clasping the rocks with a
tight grip to steady the tree.
[Illustration: PLATE XVII
THE SCOTCH PINE
1. Scotch Pine Tree
2. Leaf Needles
3. Stamen Flower
4. Seed Flower (pink cones)
5. Green Cones
6. Grey Cone
7. Seed with Wing]
How the wind roars in the Pine branches on the high mountain lands! It
is like the sound of the sea. If the Pine tree had broad leaves, such
as the Sycamore or the Lime tree, it would soon be blown down; but the
storm gusts pass through its fine needle-leaves, and no harm is done.
The trunk of the Scotch Pine is very rough, and it is covered with
rugged pieces of reddish bark, separated from each other by deep
furrows. It rises to a great height, throwing out many large branches
on each side, and there is always a bushy rounded tree-top looking up
to the sky. In a Pine forest the lower part of the tree is usually
bare. This is because the trees are planted so close together there is
little air except near the top of the tree, and the lower branches are
stifled.
Beneath the branches the ground is always carpeted with fallen Pine
leaves, and very curious these Pine leaves (2) are. They look like
green needles with soft blunt points, and the edges of each needle are
rolled back so that the leaf appears round above and is boat-shaped
below. The under-side of the needle is much lighter in colour than the
dark green surface.
These needle-leaves usually grow in pairs, though you may find a bunch
containing three or even four needles; they are held together by a thin
grey sheath, which looks like paper and clasps the end of the bunch.
These needle-bunches are placed all round the twig, close together,
so as to form a dense brush. They remain on the tree for two or three
years, then they fall; but their work is not done. Very often the Pine
tree seed has been carried to some sandy sea-shore upon which nothing
is willing to grow. There it takes root and flourishes, and in course
of time it throws down handfuls of withered needle-leaves on the loose
sandy ground. These needles decay and form a bed of soil which binds
the sand together, and when the wind and the birds bring other seeds,
they find a place in which they can take root and grow. In France great
tracts of waste land have become valuable in this way through the
planting of Pine trees.
The Pine tree has its flowers in catkins and its fruit in cones. The
catkins are of two kinds, and they grow on the same tree, sometimes on
the same branch. The stamen flowers (3) are found in dense spikes at
the end of last year’s bushy twig. They look like a cluster of bunches
of small yellow grains from which a tuft of fine green spears rises
in the centre. These grains are the stamen heads, and in May and June
they send out clouds of fine yellow powder, which floats in the air and
settles on the leaves and on the grass and on the margins of lakes and
rivers, where you can see little patches of it lying. Country peasants
sometimes tell you that this yellow powder is sulphur which has fallen
from the sky during a thunder-storm!
The seed flowers (4) of the Pine tree are very different. They grow
either singly or in pairs at the end of this year’s new twig, and at
first they are tiny pale pink cones. These cones are egg-shaped, and
are made up of scales tightly pressed together, with little hard dots
showing at the tip of each scale. The seeds are behind the scales,
but you will not see them for a long time, as the cone takes eighteen
months to grow up. At the end of the first summer you find that the
pink cone has become a rich green colour (5) and is still soft, but
when the second summer comes round, the cone is ash-grey in colour (6)
and is hard and woody.
When the seeds are ripe the tightly-pressed scales unclose and curl
up, showing thick wooden lips; at the base of each scale lie two white
seeds, and each seed (7) has a thin filmy wing. When the seeds fall
from the cone they are blown long distances, floating on the air by
their filmy wings.
There is a bird called the crossbill which is very fond of Pine seeds,
and very clever at picking them out of the half-opened cones.
You will occasionally find a tree, very similar to the Scotch Pine, in
which the cones grow in groups of three or four together at the end of
the twigs. This tree is called the Cluster Pine, and you will notice
that its bunches of leaves are different in colour: they are a bluey
green, and the tips of the needles are yellowish, as if they had begun
to wither.
The wood of the Pine tree is very valuable. Thousands of pounds were
paid for the trees in the old Scotch forests, and many stout ships were
built from their sturdy trunks. Besides the good timber, the Pine tree
gives us turpentine and resin from its juice. If you cut a hole in a
Pine tree stem a thick juice will soon be seen oozing from this hole,
and it quickly hardens into a clear gum.
PLATE XVIII
THE YEW
Once upon a time a discontented Yew tree grew in a country graveyard.
Other trees, it thought, had larger and more beautiful leaves which
fluttered in the breeze and became red and brown and yellow in the
sunshine, and the Yew tree pined because the fairies had given it such
an unattractive dress. One morning the sunshine disclosed that all its
green leaves had changed into leaves made of gold, and the heart of
the Yew tree danced with happiness. But some robbers, as they stole
through the forest, were attracted by the glitter, and they stripped
off every golden leaf. Again the tree bemoaned its fate, and next day
the sun shone on leaves of purest crystal. “How beautiful!” thought
the tree; “see how I sparkle!” But a hailstorm burst from the clouds,
and the sparkling leaves lay shivered on the grass. Once more the good
fairies tried to comfort the unhappy tree. Smooth broad leaves covered
its branches, and the Yew tree flaunted these gay banners in the wind.
But, alas, a flock of goats came by and ate of the fresh young leaves
“a million and ten.” “Give me back again my old dress,” sobbed the
Yew, “for I see that it was best.” And ever since its leaves remain
unchanging, and it wears the sombre dress which covered its boughs in
the days when King William landed from Normandy on our shores, and the
swineherd tended his pigs in the great forests which covered so much of
Merry England.
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII
THE YEW
1. Yew Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Stamen Flower
4. Seed Flower
5. Spray with Fruit]
In history books we read how important the Yew tree once was. Long
before the invention of guns and gunpowder, many of our soldiers
carried bows made of Yew tree wood, and from these they shot deadly
arrows with tremendous force. Three of England’s Kings--Harold, William
Rufus, and Richard Cœur de Lion--were slain by such arrows, and it was
from a Yew tree bow that Tell sent the arrow that halved the apple
placed on his son’s head.
The Yew tree (1) grows very, very slowly; it never becomes a tall tree,
not even when it has lived hundreds and hundreds of years, because,
instead of sending up one thick trunk, it has the strange habit of
dividing into a cluster of trunks, three or four or more of equal
thickness, which rise from one root. These trunks are covered with
browny red bark and are very smooth; the red bark peels off in thin
flakes, and you can see that the wood beneath it is a deep orange red.
From the clustered trunks many branches stretch out to form a densely
bushy tree; these branches are closely covered with small twigs, on
which grow short narrow leaves (2), ending in blunt points, and with
the edges slightly curved backwards. These leaves grow alternately
all round the twig, and they are dark and glossy above but much paler
beneath. They do not fall from the tree in winter, as the Yew, like
the Holly, is one of our evergreen trees. Yew tree leaves are very
poisonous, and many tales are told of cattle and horses which have died
from eating them.
Some people believe that the Yew tree is planted in churchyards because
it is poisonous and is associated with death; while others think just
the opposite, and say that it is placed among the tombstones to remind
us that the soul is undying, like the Yew tree leaves.
In February or March if you strike a Yew tree bough with a stick you
will see clouds of fine yellow powder rising from the tree. This powder
is the stamen dust, and if you pull a spray of leaves and examine it
you will discover clusters of small oval yellow flowers (3) nestling
close to the main stem where the leaf joins it. The Yew tree belongs to
the great family of trees whose fruit is a cone and which bear their
flowers in catkins. Take a magnifying-glass, and it will show you that
each catkin is composed of a bunch of stamens rising from a slender
pillar at the foot of which are a few dry, papery scales. Each stamen
has six dust-bags at the end, and when the stamen powder is ripe these
dust-bags open, and the fine yellow powder is blown like meal over the
leaves and seeds.
The Yew tree has seed flowers (4) as well as those which bear the
stamens. Usually they grow on a different tree, but occasionally you
will find them on the same Yew, but on a separate branch. It is a
curious thing about the Yew tree and its relations that these seeds are
not covered in any way, but lie naked to the sun and rain. They always
grow on the under-side of the stem, and at first they look like tiny
acorns. You notice a small disc surrounded by a few scales, and on this
disc sits the little green acorn with its olive green skin. This acorn
is waiting for the stamen dust to reach it. As soon as the wind has
blown the yellow powder over it a beautiful cup of pale pink wax grows
round the green seed. There is no hard, woody cone on the Yew tree;
the fruit (5) is this pale pink waxen berry, shaped like a fairy cup
and filled with sticky juice. The walls of the pink cup are soft and
fleshy, and you can just see the tip of the green seed standing up in
the centre. They are very lovely, these waxy pink berries on the dark
green spray, but they are said to be poisonous.
Sometimes at the end of a Yew spray there grows a curious-looking cone
like a small artichoke, made of soft green leaves. This is caused by a
tiny gnat which lays its eggs in a Yew tree bud, and in some strange
way that we do not understand causes it to develop this tuft of strange
leaves. You will remember that in the Oak a similar growth is found.
The wood of the Yew tree is very hard and durable, as are all woods
which grow slowly. “A Yew tree post will outlast a post of iron” is
a saying often repeated by farmers; but the Yew wood is not much in
demand for manufacturing purposes.
PLATE XIX
THE JUNIPER
In the Bible we read that when Elijah fled from the cruel persecution
of King Ahab and the wicked Queen Jezebel, he sat down under a Juniper
tree to rest. When we look at the Juniper as it grows in this country,
we wonder how the prophet could have found rest beside such a prickly
tree, or shade beneath such a small one. But in other lands the
Juniper grows much taller; and as all books about trees give it a place
beside its relations the Yew and the Scotch Pine, it must be included
among the common trees you should learn to know.
[Illustration: PLATE XIX
THE JUNIPER
1. Juniper Bushes
2. Leaf Spray with Flowers
3. Stamen Flower (much enlarged)
4. Seed Flower (much enlarged)
5. Spray with Fruit]
In Britain the Juniper (1) is found on heathy commons or high on the
upland plains, where it flourishes as a large, thick, bushy shrub, and
occasionally shoots up into a small tree. It is rather a gloomy-looking
tree: in spring time, when most of our trees look fresh and bright in
their young green leaves, the Juniper shows little change. Its leaves
are evergreen, and the new leaves grow in small tufts at the tips of
the branches, so that you scarcely notice them.
The Juniper bark is dark reddish brown, and it flakes off in small
pieces in the same way as the Yew tree bark. The branches are small and
thin, and they clothe the trunk close to the very ground; it would be
difficult to sit comfortably under a Juniper tree in this country. Like
the Yew, it is a very slow-growing tree.
Juniper leaves (2) are not in the least like ordinary leaves: they are
more like thorns than leaves, and they are not easy to gather. But if
you examine a spray carefully you will find that each leaf is like a
narrow flat spear with a sharp point at the end. Each leaf has a slight
groove cut from end to end in the upper side, which is dark green, very
smooth and glossy. Notice how curiously the leaves are grouped on the
spray. They are placed in incomplete circles of three, and there is
always a short space between each of the circles.
Juniper flowers are of two kinds, and they usually grow on separate
trees, though sometimes you may find both kinds on separate branches of
the same tree. The stamen flowers (3) are in full bloom in May, and you
will find them growing in small scaly catkins close to the foot of the
leaf where it joins the stem. The heads of the stamens stand like a row
of small yellow beads along the edge of each scale, and when they are
ripe the beads burst and the leaves around are covered with their fine
yellow powder.
The seed flowers (4) also grow at the foot of the leaves, and at first
you might mistake them for young buds. They have thicker and more
fleshy scales than those of the stamen catkins, and after the yellow
stamen dust is blown by the wind on to their seed-vessels the upper
scales grow into a green berry (5). These green berries remain in the
tree all through the winter, and the following summer they change into
a deep purplish black. Each berry has a soft grey bloom all over it,
like the bloom on a grape.
These berries are very bitter to taste, but are not poisonous; in some
illnesses country people use them successfully as a medicine.
Many are the uses of the Juniper, and in olden days it was highly
valued.
[Illustration: PLATE XX
THE LARCH
1. Larch Tree
2. Leaf Tufts
3. Stamen Catkins
4. Seed Catkins
5. Young Cone
6. Ripe Cone]
In Sweden the berries are eaten to breakfast; sometimes they are
roasted and ground into coffee.
The wood and its berries may be burnt in sick-rooms to purify the air
and refresh the patient. Country people believed that burning sprays
of Juniper kept away witches, and the smoke was supposed to drive away
serpents, as well as to destroy any germs of plague or other infectious
disease.
In Scotland the smoke from a Juniper fire is used for curing hams.
In Lapland the peasants make ropes from the Juniper bark, and they tell
you that if a bit of Juniper wood is lighted and then carefully covered
with ashes it will keep alight for a whole year.
The trunk of the Juniper tree is too small and slight to be very useful
as timber; but good walking-sticks are often made from the branches and
young stems.
PLATE XX
THE LARCH
“When rosy plumelets tuft the larch.”
--Tennyson.
The Larch (1) was brought to Britain in the seventeenth century from
its home on the high mountains of Germany, Austria, and Italy. It has
taken kindly to our cheerless climate, and now covers acres of what was
once barren moorland.
A few years after Larches are planted the long flexible branches of
the young trees meet and form a thicket into which little light or air
can enter, and the weeds and heather growing round the tree roots are
stifled. Each winter the Larch sheds on the bare ground millions of its
tiny needle-leaves, which enrich the soil.
After the young trees have grown to a certain height the forester thins
the plantation; he cuts down a number of the young trees, so that
those which remain may have more room to grow, and he removes all the
withered branches near the ground. This allows the sunshine to reach
the soil, and soon after a crop of soft, fine grass is seen carpeting
the ground. Sheep and cattle can now be pastured where a short time
before there grew nothing but heather and weeds.
Look at a Larch plantation in winter time, and you will think that
all the trees are dead. The Pines and the Firs are resting, and the
Oaks and Beeches seem asleep, but their branches do not have the dead,
withered look of the Larch trees. Come again early in spring, and you
will see a wonderful change. These dead twigs are now a pale glossy
brown, so glossy that they might have been varnished. Try to pull one,
and you will find how tough and sound it is; only where the twig joins
the branch can you separate it from the tree; and what a delightful
smell of turpentine remains on your fingers after gathering the Larch
twigs!
In the trunk of this tree there are stores of turpentine, tiny lakes of
it, which are of considerable value. In Italy, where the Larch trees
grow to great size, small holes are bored through the trunk to the very
heart of the tree, and a thin pipe is put in. Then a can is hung on the
end of the pipe, and the pure turpentine juice drops steadily into the
can. It is then strained, and is sold just as it comes from the tree.