always one of the first trees to awaken at the call of spring. On each
flexible twig there appear little brown scaly knobs like small beads,
placed either singly or in pairs with a short space between each bead.
In a few days these scaly beads burst open, and a tuft of vivid green
leaves (2), like the fringes round the mouth of a sea-anemone, peeps
out. These leaves are soft and flat and slender, very different from
the hard needles of the Pine and the harsh swords of the Fir trees, and
they grow in tufts, thirty or forty together, rising from the centre of
the scaly brown bead. Each tuft is of the brightest green. So the Larch
tree is a very vision of spring in the dark Fir plantations, while the
leaf buds of many other trees are only awakening from their winter
sleep.
In the hedgerows the Hawthorns are in full leaf, the stamen flowers
cluster on the boughs of the Elm, and the Hazel and Willow catkins
dangle their tails in the wind; but the forest trees remain sombre and
gloomy, and the young Larch seems gay as the sunlight among them. As
the season advances the Larch tree leaves become darker, and they fall
early in winter. We have only one other cone-bearing tree which is not
evergreen, and that is the Cypress.
After the leafy tufts appear you will notice that some of the scaly
brown beads have not produced any leaves; instead they have become tiny
oval catkins (3), which are made up of a crowd of small yellow grains.
These catkins are the stamen flowers, and in the yellow grains, which
are the heads of the stamens, is prepared the dust powder which the
seed flowers require to assist them in getting ready the new seed.
On the same twig, and not far from the stamen catkins, you see a
beautiful deep rose-red seed catkin (4). This tiny rose-red catkin
is very lovely among the brilliant green tufts of leaves; no other
cone-bearing tree has anything so attractive to show us. At first
the catkin scales are soft and fleshy; they overlap each other very
loosely, and from the base of each scale there rises a bright green
point like a single needle-leaf.
In a few weeks the catkin has become a young cone (5), which looks like
a small rosy egg sitting erect on a bent footstalk, then the rose-pink
colour fades from the cone, and the scales become hard and woody.
Behind each scale lie two tiny white seeds with wings, and there is a
coating of sticky resin over these seeds to keep them dry. The ripe
cones (6) remain on the tree for years, long after the seeds have been
blown away on their transparent wings by the wind.
The crossbill often builds his nest in a Larch tree. He is particularly
fond of Larch tree seeds, and is very clever at picking them out of the
ripe cones.
The trunk of a full-grown Larch is reddish brown in colour, and it is
covered with a rough, scaly bark, which is often hung with hoary tufts
of pale grey lichen.
Larch wood is very valuable, and is used for many purposes. It is very
tough, and does not rot in water. Joiners tell us there are fewer knots
in planks of Larch than in those of either Silver Fir or Spruce. Wood
knots are scars which occur where a dead branch has fallen from the
tree, and builders complain that when the tree is sawn into planks, the
knots shrink and fall out, leaving a round hole. This reduces the value
of the wood; but in the Larch planks the knots are said not to come
away from the surrounding wood.
PLATE XXI
THE SPRUCE FIR
Although the Scotch Pine is sometimes called the Scotch Fir, the latter
name is generally admitted to be a mistake. It was given long ago by
people who had not seen the real Fir trees, and who did not know how
different they are from the Pines. It is several hundred years since
the Spruce Fir was brought to this country, but it is not one of our
native trees, like the Scotch Pine, the Yew, and the Juniper.
The Spruce (1) is one of our tallest trees; it loves to grow on ground
many thousand feet above the level of the sea; and in Switzerland and
Norway there are great forests of these slender, soldier-like trees,
clothing the sides of the giant snow mountains. With us it does not
grow so abundantly, but you will find many Spruce Firs mingling with
the Scotch Pine in the large woods of our Scotch Highlands.
The Spruce Fir has a very straggling root which does not penetrate
far into the ground; it creeps along close under the surface, and
intertwines itself with any other tree roots in the neighbourhood. This
does not give it a very firm hold, and after great gales you sometimes
find a broad path opened in the Fir woods, which has been made by the
Spruce trees falling in the track of the storm.
[Illustration: PLATE XXI
THE SPRUCE FIR
1. Spruce Fir Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Stamen Flowers
4. Seed Flower
5. Cone
6. Seed Scale
7. Growth caused by an Insect]
It is a very straight tree, with a smooth scaly bark of a reddish brown
colour; from each side of the trunk slender branches grow straight
out like the spokes of a wheel; but each branch rises a little way
above the last as the steps rise in a ladder. These branches are very
slender, and at first they sweep downwards in graceful curves; but at
the tips they all turn upward, so that the points look toward the sky.
The branches get smaller and smaller as the tree grows higher, which
gives it the appearance of a pyramid, and at the very top there stands
a single upright branch like a spear. This spear-like tip is one of the
distinctive features of the Spruce Fir.
The leaves (2) are short and flat and hard, and they are rather prickly
to touch. They do not grow in pairs or bundles, as in the Scotch Pine
or the Larch; they are placed singly and very close together all round
the twig. The twigs grow almost opposite each other on the young
sprays, and each spray hangs straight down from the main branch, which
looks as if a parting had been made along its centre and the sprays
combed evenly to either side. From a distance the Spruce tree branches
resemble drooping feathers which curve skyward at the tips.
The Spruce Fir has two kinds of flowers. In May or June, if you look at
the tips of the drooping sprays which grew last year, you will see two
or three little oval catkins of a pretty yellowish pink colour nestling
among the hard, flat leaves. These are the stamen flowers (3), and when
ripe they will burst open and scatter a great deal of yellow pollen
dust.
The seed flowers (4) grow in cones, and are found at the end of this
year’s shoots. It is by these cones you will most readily recognise the
Spruce Fir. You remember that in the Scotch Pine the full-grown cones
were grey and woody, with tightly-pressed lips, and that these lips
were very thick and curled upwards when the cone opened?
In the Fir trees the scales of the ripe cones (5) are like thin glossy
brown paper. Each scale ends in two sharp little teeth, and the scales
are not tightly pressed together, but overlap each other loosely, so
that you could put the blade of a knife under each. The woody cones are
always found in Pine trees, and the papery cones are characteristic of
the Firs.
In the Spruce Fir these cones are about six inches long, with blunt
tips, and when full grown they hang from the sprays. Do not forget
to notice this, as in some Fir trees the full-grown cones are seated
upright on the branches. Under each scale there lie two little seeds
(6), with large pale brown wings; these seeds require over a year to
ripen, then the wind blows them from the loosened cone scales to many a
strange resting-place, where they take root, and a new tree begins to
grow.
Sometimes you may see strange leafy-looking bunches (7) like soft,
badly-made cones on the young sprays. These are caused by an insect
which lays its eggs in the young leaf bud and destroys its graceful
shape.
The Spruce Fir has two enemies that do it great harm. These are the
crossbill and the squirrel. They break off the young shoots close to
the end, and so stop the growth of the branches. You will often find
the ground strewn with these fresh green twigs; but you require to sit
very still for a long time if you wish to see the enemies at work.
The wood of the Spruce Fir is valuable for many purposes. The tall,
smooth tree trunks are used for the masts of ships, for scaffolding
poles, and telegraph posts; and many boat-loads of Fir planks are
brought from Norway and from the shores of the Baltic Sea, to be
manufactured into flooring boards for our houses. In some places the
fibre of the Spruce Fir is reduced to pulp, and from this a common kind
of paper is produced which is used for newspapers or cheap magazines.
From the sap we get resin and turpentine, and the bark is used in the
tanning of leather.
Some people say that the name Fir wood is just a mistake for fire-wood,
because in the old days torches were made of the young fir branches,
whose gummy twigs burnt easily with a clear, strong light.
PLATE XXII
THE SILVER FIR
Many people find it difficult to distinguish between the Spruce Fir and
the Silver Fir, and they are often called by each other’s names; yet
they are unlike in many points, and a little trouble would prevent such
mistakes.
The Silver Fir (1) is not one of our native trees; it was brought from
Central or Southern Europe to this country in 1603, and has taken
kindly to our moist climate. It does not grow on such lofty mountains
as the Spruce, but it will thrive at a level of six thousand feet above
the sea, higher than the highest mountain in Great Britain.
It is a tall, stately tree, but it is bushier and less regular than
the Spruce Fir. The trunk is covered with greyish brown bark, which
is smooth when the tree is young; but as the tree grows old--and the
Silver Fir will live for four hundred years--this bark cracks into
many rugged fissures. You remember that the Spruce tree has a sharp
spear-like point rising from the very top of the trunk. In the Silver
Fir the tree is only pointed when very young, and by the time it is
full grown the top is bushy, with many small unequal branches standing
out from the main stem.
[Illustration: PLATE XXII
THE SILVER FIR
1. Silver Fir Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Stamen Flowers
4. Cone Flower
5. Ripe Cone
6. Seed Scale]
These branches do not grow in whorls or circles, like the spokes of
a wheel; they are often irregular, and there may be gaps in the tree
where a branch has fallen off, and only a scar is left to show where
the branch should have been. The Silver Fir is a firmly-rooted tree; it
sends a long tap-shaped root, ending in two forks, deep into the soil,
so that there is little danger of the wind uprooting it during the
wintry gales.
Now look at the leaves (2) which grow on the Silver Fir. Like those of
the Spruce, and unlike those of the Pine, they grow singly, each little
leaf standing by itself on the rough twig. Although they are placed all
round this twig, these leaves have a tendency to grow to right or left
of the twig, and look as if they had been parted down the centre and
carefully combed to each side.
Each leaf is flat and slender, and on the upper side it is a dark
glossy green; the edges are rolled back on to the under-side of the
leaf, which is much paler in colour. The centre rib of the leaf is much
raised, and looks like a slender cord, and on each side of this cord,
between it and the curled-back leaf edge, there runs a silvery white
line; it is from this silvery line that the tree gets its name.
Notice that the leaf twigs of the Silver Fir do not droop in the
feathery way they do in the Spruce; they are much stiffer, and stand
out all round the branch; also, there is not nearly such a marked
upward curve at the tip of the branch as you find in the Spruce Fir.
The leaves of the Silver Fir remain on the tree eight or nine years,
but each year the tree lengthens its sprays, and the young leaves are
a beautiful pale yellowish green colour, almost as pale as the young
leaves of the primrose.
The stamen flowers (3) grow at the ends of the young sprays. They
consist of a few overlapping scales with a cluster of stamens inside.
The seed flowers or cones (4) grow on the same tree, sometimes on the
same branch, and they become cones in the same way as the seed flowers
of the Pine and the Spruce. But you will at once notice a difference.
The cones of the Silver Fir grow upright; they sit on the branches with
their tops looking up to the sky, whereas the cones of the Spruce and
the Scotch Pine when full grown hang down from the ends of the spray
with their tips pointing to the ground. If there are any cones visible
you will never mistake the Silver Fir for the Spruce.
The ripe cones (5) are made up of many thin, soft scales which overlap
each other closely, and each scale ends in a sharp point which turns
backward; this gives the cone a hairy appearance. At first the cones
are green, like those of the Scotch Pine, but soon they turn purple,
and when quite ripe they are a rich red-brown.
If the tree is old enough--that means if it is forty years of age--you
will find small angular seeds (6), with a long filmy wing attached,
nestling behind each scale. But if the tree is still young, the cones
are seedless. It takes eighteen months for the cone to ripen, and when
the seeds are ready and they and the red-brown scales fall from the
cone, a bare brown stick is left standing upright on the branch.
The wood of the Silver Fir is very valuable, and it is used for many
purposes; doors and window-frames and floors are constantly made of it,
and for ship-building it is in great demand. In Switzerland there are
great forests of Silver Fir, but they grow high on the mountain sides,
where there are no roads and no means of getting the trees brought down
after they are felled.
But at Lucerne, a town on the shores of a large lake, with great
forests on the mountains above, the people invented an excellent way of
overcoming this difficulty.
A narrow avenue was cut in the forest among the trees, and this was
floored with trunks of Fir and Spruce. Snow and water were poured down
this avenue, which the cold air quickly froze, and the avenue became a
gigantic ice-slide eight miles long. The Fir trees were felled, and all
their branches lopped off, the bare trunks were placed on this slide,
and in six minutes they shot into the waters of the lake eight miles
below. There they floated till the wood merchant was ready for them.
The Silver Fir tree is rich in gummy juice, which is made into
turpentine and resin. Have you ever seen necklaces of pale cloudy
beads, and of clear dark brown made of amber? People tell us this amber
is found on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and that it is just the
gummy juice which dropped long ago from some kind of Fir tree and has
hardened in a mysterious way of which we know nothing.
PLATE XXIII
THE HOLLY
“Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen, wrinkled and keen.
No grazing cattle through their prickly round can reach to wound;
But as they grow where nothing is to fear,
Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear.”
--Southey.
The Holly (1) is our most important evergreen, and is so well known
that it scarcely needs any description. It has flourished in this
country as long as the Oak, and is often found growing under tall trees
in the crowded forests, as well as in the open glades, where lawns of
fine grass are to be found.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII
THE HOLLY
1. Holly Tree
2. Blunt Leaf
3. Prickly Leaf
4. Flower Cluster
5. Fruit]
People say that the Holly, or Holm tree, as it is often called, is
the greenwood tree spoken of by Shakespeare, and that under its bushy
shelter Robin Hood and his merry men held their meetings in the
open glades of Sherwood Forest. Sometimes it is called the Holy tree,
because from the oldest time of which we have any record its boughs
have been used to deck our shrines and churches, and in some parts of
England the country people in December speak of gathering Christmas,
which is the name they give to the Holly, or Holy tree. It is this
evergreen which we oftenest use at Christmas-tide to decorate our
churches, and very lovely the dark green sprays, with their coral
berries, look when twined round the grey stone pillars.
The Holly is looked upon as a second-rate forest tree. It is never very
large, and it usually appears as a thick, tall bush, with many branches
reaching almost to the ground. Sometimes you find it with a slender,
bare trunk, clothed with pale grey bark, and if you look closely at
this bark you will see that it is covered with curious black markings,
as if some strange writing had been traced on it with a heavy black pen.
This writing is the work of a tiny plant which makes its home on the
Holly stem and spreads in this strange way.
The bark of the young Holly shoots and boughs is pale green and quite
smooth.
The tree requires little sunshine, and it seems to keep all it gets,
as every leaf is highly polished and reflects the light like a mirror.
These leaves grow closely on every branch; they are placed alternately
on each side of the twigs, and are oval, with the edges so much waved
that the leaves will not lie flat, but curl on each side of the centre
rib.
The prickly leaves (3) which grow low down on the tree have sharp
spines along the waved edges, and a very sharp spine always grows at
the point of the leaf. But the upper branches are clothed with blunt
leaves (2) which have no spines along the edges; instead there is a
pale yellow line round each leaf, and there is a single blunt spine at
the point.
Sheep and deer are very fond of eating the tough, leathery leaves of
the Holly, and it is believed that the tree clothes its lower branches
in prickly leaves to protect itself from these greedy enemies.
Country people tell you that if branches of smooth Holly are the first
to be brought into the house at Christmas-time, then the wife will be
head of the house all the next year, but if the prickly boughs enter
first, then the husband will be ruler.
The Holly leaves hang on the tree several years, and after they fall
they lie a long time on the ground before the damp soaks through
their leathery skin and makes them decay. You will find Holly leaves
from which all the green part of the leaf has disappeared, leaving a
beautiful skeleton leaf of grey fibre, which is still perfect in every
vein and rib.
The flowers (4) of the Holly bloom in May. They appear in small
crowded clusters between the leaf stalk and the twig, and each flower
is a delicate pale pink on the outside, but is pure white within.
There is a calyx cup edged with four green points, and inside this cup
stands a long white tube, with four white petals at the top. There are
four yellow-headed stamens, and a tiny seed-vessel is hidden inside
the flower tube. Sometimes all these parts will be found complete in a
single flower; sometimes there will be flowers on the same branch which
have stamens and no seed-vessel, and others which have seed-vessels and
no stamens. Perhaps you will find a whole tree on which not a single
seed flower grows. This tree may be laden with lovely white flowers
in spring, but it will bear no berries in winter. You must have both
stamen flowers and seed flowers if the tree is to produce any fruit.
As summer passes, the seed-vessels, which have had stamen dust
scattered over them, become small green berries (5), and these berries
turn yellow and then change into a deep red, the colour of coral or
sealing-wax. The berries cluster round the green stalk, and most
beautiful they are among the glossy dark leaves. Inside each berry
there are four little fruit stones containing seeds, and the birds love
to eat these red berries, which are full of mealy pulp; but remember
that children must never eat the Holly berries, as they are poisonous
except for the birds.
You will find that if the Holly tree has a good crop of berries this
winter there will not be many the following year; the tree seems to
require a year’s rest before it can produce a second large crop.
There are some Holly trees with leaves which are shaded with pale
yellow or white--variegated Hollies, we call them. These are
greatly prized for planting in gardens, where the bushes with
different-coloured leaves lend much beauty when all the trees are bare
in winter.
The wood of the Holly is too small to be of much use. It is white and
very hard, and when stained black it is largely used instead of ebony,
which is scarce and expensive. The black handles of many of our silver
teapots are made of stained Holly wood. A sticky lime, which is used
for snaring birds, is made from the young green shoots and twigs, and
the slender branches are good for making walking-sticks and coachmen’s
whips.
PLATE XXIV
THE WILD CHERRY OR GEAN
There are now more than forty varieties of Cherry in Britain, and they
all are descended from the Gean or Wild Cherry tree. This favourite
tree belongs to the great Rose family, and is related to the Apple,
and Pear, and Plum. It grows freely all over Britain except in the very
north of Scotland; and we read that six hundred years ago the county of
Kent was famous for its Cherry orchards.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIV
THE WILD CHERRY
1. Wild Cherry or Gean in Autumn
2. Flower Cluster with Leaves
3. Fruit]
In Germany the Cherry is planted for many miles by the roadsides, so
that all passers-by may eat the fruit and enjoy the shade cast by the
tall trees. And if there should be any particular tree whose fruit the
owner does not wish taken, he ties a wisp of straw round that tree, and
the people understand the sign and do not touch these Cherries.
In France the Wild Cherry fruit, along with a little bread and butter,
is often the only food of the poor charcoal-burners and wood-cutters,
who stay in the forest during the cold winter months.
Song birds, especially the blackbirds, love to eat cherries, and as we
are very grateful to the birds for eating the many grubs and insects
which destroy our fruit and corn, we must not grudge them a feast from
our Cherry trees. It is probably the birds who have carried the seeds
to the many different places where we find Cherry trees springing up.
The Wild Cherry (1) is a tall tree with wide-spreading branches. It has
a smooth grey bark, from which you will often see oozing large drops
of clear gum. This gum is very sticky, it will not melt in cold water,
and it is very difficult to remove from your fingers. The Wild Cherry
leaves (2) appear in spring, long oval leaves ending in a point, and
with sharp teeth along the edge. These leaves are very soft, and they
droop from the twigs. At first the leaf is folded lengthways, with the
two edges meeting, and it is a dull brown colour; but this colour soon
changes in the sunshine to a soft green, and when autumn comes you find
leaves of every shade of pink and red and crimson.
The large white Cherry blossoms (2) come almost at the same time as the
leaves, and they grow in loose clusters, in which the flowers hang from
the end of long, drooping stalks. There are always many small leaf-like
scales where these flower stalks join the twig. Each blossom has a
pear-shaped calyx at the end of the flower stalk, and this calyx is
edged with five green points. These points fold back against the stalk
after the flower is withered.
There are five large snowy petals which make the flower clusters look
very lovely in the spring sunshine, but the petals fall very quickly
and strew the ground with their snowy flakes.
Within the petal circle there are many slender stamens, and you can
see a long red-tipped point rising from the seed-vessel, which lies
concealed in the pear-shaped calyx which stands beneath the petals and
sepals.
The Wild Cherry fruit (3) is black, and sometimes dark red. It is
rather sour, and the cherries we buy in the shops are usually cherries
which have been cultivated in an orchard, and have been grown in a
warmer country.
In Cambridgeshire there is a festival called Cherry Sunday, when every
one goes to the Cherry orchard, and on paying sixpence may eat as many
cherries as he pleases.
For some unknown reason the cuckoo has always been associated with the
Cherry tree. There is an old proverb which says, “The cuckoo never
sings till he has thrice eaten his fill of cherries”; and country
children play a delightful game in which he has a part. They join hands
and dance round a Cherry tree, singing--
“Cuckoo, Cherry tree,
Come down and tell to me,
How many years I have to live.”
Then each child shakes one of the Cherry tree branches, and the number
of cherries that fall tell him how many years he will live. If five
cherries fall he has five years to live, and if twelve cherries fall he
will live twelve years, and so on.
There is a cunning little bird called the woodpecker which very often
visits the Cherry tree. He eats the insects that live on its bark; and
you can hear his bill peck, pecking at the trunk as he picks up his
food.
The wood of the Cherry tree is hard, yet easily worked. It is much
in demand by furniture makers, and is a rich red colour which can be
highly polished.
PLATE XXV
THE WHITEBEAM
In the old Saxon language, which was once the language spoken by most
of the people in England, the word beam means a tree, so we must be
careful not to speak of the Whitebeam tree, as that would be just the
same as to say the White tree tree.