The Cryptogams are plants without true, or without visible flowers; to
these belong the shave grasses, the ferns, the mosses, the algæ, the
lichens, and the fungi.
The HORSE-TAIL (_Equisetum arvense_), frequently grows in damp, sandy
fields. The spring stem of the plant is simple and reddish in color, and
bears fruit called spores in an upright ear.
The WALL RUE (_Asplenium Ruta muraria_), belongs to the family of ferns.
It grows everywhere on walls, and has a short root, three-cornered
leaves, and along both sides of the middle ribs of the leaves the fruit
lies in rows.
The COMMON FERN (_Polypodium vulgare_), grows on walls and rocks. It has
a creeping stem, and beautiful serrated leaves, bearing on their
underside the somewhat large fruit glands which contain the spores.
Other familiar ferns are the WORM FERN (_Aspidium Filix mas_), and the
EAGLE FERN (_Pteris Aquilina_), from three to five feet high.
The COMMON HAIR MOSS (_Polytrichum commune_), grows in all the woods and
in wet fields. The stem is upright; the small leaves are pointed and
serrated at their edges. The spores develop in a quadrangular sheath,
which is surrounded by a cell. The mosses play an important part in the
economy of Nature; they retain in the woods a quantity of the water
which falls as rain, and thus preserve the lands from being flooded,
store up moisture for the plants, and also influence the climatic
conditions of a country. The so-called PEAT-MOSS (_Sphagnum_) enters
largely into the composition of peat.
The REINDEER MOSS (_Cladonia rangiferina_), is a much-branched little
plant of a greyish color. The small fruit corpuscles are at the ends of
the branches. The reindeer moss is common in the pine woods of northern
Europe.
The TOAD’S-STOOL (_Agricus muscarius_), grows in the woods in autumn.
The blood-red cap has numerous white excrescences on its surface. It is
very poisonous and ill-smelling, and has a bitter taste. It is often
used as a poison for flies, but is also dangerous to men and animals.
The MUSHROOM (_Agricus campestris_), is common from May to October in
fields, gardens, and meadows. It has lately also been cultivated in
cellars and greenhouses. It is a favorite article of food, and one of
the most useful of the edible fungi.
[Illustration: =CAMPHOR TREE= (_Cinnamomum camphora_), one of the most
beautiful of all trees, grows in China and Japan, more especially in the
island of Formosa. It has also been planted in Ceylon and Florida. The
wood of the tree is valued by the cabinet maker, but its chief value is
in the solid, essential oil, called _gum camphor_, extracted from it by
a process of distillation. When pure, camphor is a white, soft
semi-transparent body, with a peculiarly strong aromatic odor, and a
bitter, burning taste. It is used extensively in making celluloid and
smokeless powder, in medicine and as a protection against insects.
Nine-tenths of the world’s supply of raw material is exported from
Formosa. Its production is a monopoly of the Japanese government.]
_VII. TREES OF THE FOREST_
The forest trees are divided into two groups: Trees Bearing Foliage,
and Trees with Aciculous Leaves. The former lose their leaves in
autumn; the stiff linear leaves of the latter, on the contrary, live
throughout the winter, with the exception of those of the larch
tree.
=Alder= (_Alnus_), trees native to the North Temperate and Arctic zones
and to the Andes into Chili. The Black Alder grows near the brooks. The
male blossoms stand in long, cylindrical catkins; the female blossoms in
small, roundish catkins. The fruit is found in small cones. The alder
tree blossoms in April and May. It may reach seventy feet in height and
nine in girth, but seldom exceeds forty in height. The bark of the
shoots is used in tanning and dyeing leather red, brown, yellow, or,
with copperas, black. The wood is durable under water, and is said by
Virgil to have been the first wood used by man for boats. It was used
for piles at Ravenna and for the Rialto at Venice, and is still so
employed in Holland. Its chief use is for gunpowder-charcoal. For this
purpose shoots five or six years old, or about four inches across, are
employed.
=Ash= (_Fraxinus_), a valuable timber-tree belonging to the olive tribe.
It has smooth, olive-grey bark, black buds, opposite pinnate leaves of
from seven to fifteen leaflets, flowers without calyx or corolla, and an
oblong-winged fruit. Its wood is more flexible than that of any other
European tree, and is used for walking-sticks, spade-handles, the spokes
and felloes of wheels, etc. There are about twelve species native to
North America. The best known are: COMMON ASH, a large tree one hundred
to one hundred and fifty feet high, growing wild in southern Europe and
northern Asia. WHITE ASH, a large tree forty-five to ninety feet high;
Nova Scotia to Florida, westward to Minnesota and Texas. GREEN ASH,
forty to fifty feet high, Vermont to Florida, intermittently to Utah and
Arizona. RED ASH, a small tree, rarely more than forty feet high,
growing in moist soil from New Brunswick to South Dakota, Florida,
Alabama and Missouri. BLUE ASH, fifty to seventy-five feet high,
Ontario, Minnesota, and Michigan to Alabama, west to Iowa and Arkansas.
BLACK or HOOP ASH, a large tree, seventy to eighty feet high,
Newfoundland to Manitoba, south to Virginia and Arkansas.
=Aspen or Trembling Poplar= (_Populus tremula_), has a greenish-grey
bark. Its leaves have long stalks, and tremble at the slightest current
of air. The AMERICAN ASPEN called QUAKING ASPEN or QUAKING ASP, is one
of the most widely distributed trees of North America, growing from
Alaska and Newfoundland to lower California. A slender tree with light
green bark, maximum height 100 feet. Wood soft, light, and largely used
for manufacture of wood pulp. The EUROPEAN ASPEN is a quick growing
tree, fifty to eighty feet high. The wood is soft and porous, and is
used in turnery and in interior finish for houses.
=Beech= (_Fagus_), a genus containing about sixteen species. The trees
have smooth, silver-grey trunks, egg-shaped leaves like leather, and
blossoms at the base of the leaves. The beechnuts are three-cornered;
they grow in couples in a wooden capsule. The beech trees attain a
height of from sixty to ninety feet, and blossom in April and May. The
AMERICAN BEECH is the only North American species. It is a beautiful
tree seventy to eighty and sometimes one hundred feet high, and is one
of the most widely distributed trees of eastern North America. The wood
is tough, close grained, and is largely used in the manufacture of tool
handles, chairs and for fuel. The COMMON BEECH, forming pure forests in
many parts of Europe, is a large tree one hundred to one hundred and
twenty feet high. The wood is dark colored, solid, and very durable
under water and is much used in cabinet making, for weirs, and for fuel.
The bark is sometimes used in tanning. The nuts are used for the
manufacture of beech oil.
=Birch= (_Betula_), is known by all on account of its chalk-white bark,
and its fine, pendent leaves. The male and female blossoms of this tree
also grow separate on the same plant. Its seeds are small and plumed,
whereby they are particularly adapted for being sown by the aid of the
wind. There are about thirteen species in North America. COMMON BIRCH,
abounding in northern Europe, is a beautiful tree sixty to seventy feet
high. The bark is used in medicine and dyeing, and it yields the birch
tar employed in the preparation of Russia leather. RED or RIVER BIRCH
grows in the United States from Massachusetts to Iowa and Kansas, south
to Florida and Texas. It is a slender tree, seventy to ninety feet high,
which produces a hard, valuable timber. CHERRY BLACK or SWEET BIRCH is a
large tree, sometimes eighty feet high. Wood fine grained and valuable
for making furniture. The bark yields an oil identical with the oil of
wintergreen. It grows from Newfoundland to western Ontario, Florida, and
Tennessee. YELLOW BIRCH, a large tree, maximum height one hundred feet,
is used in shipbuilding. It grows from Newfoundland to Manitoba, south
to Carolina and Tennessee. PAPER or CANOE BIRCH, a large tree, maximum
height eighty feet, is of a beautiful white color, and the bark is
capable of division into thin sheets, used for making canoes, baskets,
and ornaments. Found in Newfoundland to Alaska, northern Pennsylvania,
Michigan, and Washington.
=Buttonwood.= See Plane Tree.
=Cedar= (_Cedrus_), the popular name of a variety of trees, mostly
agreeing in having a reddish-brown aromatic wood. The coniferous genus
includes only four forms, all native to the Old World, the most noted of
which are the Cedars of Lebanon, frequently mentioned in the Bible. It
has its needle-like leaves fascicled, like the larches; but unlike those
trees, evergreen, so that they remain on the tree for several years
after the dwarf-shoot has elongated. Its cones are erect, with broad,
thin-edged scales which ultimately fall away from the axis, as in the
firs. The WHITE CEDAR of the United States is more nearly a cypress, and
the so-called RED CEDAR is a juniper. The wood of the latter is used in
making lead-pencils. The species native to the West Indies, yields the
wood known as Honduras, Jamaica, or Barbadoes cedar, used for cigar
boxes.
=Chestnut= (_Castanea vulgaris_), is a fine tree that may reach a large
size, and has deeply furrowed bark and large, glossy, serrate but simple
leaves in tufts, which turn yellow in autumn. Its flowers are in long
pendulous catkins. The dark brown nuts are surmounted by the remains of
the perianth, being “inferior” fruits. In a wild state two or three
kernels or seeds, separated by a membrane, are contained in each nut;
but the Lyons marron, the most valued cultivated race, contains only
one. The tree is native from Portugal to the Caspian and in Algeria, and
is represented by allied forms in Japan and temperate North America,
flourishing in the Alps and Pyrenees at 2,500 to 2,800 feet above
sea-level. Its timber resembles oak, but is softer and more brittle.
=HOW WE MAY KNOW THE TREES OF THE FOREST=
[Illustration: =THE OAK=
Massive strength is the chief characteristic of the oak, and it was the
broad-based trunk of an oak that suggested the design for the first
great lighthouse. The branches twist about in zig-zag fashion, and the
thick bark is deeply furrowed.]
[Illustration: =THE BIRCH=
We have only to glance at the birch to realize that its name “the lady
of the woods” is well deserved. Its chief characteristic is slender
gracefulness, and we cannot mistake the silvery white bark, quite unlike
any other tree.]
=Cork Oak or Cork Tree= (_Quercus suber_), is a species of oak, native
of southern Europe and northern Africa, the spongy bark of which is the
common cork of commerce. It ranges from twenty to forty feet in height,
attains a diameter of five feet, and sometimes lives three hundred to
five hundred years, producing crops of bark for one hundred and fifty
years.
=Cypress= (_Cupressus_), is an evergreen tree of the pine family, with
small, imbricated leaves and globular cones, comprising about twelve
species, in northern regions of the world. The COMMON CYPRESS of Europe
is famous for its durable wood and is believed to be the cedar or gopher
wood of the Bible. The MONTEREY CYPRESS, a beautiful tree sometimes one
hundred and fifty feet high and eight or ten feet in diameter, grows
near the sea in California and three others occur on the Pacific Coast.
The so-called CYPRESS or WHITE CEDAR of the Eastern States, and the BALD
CYPRESS of southern swamps, valued for timber, are distant varieties of
cypress.
=Dogwood= (_Cornus_), is a shrub or small tree, the wood of which is
exceedingly hard and is used for many purposes. The astringent bark and
sometimes the leaves are used in medicine. There are about eighteen
species in the United States. The FLOWERING DOGWOOD is a small tree,
native of the Eastern States. It has showy white petal-like bracts
surrounding its clusters of small flowers.
=Ebony= (_Efenaceæ_), is chiefly a species of tropical trees. The hard,
dark colored heartwood of these is the source of most of the ebony of
commerce. Those of India, Ceylon, and other tropical countries, furnish
the best quality.
=Elm= (_Ulmus_). There are about six species which are native to the
United States. They attain a height of forty-five to ninety feet, and
blossom before their leaves appear, in March and April. The AMERICAN
WHITE ELM is a large tree ninety to one hundred feet high, growing from
Newfoundland to Florida and Texas. The wood is tough, strong, and
largely used for wheel hubs, in cooperage, and for shipbuilding. It is a
fine street and park tree. The CORK ELM is a tree seventy to ninety feet
high, growing from Quebec and Vermont westward to Nebraska and
Tennessee. The wood is considered the best of American elms, and is much
used for agricultural implements and bridge timbers. The SLIPPERY, or
RED ELM is a tree sixty to seventy feet high, growing from Ontario to
Florida, westward to Nebraska and Texas. The wood is durable in contact
with the soil and is much used for fence posts and railway ties. The
mucilaginous inner bark is used in medicine.
=Eucalyptus=, a genus of _Myrtaceæ_, contains about two hundred lofty
trees occurring chiefly in Australia and the Malayan Archipelago. Many
reach a height of one hundred and fifty feet and a girth of twenty-five
feet, and they frequently become hollow. The species are of great
economic value, yielding oils, kinos, and useful timber, while the
well-known oil of eucalyptus is obtained from the blue-gum tree.
=Fir= (_Abies_), a genus of the Pine family containing about twenty-five
species, natives of the cooler portions of the north temperate zone. The
SILVER FIR, is a common tree in central Europe, and is common to the
mountainous forests of Germany. It reaches ninety to one hundred and
thirty feet in height, and has a smooth, light silver-grey bark, and
needle-shaped leaves, which, although they stand singly and in a spiral
form round the branches, are yet distinctly turned towards two sides,
and are serrated at their points. The large, conical fruits stand like
tapers upright on the branches, and decay upon the tree; whilst their
spindles remain standing. The wood of the white fir tree is much valued.
It is used as timber, and in particular for making masts; it is also
useful for making all kinds of carved work, and for the manufacture of
musical instruments. It is also the source of the Strassburg turpentine.
The BALSAM FIR is a tree fifty to eighty feet high, growing from
Virginia northward. Canada balsam is made from the sap. The WHITE FIR or
GREAT SILVER FIR is a large tree, often three hundred feet high and ten
feet in diameter, growing from British Columbia to lower California. The
wood is soft and extensively used for cooperage and boxes. The RED FIR
is a large tree one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high, found in
the same regions as the white fir. It is often planted in Europe as an
ornamental tree. The MEXICAN FIR is a magnificent silver-leaved tree one
hundred and fifty feet high.
=Gum.= The name given to several trees in America and Australia: (a) The
BLACK-GUM, one of the largest trees of the Southern States, bearing a
small blue fruit, the favorite food of the opossum. Most of the large
trees become hollow. (b) A tree of the genus _Eucalyptus_. See
Eucalyptus. (3) The SWEET GUM tree of the United States, a large and
beautiful tree with pointedly lobed leaves and woody, burlike fruit. It
exudes an aromatic juice. The wood is now extensively used in cabinet
work and interior finish.
=Hemlock Tree= (_Tsuga_), is a genus of the Pine family containing about
four species which are native to North America. The COMMON HEMLOCK is a
large tree sometimes attaining a height of one hundred and ten feet, and
growing from Nova Scotia to Alabama and west to Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The wood is light and soft and is extensively used in building. The bark
is largely used in tanning and hemlock oil is distilled from the
branches and leaves. There are many cultivated varieties which are very
ornamental. The CAROLINA HEMLOCK is a tree attaining a maximum height of
eighty feet, and growing in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.
=Hickory= (_Carya_), is represented by ten species, exclusively of North
America. Their timber is very heavy, strong, and tough, and is much used
in the manufacture of agricultural implements, carriages, and hoops for
casks. The fruit is a hardshelled nut, which in some species has an
excellent flavor. The SHAGBARK or SHELLBARK HICKORY is a large tree,
sometimes one hundred and twenty feet high, growing in rich soils from
Ontario and Minnesota south to Florida, Kansas and Texas. The nuts form
an important article of commerce, though less used than the pecan. The
WHITEHEART HICKORY or MOCKERNUT is a large tree seventy-five to one
hundred feet high, growing from Ontario to Florida, occasionally to
Missouri and Texas. It has a thick-shelled, edible nut. The PIGNUT
HICKORY, a tree seventy-five to one hundred and sometimes one hundred
and twenty feet high, ranges from Ontario to Florida, westward to
Nebraska and Texas. See also PECAN.
=Horse-Chestnut= (_Aesculus_), is rarely found in forests, but
frequently in pleasure-gardens. This beautiful tree, of sixty feet and
over, has large leaves, and splendid yellow-and-red colored blossoms
forming large pods. The brown chestnuts are enveloped by a prickly
cover, which bursts open in the autumn. The OHIO or FETID BUCKEYE,
reaching a height of about fifty feet, grows from Pennsylvania to
Alabama, west to Michigan and Oklahoma. The wood is used for making
artificial limbs and wooden ware. The SWEET or BIG BUCKEYE is a large
tree eighty to ninety feet high, growing from Pennsylvania to Georgia,
west to Iowa and Texas, and often planted as an ornamental tree. The
CALIFORNIA BUCKEYE is a small tree thirty to forty feet high, native of
California, and sparingly planted for ornament.
=Judas Tree= (_Cercis siliquastrum_), is a beautiful leguminous tree,
growing wild from Japan to the shores of the Mediterranean, with smooth
kidney-shaped leaves, glaucous above, and pink or red flowers, which
spring from both old and young wood before the appearance of the leaves.
From its appearance at this season the tree shares with the elder the
sinister reputation of having formed the gallows of Judas Iscariot.
=BARK, CELLS, HEART AND RINGS OF THE TREE=
[Illustration: Scaly Bark of Willow]
[Illustration: Membranous Bark of Birch]
[Illustration: Fibrous Bark of Honeysuckle]
[Illustration: Fissured Bark of Oak]
[Illustration: The Structure of a Young Twig of Oak, showing the layer
of cells (A) which increases the girth of the twig as it grows into a
branch]
[Illustration: Section of the Trunk of a Laburnum, showing Heart and
Sap-wood]
[Illustration: Section of the Trunk of an Oak, showing the Annual
Rings]
=Juniper Tree= (_Juniperus communis_), is rarely seen as a tree, but
appears usually as a low shrub. Its awl-shaped, pointed leaves stand
always by threes of the same height on the young shoots. The male
blossom catkins are short-stalked, and stand singly in the axils of the
bracts; the fruit is a black berry. These berries are employed for
medicinal purposes. The so-called WHITE CEDAR of the Eastern States and
the BERMUDA CEDAR, much prized for timber, are junipers.
=Larch= (_Larix Europæa_), has leaves which grow in clusters, and drop
during the Autumn. Its bark is rough and cracked; its red-blossom
catkins stand at the side of the yellow catkins. Its egg-shaped little
cones have backward bent stalks. The larch tree attains a height of from
forty-five to sixty feet, and is found in forests everywhere. The
AMERICAN LARCH or TAMARACK is a slender tree fifty to sixty feet high,
growing from Virginia to Hudson Bay. It is often planted as an
ornamental tree and the wood is highly valued for shipbuilding and for
telegraph poles.
=Linden or Lime= (_Tilia_), is the emblem of intense feeling. It has
been from time immemorial the favorite of the Germans. Below the large
linden trees the judicial proceedings, the fairs, and national games
formerly took place in Germany, and to this day men and women like to
sit under the village linden tree, and talk of the good old times. They
do not blossom before June and July. The blossom is five-leaved, and
contains many stamens and one pistil. The fruit is a little nut. The
AMERICAN LINDEN or BASSWOOD is a large tree seventy to one hundred and
twenty-five feet high, growing from New Brunswick to Georgia, west to
Nebraska and Texas. The wood is extensively used for making cheap
furniture and paper pulp. The SOUTHERN BASSWOOD or WHITEWOOD is a small
tree forty to fifty feet high growing from Long Island to Florida, west
to Texas. The WHITE BASSWOOD or BEE TREE is a forest tree forty-five to
seventy feet high, Pennsylvania to Florida, west to Illinois and
Tennessee.
=Locust= is a name applied to various trees of the Pea family. The
AMERICAN LOCUST TREE or the False Acacia is seventy to eighty feet high,
growing from Pennsylvania to Georgia. It is widely naturalized in most
states east to the Rocky Mountains. The wood is compact and hard and is
extensively used for shipbuilding and all purposes where great strength
and toughness are required.
=Mahogany= (_Swietenia Mahagoni_), is a native of Mexico, Central
America, and the West Indies, and yields one of the most generally used
of cabinet woods. The leaves resemble those of the ash; the flowers are
clustered and small, with their parts in whorls of five, and ten united
stamens; and the fruit is a pear-shaped, woody capsule with winged
seeds. The wood is a rich reddish-brown, often richly mottled, uniform
in grain, susceptible of the highest polish, and very durable. In Mexico
the timber is sometimes in thirty-foot lengths and forty-eight inches
square. Mahogany is commonly divided into SPANISH, the darker, heavier
and more figured, from San Domingo and Cuba, and HONDURAS, lighter,
softer, and plainer, from the mainland. It is employed in carving,
turning, veneering and cabinet-making, and for solid furniture, easily
holding first rank among cabinet woods.
=Maple= (_Acer_). This genus of trees contains nearly one hundred
species, natives of north temperate regions, especially North America
and eastern Asia. The SUGAR MAPLE is ninety to one hundred and twenty
feet high, and grows from Newfoundland to Georgia, west to eastern
Nebraska and Kansas. The wood is extensively used in cabinet work and
interior finish. Large quantities of sugar and syrup are made from the
sap. The SILVER or SOFT MAPLE is found from New Brunswick to Florida,
west to Ontario, Nebraska and Oklahoma. It is often planted as a shade
tree. The SCARLET or RED MAPLE grows in swamps and low ground from New
Brunswick to Manitoba, south to Florida and Texas. The close-grained
wood is largely used for furniture, and in turnery. The OREGON MAPLE
grows from Alaska to California. It is often planted as an ornamental
tree.
=Mesquite= (_Prosopis_), is a genus of trees containing about sixteen
species, natives of America, Asia, and Africa, three of which grow in
the United States. It varies from a straggling shrub to a
widely-branched tree fifty feet high and occurs from central Texas to
eastern California, and southward to Chile and Argentina. The very heavy
wood is used for fuel and fence posts, while the pods and leaves are
much eaten by stock. The SCREWPOD MESQUITE is twenty-five to thirty feet
high and valuable in arid regions.
=Oak= (_Quercus_), is most numerous in temperate climates, though some
are tropical; fully fifty species occur in the United States, with many
intermediate forms or hybrids. The Oak is a true giant among forest
trees. Its trunk often attains a circumference of thirty feet. Its bark
is smooth in the young trees and rough in the old oaks. The strong,
widely extended boughs are pronged and knotty; the crown is large, with
a sinuate outline. The blossoms are within long pendent catkins and
appear in the month of May. The bark and the acorns, which are contained
in pretty little cups, are medicinal. Along the stems and the boughs
mosses and lichens grow exuberantly. In the galls of the leaves and
branches different gall insects live. The horn beetles suck the sap of
the oaks, and the acorns form the food of squirrels and other rodents.
The EUROPEAN OAK, the most important Old World timber oak, is sparingly
planted in the United States. The WHITE OAK, the most valuable American
timber oak, occurs from Texas to Minnesota and eastward. With similar
range, but less valuable for timber, are BUR OAK or MOSSY CUP OAK, the
SCARLET OAK and the RED OAK. The COW OAK or BASKET OAK and the YELLOW or
CHESTNUT OAK produce edible acorns. The bark of the QUERCITRON is used
in tanning, as a yellow dye, and in medicine. The LIVE OAK, once famous
for ship-building, is a sturdy species with entire evergreen leaves
occurring in the Southern States, Cuba and the Pacific States.
=Osage Orange or Bow Wood= (_Maclura pomifera_), is a native of the
southwestern United States. It attains a height of twenty to sixty feet,
and is extensively planted for hedges, while the wood, of orange color
and of great hardness, is valuable for fence posts, mallet heads, and to
some extent in cabinet work.
=Pine= (_Pinus_), comprises a genus of about eighty species, nearly
two-thirds of which occur in the northern part of the western
hemisphere. The WHITE PINE, a tree seventy-five to one hundred feet
high, is one of the most important timber trees of North America. Its
range is from Newfoundland to Minnesota, south to Georgia. The wood is
soft, straight grained, and is much used for building and cabinet work.
The YELLOW PINE or LONG-LEAVED PINE sometimes attains a height of one
hundred feet, and grows in sandy soil from Virginia to Florida and
Texas. The wood is heavier and stronger than that of any other pine, and
is used in all kinds of building. The tree is the chief source of
turpentine, tar, resin, etc. The WESTERN YELLOW PINE or BULL PINE is
sometimes one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty feet high and
five to eight feet in diameter. It is found from the Rocky Mountains to
the Pacific coast and is one of the most important lumber trees of the
West. The SUGAR PINE of Oregon and California attains a height of one
hundred and fifty to three hundred feet and a diameter of more than ten
feet. The timber is strong, straight grained, and is much used for a
finishing lumber and cabinet work.
=Palm Family= (_Palmaceae_), is a very distinct natural family of trees
and shrubs, chiefly tropical and subtropical, embracing about one
thousand species which are second in economic importance only to the
cereal grasses. The Palm Trees have generally straight, scaly trunks
without boughs, and many species attain a considerable height. Their
large fan-shaped leaves grow near the top, and form a beautiful crown.
The numerous blossoms stand in long panicles. The palm trees represent
the only riches of many tribes of mankind in the tropics, providing them
with food, drink, dress, and building materials for their dwellings. The
most valued are the cocoanut, date and sago palm trees. The large nuts
of the first named are the well-known cocoanuts.
=Plane Tree= (_Platanus_), a genus of six or seven species, is a native
of the north temperate zone. The SYCAMORE, PLANE TREE, or BUTTONWOOD
reaches a height of one hundred and thirty feet with a trunk diameter of
fourteen feet. It is found from Quebec to Georgia, west to Manitoba and
Kansas. The wood is a favorite material for tobacco boxes and butcher
blocks and is largely used for furniture. Other species in the United
States are the CALIFORNIA SYCAMORE and the ARIZONA SYCAMORE, both large
trees.
=Poplar= (_Populus_), a hardy genus of about twenty trees, native to
temperate and cold regions. Half of the species occur in the United
States, all of soft wood and rapid growth. The COTTON-WOOD, common along
streams from the Rocky Mountains eastward, sometimes attaining one
hundred and fifty feet in height and a diameter of seven feet, is much
planted for ornament. The BALSAM POPLAR, sometimes one hundred feet
high, occurs northward and in Siberia. The EUROPEAN WHITE POPLAR and
BLACK POPLAR, much-planted ornamentals, have become naturalized in the
Eastern States. The LOMBARDY POPLAR, with very upright boughs,
frequently grows along the roadside in Asia, Europe and America.
=Redwood.= See Sequoia.
=Sandalwood= (_Santalum album_), is a small tree, native of India and
the Indian Archipelago. It produces a compact, fine-grained wood which
is used for making small ornamental articles and possesses a remarkable
fragrance which persists long after it has become thoroughly seasoned.
=Sassafras= is a genus containing but two known species, one in North
America and the other in China. The SASSAFRAS or AGUE TREE, is eighty to
ninety feet high, is found from Canada to Florida, west to Kansas and
Texas. Oil of sassafras, used for flavoring confectionery, is distilled
from the roots, and the bark is frequently employed as a household
medicine and beverage.
=Sequoia=, a genus of trees named after a remarkable Cherokee Indian
(otherwise George Guess), who gave his tribe a written alphabet of
eighty-six characters, and died in New Mexico in 1845. There are only
two living species, both natives of Western North America, the Big or
Mammoth Tree and the California Redwood. The Big Tree is a native of the
Sierra Nevada, and reaches over one thousand years of age, four hundred
and fifty feet in height, and one hundred and twelve feet in
circumference. The Redwood has a wider range in latitude as a wild tree,
and reaches three hundred feet in height. It has a shaggy, reddish bark
and very dark foliage. Its wood is of good texture, but monotonous in
grain. It is used in cabinet work and interiors.
=Spruce= (_Picea_), a genus of about eighteen species, native of the
Northern Hemisphere. The WHITE SPRUCE is a slender tree fifty to one
hundred and fifty feet high, found from New York to British Columbia,
north to Newfoundland, Hudson Bay and Alaska. The wood is light and soft
and is largely used for construction and for paper pulp. The BLACK
SPRUCE is twenty to thirty and very rarely one hundred feet high; grows
from Newfoundland and Hudson Bay and Alberta south to North Carolina,
Michigan and Minnesota. It is largely used for wood pulp and paper. The
RED SPRUCE, seventy to eighty feet high, grows from Nova Scotia to
Virginia, and is largely manufactured into lumber. The TIDELAND or SITKA
SPRUCE is a large tree usually one hundred feet, sometimes two hundred
feet high, occurring abundantly from northern California to Alaska. Its
valuable timber is used for all kinds of building purposes. The NORWAY
SPRUCE is largely planted in the Eastern States as an ornamental tree.
=Sycamore.= Only certain trees of the genus _Ficus_, mostly natives of
Asia and Africa, are properly called sycamores. The EGYPTIAN SYCAMORE,
supposed to be the sycamore of the Bible, is a large spreading tree
often planted for shade in Egypt and western Asia. In northern Europe
this name is also given to the species of maple, and in the United
States to the AMERICAN PLANE TREE. See PLANE TREE.
=Upas= (_Antiaris toxicaria_). A tree found in the Philippine Islands
and tropical Asia. The fiber of the bark is sometimes made into cloth
and the juice of the roots is used by the Malays for poisoning their
arrows. This tree figures in both religion and mythology.
=Walnut= (_Juglans_), a genus of about ten species, mostly natives of
North America and Asia. The BLACK WALNUT is sometimes one hundred to one
hundred and twenty-five feet high, growing from Ontario to Florida, west
to Nebraska and Texas. The dark brown wood is largely used for cabinet
making and gunstocks. The WHITE WALNUT or BUTTERNUT resembles the black
walnut, but is seldom over one hundred feet high. The wood is used in
the interior finish of houses and for furniture. The CALIFORNIA WALNUT,
a tree sometimes sixty-five feet high, is often cultivated in California
for shade and as a stock on which to graft the English Walnut. The
ENGLISH WALNUT is sixty to ninety feet high, native of Persia, and has
long been cultivated for its edible nuts.
=Willow= (_Salix_), a genus of over one hundred and fifty species,
mostly of cool, northern regions, fully one-half occurring within the
United States. The leaves are egg-shaped and wrinkled; the blossoms
yellow and greenish. They possess great quantities of honey, and
attract, therefore, all kinds of insects, especially bees. The WEEPING
WILLOW is much planted for ornament. The EUROPEAN OSIER is cultivated
for its twigs. Of the native species, the shrubby SHINING WILLOW, the
BLACK WILLOW, is sometimes forty feet high, and the HEART-LEAVED WILLOW
are among the best known.
=Yew= (_Taxus_), a genus of some six trees and shrubs, are widely
distributed in the northern hemisphere, three species occurring in the
United States. The AMERICAN YEW is a low, straggling shrub seldom over
five feet high growing in woods from Newfoundland to Manitoba and south
to Virginia and Iowa. The FLORIDA YEW is a bushy tree rarely twenty-five
feet high. The CALIFORNIA YEW is a tree forty to fifty feet high
occurring from British Columbia to California, sometimes cultivated in
gardens in Europe. The hard wood is used for fence posts. The EUROPEAN
YEW is a native of Europe and Siberia reaching a height of forty feet.
_VIII. FIBER AND COMMERCIAL PLANTS_
The cultivation of the fiber-yielding plants and the manufacture of
their products into textiles, ropes, cordage, and matting are among
the most important industries of the world, and afford employment
directly and indirectly to many millions of people. The industries,
moreover, are of great antiquity, for we have definite evidence from
the Lake Dwellings of Switzerland that flax was cultivated and used
as a textile during the Stone Age, and the occurrence of linen cloth
in the tombs of Egypt and constant references to the same material
in the earliest books of the Bible are well known to everyone. How
and when mankind first became aware of the possibilities of
vegetable fibers as materials for clothing it is not easy to say,
but it is not improbable that he first employed the fibers to supply
his need for string cordage, especially in his hunting expeditions,
and that gradually the idea of weaving the strings to form a fabric
occurred to him. The apparatus employed must have been of extreme
simplicity and the finished product crude according to modern ideas;
but that thousands of years ago textiles of superlative quality,
rivaling anything that can be produced to-day, were manufactured by
Eastern races is a matter of history and observation.
=Annotto, Anatto or Arnotto.= The red substance imported under this name
consists of the aggregated seed pellicles of _Bixa Orellana_. The
coloring matter is best extracted by alcohol, as it is not very soluble
in water. It is the source of coloring for dairy products, being the
standard butter and cheese color in the United States, England and
Holland. Has also a limited use as a dye in calico printing. It was
anciently used by natives of Brazil, Central America, and West Indies to
stain their bodies red, and by Mexicans in painting. Cultivation
prehistoric in tropical America. Now naturalized in India.
=Bamboo= (_Bambusa_) grows in the tropics of Asia, Africa and America.
The plants are in reality merely gigantic grasses. The stems are hollow
and contain only a light pith, but they are jointed and at the nodes
strong partitions stretch across the inside. They grow in clumps, and
may reach a height of one hundred and twenty feet and a thickness of ten
inches. Some species flower only once, some every year, and others at
longer intervals.
The Bamboo is noted for its great economic importance, and serves a
variety of useful purposes. The young shoots of some species are cut
when tender and eaten like asparagus; the seeds also are sometimes used
as food, and for making beer; some species exude a saccharine juice at
the nodes which is of domestic value.
The hard stems are converted into bows, arrows, quivers, lance-shafts,
masts of vessels, bed-posts, walking-sticks, poles of palanquins, rustic
bridges, bee-hives, water-pipes, gutters, furniture, ladders, domestic
utensils and agricultural implements. Split up finely they afford a most
durable material for weaving into mats, baskets, window-blinds, ropes
and even sails of boats. Perhaps the greatest use to which they are put
is in building, for in India, China, Japan, Assam, Malay, and other
countries of the East, houses are frequently constructed solely of this
material.
=Betel-nut= (_Areca Catechu_), a palm cultivated in tropical Asia. The
seed or nut resembles a nutmeg in size and in color. Pieces of this nut
are rolled up with a little lime in leaves of _Piper Betel_, the
Betel-pepper, and chewed by the natives. The pellet is hot, acrid,
aromatic and astringent, tinges the saliva red, and stains the teeth.
Its charcoal is used as toothpowder.
Cultivated extensively in the East Indies, where the consumption of
leaves by chewing with the areca nut is enormous. Narcotic stimulant.
=Cinchona,= a genus of evergreen trees, includes thirty-six species,
about a dozen of which are utilized. They are natives of the Andes,
growing mostly between five thousand and eight thousand feet above the
sea-level. It is the source of quinine, the most important drug in
tropical medicine, and widely used throughout the world. Its cultivation
is becoming quite extensive.
The bark introduced into Europe in 1639 by the Countess of Cinchon,
whence the name. Now extensively cultivated in India, Japan, Ceylon and
Jamaica.
=Cotton= (_Gossypium herbaceum_) is one of the most important cultivated
shrubs. It is an annual and grows from two to four feet in height, with
stalks branching extensively. At the bottom of the stalk the limbs are
longest, and at the top they are light and short.
The flowers are white, or pale yellow, or cream-colored the first day.
They darken and redden on the second day, and fall to the ground on the
third or fourth day, leaving a tiny boll developed in the calyx. This
boll develops and enlarges until maturity, when it is somewhat like a
hen’s egg, both in size and shape. This boll is the house of the seed
and lint--the products of commerce. In it are from three to five
apartments or cells (often more than five in improved types), which hold
the lint from its earliest formation until it is picked in the fall. The
bolls of the cotton plant mature all the way from the last of August
until frost attacks them. When matured, the fibrous wool, known as seed
cotton, is gathered, ginned, and baled. When separated from the seed the
lint becomes the cotton of commerce.
The chief commercial types of cotton are American upland, sea island,
Egyptian, India, Brazilian and Peruvian. These differ in the length of
the individual fibers (staple). The quality is indicated by the grading
under such names as fine, good, good fair, fully fair, middling fair,
good middling, middling, etc. Sea island cotton has the longest staple
and is used for the finest qualities of yarn and fabrics. Egyptian
cotton also has a long staple. Large amounts are imported into the
United States.
Cotton is next to corn the most valuable farm crop of the United States.
Nearly three-fourths of all the cotton produced annually in the world is
grown in the south Atlantic and gulf states. The remainder comes mostly
from India, Egypt, China, Brazil, and Asiatic Russia. A comparatively
small percentage of the crop is sea island cotton from the coast of
Georgia and from islands in the West Indies. The area of cotton
production is spreading in the United States as well as in foreign
countries.
Cotton fiber is spun into yarn and made into thread, muslin, calico and
hundreds of other cotton or part cotton fabrics. Mercerized yarn is
prepared by treatment with strong caustic alkali. Cotton linters are
used in cheap yarns, cotton batting, mattresses, and the manufacture of
celluloid and artificial silk.
Cotton seeds are subjected to heavy pressure in machines in order to
extract the oil. The oil-cake is a valuable cattle food and the hulls
are used for fuel or for paper making.
Cottonseed oil is used for table purposes, for packing sardines, for
cooking, making soap, candles, etc.
The greatest centers of cotton manufacture are in England, New England,
the Carolinas and Georgia. Germany, Russia, India and Japan are among
the important manufacturing nations.
Modern cotton mills are of immense size. The bales are opened, the
cotton cleaned, carded, and twisted into slivers, rovings, and finally
into yarn. Raw cotton, cotton yarn and cotton fabrics are all important
in trade. About half the crop of the United States is exported in bales
to be manufactured in the mills of other countries.
England has an enormous foreign trade in cotton fabrics. The United
States exports chiefly unbleached muslin, more of which goes to China
than to any other country.
It is certain that cotton was in use in India three thousand years ago,
and in Egypt more than two thousand years ago. It was well known to the
ancient civilizations of Mexico, Peru, Central America and the West
Indies. When the European voyagers, Columbus, Pizarro, and Cortez,
visited for the first time these ancient civilizations, the manufacture
of cotton was in a flourishing condition, and the quality and beauty of
the cotton goods of a high order.
=Flax= (_Linum usitatissimum_) has been cultivated for centuries. Along
the upright stalk, of eighteen to twenty inches high, small narrow
leaves grow; the blossoms appear in July and August, and are light blue.
Flax is grown for fiber in Russia, Belgium, Italy, France, Holland,
Ireland and Egypt. Little flax fiber is produced in the United States.
Plants for fiber production are straight stemmed, while the varieties
grown for seed have many branches. Flax seeds are produced in Russia,
India, Argentina and the United States. Plants harvested for fiber are
pulled up by the root in order to obtain the greatest possible length.
The fiber is separated from the stalk of the plant by retting, a process
of partial decay, breaking and scutching to remove the woody parts and
hackling or combing. In the best grades of flax most of this work is
done by hand.
Flax or linen fiber and linseed oil are the chief products of the plant.
Tow is a by-product in making linen and flax yarns and fabrics.
Linseed oil is used in paints, varnishes, printer’s ink, oilcloth and
linoleum. Linseed oil-cake is a valuable cattle food. Flax seeds find
limited use in medicine.
Flax yarns are used in making rope, twine, bagging and coarse,
unbleached fabrics. Linen yarns are made into products of the better
grade, including fine linens, cambrics, laces, etc.
Linen is bleached by exposure to the sun and by treatment with a dilute
solution of chloride of lime. Linen rags are the stock for the best
qualities of paper.
The United States imports flax fiber mainly from Europe, as well as
large quantities of linens, laces, etc. Some flax seeds are imported and
large amounts of linseed oil-cake are sent to Europe.
=Guava= (_Psidium Guayava_), small trees of tropical America belonging
to the Myrtle family. The fruits vary very much in size, shape and
color, the most valued being the _white guava_, with pear-shaped,
yellow or whitish fruits the size of a hen’s egg. The inferior _red
guava_ which is more apple-shaped, is also used in preparing guava-jelly
and guava-cheese, which preserves, owing to the perishable character of
the fruit, are the only forms in which the fruit is imported. The tree
has been naturalized in the East, and is commonly grown from Mexico to
Peru at date of Spanish discovery. Since widely diffused in East and
West India Islands, India, and China. Recently established in Florida
and California.
=Hemp= (_Cannabis sativa_) is cultivated in many countries. It is about
three feet in height, has finger-like leaves and the fruit has the form
of a little nut. The home of the hemp is the East Indies. The stalks are
dried in the sun, then steeped in water or upon wet (moist) meadows, and
again exposed to the sun, when the woody parts are stripped off. The
remaining fibers are manufactured into cables, ropes, sail-cloth, linen
and paper.
Other hemps of different botanical origin and having quite different
qualities are called by such names as manila hemp, sisal hemp, tampico
hemp, Mauritius hemp, sunn hemp, bowstring hemp, etc. Strictly speaking,
none of these is true hemp.
It is cultivated in Russia, the warm countries of Asia, the shores of
the Mediterranean, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois and California. Russia
produces more hemp fiber than all the rest of the world. Russia and
Italy are the largest exporters.
As with other cordage fibers of this character, the long, combed fibers
are called line and the short strands, tow. The commercial fiber is
longer, coarser and less strong than flax. It can not be bleached
perfectly white, although used in so-called coarse linens. Russian,
Italian and Kentucky, as applied to hemp, denote the country of origin.
Italian hemp is the finest, Kentucky the strongest.
Hemp oil is pressed from the seeds. It is used in paints, varnishes and
soap. The oil-cake is a cattle food.
=Hop= (_Humulus lupulus_), sometimes grows wild in hedges and bushes,
and is also frequently cultivated. Its stalk, which leans to the right,
is eighteen to twenty-four feet high; its petiolate leaves are
heart-shaped, with three to five lobes. The blossoms of its stamens form
panicles; the female cones stand either singly in the axils of the
leaves or in clusters. In these cones a yellow, bitter resin, the
hop-powder or lupulin, is secreted, which yields the wort for beer, and
is also used by chemists. Hops are cultivated in almost all parts of
Europe, especially in England, Germany and Austria. In the United
States, California, Oregon, Washington, New York and Wisconsin produce
the largest crops.
Hops are added to the malt, liquor, or wort before fermentation and give
a bitter flavor to malt liquors. Hops are not exported on a large enough
scale to be an important item in commerce.
=Jute= is an East Indian plant whose fibers are strong, coarse, dark in
color and sometimes twelve feet long. The fibers are largely employed in
the manufacture of coarse bagging and sacking called gunny cloth. Gunny
bags, in which pepper, ginger, sugar, cotton, rice, gums, etc., are
shipped are made of it. Jute is also largely mixed with silk, as it has
a gloss that can scarcely be distinguished from silk when woven with it.
Attempts have been made to manufacture paper out of jute, but it is
difficult to bleach it white, and only a coarse kind of brown paper is
obtained.
=Licorice= (_Glycyrrhiza_) is a plant having long, pliant, sweet roots,
and generally creeping rootstocks; pinnate leaves of many leaflets, and
terminating in an odd one; and whitish, violet-colored flowers in
spikes, racemes, or heads. The roots of licorice depend for the valuable
properties on a substance called _Glycyrrhizine_, allied to sugar,
yellow, transparent, uncrystallizable, soluble in both water and
alcohol, and forming compounds both with acids and with bases. They are
a well-known article of materia medica, and were used by the ancients as
in modern times, being emollient, demulcent, very useful in catarrh and
irritations of the mucous membrane. It is a native of the south of
Europe and of many parts of Asia, as far as China. It is cultivated in
many countries of Europe. The only American species grows in the plains
of the Missouri.
=Ramie= is the bast fiber from a plant (_Boehmeria nivea_), commonly
called China grass, or rhea, although fibers from other plants sometimes
receive these names. It is usually strong and silky in appearance but
difficult to clean and bleach.
It is used largely in China for weaving grass cloth, or Canton linen.
The fiber is very difficult to “de-gum.” Many experiments have been made
to find a satisfactory process. It is now used in making fabrics which
resemble linen, laces, underwear, plushes, etc.
=Raphia,= a strong and useful fiber is obtained from the leaves of
_Raphia Ruffia_, a palm cultivated in Madagascar, Mauritius, and
neighboring islands, and of the Jupati palm, of Brazil. Madagascar
raphia is the only important grade. A similar soft fiber used locally is
produced in West Africa.
It is exported in considerable amounts from Madagascar and used by
gardeners for tying plants; and also for making mats and basketry and in
kindergartens.
=Rattan= is the stem of a species of climbing palm, natives of Asia,
though some occur in Australia and in Africa. They have slender,
reed-like but solid stems, seldom more than one or two inches in
diameter, which grow to great lengths, clambering up among the branches
of trees by means of the hooked prickles on the stalks of their leaves.
The Indian and Malayan species are the source of the largely-imported
rattan canes, used for the seats of chairs, and, in their native
countries, for cables and a variety of other purposes.
=Sisal= (henequen or sisal hemp) is a hard, strong fiber from the leaves
of a century plant (_Agave rigida_). It is cultivated in Yucatan and
the Bahamas. Plantations of henequen, or maguey, have been established
in Cuba, Hawaii, India, German and British East Africa and the
Philippines. The home of the agave plants is Mexico and Central America
and this part of the world produces most of these fibers.
On modern plantations machines have superseded the primitive hand
methods of cleaning the fiber. Sisal is the chief product of Yucatan and
its greatest export. The bulk of the production is used in the United
States in making rope, twine and sacking. All of the other agave fibers
are of less commercial importance than sisal or henequen.
The fiber of this species is especially valuable for ship cables, as it
has been found to resist the action of sea-water better than most other
materials.
=Tobacco Plant= (_Nicotiana tabacum_) is three to four feet in height;
its leaves longish and lancet-shaped; its corolla pink; its fruit is a
capsule, with many seeds. It is indigenous to America. Its leaves are
either used for chewing, for smoking, or for snuff. It belongs to the
poisonous plants, and contains no nutritious substance; its flavor and
odor are disagreeable; nevertheless it furnishes much enjoyment to a
large portion of mankind.
More tobacco is raised in the United States than in any other country
and Kentucky raises more than any other state. India is the second
largest producer. In Europe it is cultivated in Austria-Hungary, Russia,
Germany, Netherlands, France, Belgium and Turkey. Cuba, Porto Rico,
Mexico, Central and South America, China, Java, Sumatra, Philippines,
Ceylon, Syria and Cape Colony are important producers.
Commercial grades are named from the locality of production as Havana,
Sumatra, Mexican, Turkish, Virginia, etc. Certain grades are appropriate
for use as cigar wrappers and others for fillers and are so named in the
trade.
The United States exports over half of the tobacco raised, chiefly to
England in the form of leaf tobacco. Few cigars are exported, but
cigarettes and plug tobacco go to the East Indies, China and Australia.
_IX. POISONOUS PLANTS_
A number of plants contain so powerful a poison that we should take
especial care to avoid them. As the danger may be better avoided by
a general knowledge of these plants, a detailed description of them
is highly desirable. Many of them are also important medicinal
plants; and we should therefore by no means regret the existence of
these poisonous growths; for, if we apply them to their proper uses,
they serve to supply us with valuable medical aids.
=Darnell= (_Lolium temulentum_) is from eighteen to thirty-six inches
high, and often found in cornfields. Its seeds contain a poison, which
is narcotic and stupefying.
=Deadly Nightshade= (_Atropa Belladonna_) is common in the woods. The
sappy stem is from three to six feet high; the egg-shaped leaves are
covered with down; the brownish-red blossoms are arranged solitary in
the axils of the leaves. The bright black berry is as large as a cherry.
The nightshade is our most dangerous poisonous plant, and there is
little hope for children who have eaten of its berries. From the fresh
leaves atropine is prepared, which is a very powerful remedy in certain
diseases of the eye.
=Black Hellebore= (_Helleborus niger_) blooms in December, January and
February, and is a native of the mountainous woods of South Germany and
Austria. The black root, which is white inside, is poisonous.
=Fool’s Parsley or Dog’s Parsley= (_Aethusa Cynapium_) is a common weed,
growing in gardens, fields, and also on rubbish. It is easily mistaken
for parsley. As it is very poisonous, it is well to remember that it can
be easily recognized by three long pendent floral leaves on solitary
umbels; the leaves are odorless, and only when crushed emit a faint,
garlic-like scent.
=Hellebore= (_H. viridis_ and _H. fœtidus_) is also rightly described as
a poisonous plant. One species is used for killing lice and vermin on
cattle, horses, and other live stock.
=Henbane= (_Hyoscyamus niger_) grows on rubbish and waste ground. The
entire plant is covered with sticky hairs, and has a repulsive odor. The
stem is about thirteen inches high; the longish leaves are widely
serrated; the flowers are pale yellow, streaked with dark-violet veins;
the fruit is a capsule, which opens with a spring lid. The henbane is
also a dangerous, poisonous plant, but its leaves and seeds supply an
important medicine.
=Herb-Paris= (_Paris quadrifolia_) grows in hedges and shady woods. On
its upright stem there are four oval leaves. It has never more than one
blossom, consisting of greenish-yellow petals, eight stamens, and one
pistil. Its fruit is a dark blue, round berry, which ripens in July and
August. The latter when eaten causes diarrhœa, convulsions and other
disturbances.
=Marsh Crow’s-Foot= (_Ranunculus sceleratus_) grows in ditches and
marshes. The upright branching stem is from twelve to eighteen inches
high; the leaves are divided in the shape of a hand, and the blossoms
are small and yellow. The marsh crow’s-foot contains very poisonous
juices, which cause blisters and ulcers to rise on the skin, and when
taken inwardly nearly always cause death. The other species of
crow’s-foot found in meadows, fields, woods, etc., are also more or less
poisonous.
=Meadow Saffron= (_Colchicum autumnale_) is a bulbous plant, which
blooms in dry meadows in September and October. The flesh-colored
blossoms appear in the autumn, and leaves are thrown up in the following
spring; between the leaves are large capsules, each containing numerous
seeds. The seeds and the bulbous root contain poison, and the former are
used in medicine.
=Mezereon= (_Daphne Mezereum_) grows solitary in the woods. It is a
tough plant, from one to three feet high; the lanceolate leaves are
arranged in tufts at the end of the shoots; the rose-colored blossoms
appear before the leaves, and are generally situated in clusters of
three on the branches; the fruit is a red stone-fruit. The whole plant
is poisonous; a medicine is prepared from the bark.
=Purple Foxglove= (_Digitalis purpurea_) is a common wild flower, and
grows to a height of fifty inches. The longish leaves are felt-like, and
the large purple flowers stand in a cluster; the fruit is a capsule. The
purple foxglove is poisonous, and its leaves are used in medicine.
=Spotted Hemlock= (_Conium maculatum_) grows upon rubbish, hedges,
fences, and highways. The stem is three to six feet high, marked with
blue and bluish-red spots; the leaves are tripennate; the white blossoms
also stand in flat umbels. The leaves when bruised emit a very peculiar
mouse-like odor which is very noticeable on hot summer days. The root,
especially, is poisonous, and when eaten causes the most fatal
consequences. Hemlock is a powerful sedative, and is used medicinally.
=Thorn Apple= (_Datura Stamonium_) originally came from the East Indies,
but is now widely spread, growing on rubbish and in gardens. Never more
than a few plants are found. Its forked stem is from eighteen inches to
three feet high; the petiolate leaves are widely serrated; the large
blossoms are a pure white; the fruit resembles the horse chestnut, and
contains numerous black seeds. The thorn apple has a very repulsive
odor, a disagreeable flavor, and is poisonous in all parts. The leaves
and seeds are used in medicines.
=Water Hemlock= (_Cicuta virosa_), is very common in many localities on
the banks of streams, ditches, and in flooded fields; in other
localities it is rare. The thick, fleshy root is hollow, and divided in
the interior into sections; the upright stem is hollow and smooth; the
leaves are tripennate; the small white blossoms are arranged in umbels
of ten or more rays. The poison is chiefly contained in the red root,
which, when eaten by children, who mistake it for an edible root, nearly
always causes death, unless medical aid is immediately at hand. The
other parts of the plant also contain a poison, which is so strong that
its odor alone will produce headache and giddiness.
=Wolf’s-Bane or Monk’s-Hood= (_Aconitum Lycotonum_) is a rare plant from
eighteen inches to three feet high; the leaves are shaped like a hand,
with three, five or seven lobes. The blossom is yellow. The wolf’s-bane
contains a virulent poison, especially in the root and in the seeds.
This description also applies to the _Aconitum Napellus_, which is grown
as an ornamental plant in gardens; its tubers are used medicinally.
_X. SOME WONDERS OF PLANT LIFE_
We usually think of plants as quite harmless things, almost wholly
at the mercy of the animal creation. This, however, is only one side
of the story, for quite a number of plants have a very cunning plan
whereby they entrap flies and other insects. The ingenuity with
which these plants lure their victims on to death is simply amazing.
Everything is done to tempt the creature to visit the death traps of
the plants, and, on the other hand, no means are spared to make an
escape impossible.