than about thirty feet, its branches spreading out near the ground and
attaining considerable thickness. The leaves are large and rough,
heart-shaped, and very plentiful, so that the tree affords good shade.
The flowers are small and inconspicuous, of a greenish-white colour,
the sexes separate, though sometimes on the same tree. The male or
staminate flowers consist of a four-leaved perianth, enclosing four
stamens, a large number of the blossoms being combined in a catkinlike
spike, depending from the axils of the leaves. The female spike is
shorter, and the individual flower consists of a four-parted perianth,
enclosing the ovary and its two branched stigma. After fertilization
the perianth becomes plump and succulent, and all on the one spike
become so pressed together by their great increase in size that they
form a _multiple_ fruit, having a slight resemblance to the fruit of
the Bramble (the produce of _one_ flower), but really differing from it
greatly. Mulberries are ripe in August or September.
[Illustration: =Ash.=
Fraxinus excelsior.
--OLEACEÆ.--]
The leaves do not unfold from the bud until the cold weather is well
over, usually in May. It is said that its Latin name _Morus_ is derived
from _mora_, delay, in consequence of this caution on the part of the
tree. The leaves generally used in the silk-culture for feeding the
“worms” are those of the White Mulberry (_Morus alba_).
=The Small-leaved Elm= (_Ulmus campestris_).
The Elm is one of our commonest trees, yet a great amount of
uncertainty appears to prevail in the popular mind in identifying
the Common or Small-leaved from our second British species, the
variously-named Scotch Elm, Wych Elm, Witch Hazel, or Mountain Elm
(_Ulmus montana_). There is something more than a suspicion that
_campestris_ is not strictly indigenous, but it settled in the country
so many hundreds of years ago (brought hither, some say, by returning
Crusaders) that it would appear ungenerous at this date to question
its claims to be called British, especially as it is more widely
diffused than _montana_. The Elms are both tall trees, but _campestris_
usually attains a slightly greater height than _montana_, though the
latter has a much stouter trunk. Their flowers appear before the
leaves, and, although they are individually minute and inconspicuous,
they are united in bundles, and the colour of the perianth and stamens
renders them conspicuous. The perianth is bell-shaped, cleft into five
or more lobes, reddish; the purple anthers are equal in number with
the divisions of the perianth, to which their filaments are attached.
The two styles are awl-shaped, their inner surfaces stigmatic. The
flower-cluster is succeeded by a bunch of one-seeded _samaras_, winged
all round. In _montana_ the seed is placed in the centre of the
samaras; in _campestris_ it is distinctly above the centre. The leaves
of _montana_ are as large again as those of _campestris_, broader
at the base, more inclined to be unequally heart-shaped. There are,
however, many varieties of each, which make the identification of the
species often very difficult.
[Illustration: =Black Mulberry.=
Morus nigra.
--ARCTOCARPEÆ.--]
The flowers appear in March and April, those of _campestris_ a little
earlier than the others. The name is the Latin word for the tree but
probably derived from the Hebrew _ul_, to be strong or vigorous.
=The Beech= (_Fagus sylvatica_).
A Beech-tree growing on a chalky hill is one of the most beautiful of
forest trees. It is, moreover, a tree that has left its marks upon our
topography and literature, for many place-names (such as Buckingham,
Buckland, Bookham) record the fact that in early times Beeches grew
plentifully in the neighbourhood, and book is a survival of the period
when the Runic poems were written upon slabs of Buk.
Without being at all glossy, like portions of the Birch and Cherry,
the bark of the Beech is smooth, and remarkably even. If allowed to
grow naturally, without the pollarding which has produced such
picturesque monsters as those at Burnham, the Beech-trunk grows clean
and straight to a great height, sending off slender, more or less
downward-bending, branches with shiny red skins. The twigs bear long,
slender, fine-pointed brown buds that are closely mimicked by the snail
_Clausilia laminata_, that loves to haunt the mossy angles between its
large spreading roots, and to climb at even up its trunk, which from
its smoothness and grey colour is far more suggestive of the gothic
column than is the ruddy pine-stem. In spring these buds expand and
drop off as the rising sap swells the rolled-up leaves within, which
emerge bright silky things, plaited, and edged with the most delicate
fringe of gossamer, that gleams in the April sunshine. Then the Beech
is indeed a thing of beauty, fair and majestic. The Birch has well been
styled by Coleridge “The Lady of the Woods,” but the Beech is surely
entitled to take higher rank as the Queen of the Forest, especially in
the spring, when covered with this bright and tender foliage, amidst
which the flowers are lost.
[Illustration: =Common Elm.=
Ulmus campestris.
--URTICACEÆ.--]
As summer comes the silken fringe of the leaves is cast off as they
become firmer in texture, thicker, and more opaque of tint; yet
smooth, and with a character peculiarly their own. With the advent
of autumn the leaves become crisp, and turn to red-gold, or crimson,
or warm ruddy brown. Then, when the afternoon sunbeams fall upon the
Beech-wood, it seems all on fire, and the autumnal glories of every
other tree are eclipsed.
In April or May the Beech flowers. The blossoms are of two kinds,
male and female, produced on stalks from the axils. The male flowers
are combined in threes or fours within an involucre, forming a silky
tassel as it hangs downwards with its yellow anthers waving. The
individual flower has a bell-shaped, five or six-lobed perianth, with
a varying number of stamens. Nearer the growing end of the twig rise
the female flowers on shorter stalks. They are usually two or four
together, in a silky-haired, four-parted involucre, known as a
_cupule_. Individually these female flowers possess a perianth whose
mouth is minutely toothed, within which is a three-sided, three-celled
ovary surmounted by three slender spreading styles and stigmas. As the
three-cornered fruits grow and ripen the cupule becomes hard and its
outer scales spiny; the four valves part and turn back to disclose and
set free the smooth brown nuts or “mast,” beloved of swine. In France
an oil is expressed from the mast, and the latter is also used as a
food for poultry, like its namesake, the Buckwheat (_see_ page 118). It
is from these edible qualities that the genus gets its name, derived
from the Greek, _phago_--to eat.
[Illustration: =Beech.=
Fagus sylvatica.
--CUPULIFERÆ.--]
There are many varieties of the Common Beech to be met in plantations,
such as the Copper Beech, the Purple Beech, the Variegated Beech, the
Cut-leaved Beech, the Crested Beech, the Weeping Beech, the White
Beech, etc.
=Sweet Chestnut= (_Castanea vulgaris_).
On light sandy soils, where little else but fir and heath will grow,
one may meet with considerable plantations of the Sweet or Spanish
Chestnut. For centuries, and until quite recently, it was considered
to be a native; but it is never found here forming natural forests,
and only in the South in favourable situations does it ripen its
fruit--usually small. Great plausibility was given to the supposition
that _Castanea_ was a native by the oft-repeated statement that its
timber was to be seen in the roof of Westminster Abbey and in other old
buildings. An examination of this timber years ago by Dr. Lindley--the
eminent botanist--proved it to be oak, which it closely resembles.
Again it was claimed as British on account of the great antiquity of
certain living trees, such as “the great Chestnut of Tortworth,” a name
it bore in the reign of Stephen, when it must have been an ancient
tree. It is now generally understood that the Chestnut was brought
hither by the Romans, and that it got a more permanent footing on our
land than its importers. It is grown chiefly for the sake of its young
wood as hop-poles, fence-posts, and hoops. Unlike the oak, its timber
deteriorates with age.
[Illustration: Flowers and Fruit of Beech.
_a._ Male flowers.
_b._ Female flowers in cupule.
_c._ Ovary and stigmas removed from cupule.
_d._ Section of ovary, showing the three cells.
_e._ Ripe cupule open, showing nuts.]
It is distinctly an acquisition to our woods and plantations, its long,
toothed, shining leaves being fine both in shape and colour. Its male
flowers are produced in long, yellow catkins, consisting of a great
number of six-parted perianths; from these depend from ten to fifteen
stamens, which discharge great quantities of pollen. The female flowers
are borne in threes within an involucre (_cupule_), and each has its
perianth adhering to the ovary; there are from five to eight cells in
the ovary, and a similar number of stigmas, but, as a rule, only one
cell matures one of its two ovules.
The name is said to be derived from _Castanum_, the name of a town in
Thessaly whence the Romans first obtained the fruit.
=The Oak= (_Quercus robur_).
First and foremost in any list of British trees should come the Oak, in
utter disregard of all botanical classification, for not only was our
supremacy of the sea and our existence as a nation gained by aid of our
oaken walls, but a grand old Oak is finely typical of British solidity,
strength and endurance. Fifteen years may be regarded as the average
age at which the oak first produces its fruit, the acorn, and it
continues to ripen its annual crop for centuries. Dryden has certainly
not exaggerated in his lines that tell how--
“The monarch oak, the patriarch of trees,
Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees;
Three centuries he grows, and three he stays,
Supreme in state, and in three more decays.”
According to the records and traditions relating to many hollow ruins
of enormous girth still living at their circumference though long
since dead at heart, Dryden’s nine-century tree is only middle-aged.
Well-nigh every district in this country, not too high above sea-level,
can show its monster Oak; but it is where the soil is close and heavy
that it is seen at its best. There is no doubt about the Oak being
a true native. Some of our Oak-forests are older than history: such
was the forest of the Weald--Anderides-leag--in which the aboriginal
Britons so long withstood the attempts of Romans and English to conquer
them, and which at a much later date supplied alike much iron from
its quarries and the oak charcoal wherewith to smelt it; and of which
to-day the pedestrian-tourist from London to the South Coast will cross
many considerable fragments. How widely it was grown is evident from
the vast number of place-names of which it forms part, such as Okham,
Ockshott, Ockley, Acton, Acworth, Acrington, Okehampton, Oxted, etc.
[Illustration: =Sweet Chestnut.=
Castanea vulgaris.
--CUPULIFERÆ.--]
Our British Oak is _Quercus robur_, of which there are several
varieties to which some authorities give specific rank, but their
characters are too inconstant to be so regarded. However, as they are
frequently called by their distinctive names, it were well to mention
them and their chief differences.
White Oak (_Q. robur_, var. _pedunculata_) has the leaves slightly
stalked or stalkless, and the acorns with long, slender stalks.
Red Oak (_Q. robur_, var. _sessiliflora_) has the leaves borne on
long yellow stalks, and the acorns supported on very short stalks,
or quite stalkless (_sessile_).
Durmast (_Q. robur_, var. _intermedia_), with acorns and leaves on
short stalks, and the underside of the leaves downy. Spiders are
said to object to the wood of this tree, and will not spin their
webs where it has been used for building purposes.
The flowers of the Oak are of two distinct sexes. Those bearing stamens
are grouped on a long, slender and pendulous catkin; each consisting
of a four- to seven-lobed calyx, within which are ten stamens. The
females are solitary and erect, consisting of a cupule, within which is
a three- to eight-lobed calyx, a three-celled ovary with three styles.
The cupule becomes the familiar “cup” of the acorn, which again is
the enlarged ovary, two cells of which have aborted. Flowers April
and May.
[Illustration: =White Oak.=
Quercus robur, var. pedunculata.
--CUPULIFERÆ.--]
The Oak forms the world of a great number of insects, many of which are
either parasites (gall-flies which produce Oak-apples, bullet-galls,
spangles, and other forms of gall) or their lodgers. Several fungi,
too, specially select old Oaks upon which to live freely. Chief among
these is the remarkable Beef-steak fungus (_Fistulina hepatica_), of
which in October a hundred-weight might be quickly gathered in an
oakwood.
=Hazel= (_Corylus avellana_).
The Hazel is one of the most look-ahead kind of trees, for almost
before this year’s nuts have all dropped off, or been picked off, she
puts out the tiny, cylindric grey bodies that continue to lengthen all
the winter and by February have become loose and open. Then it can be
seen that these catkins consist of male flowers, for the yellow stamens
are evident, and soon every breeze shakes out a little cloud of yellow
pollen. Looked at analytically, the catkin is seen to be made up of a
large number of scaly bracts, of which one large and two small go to
a flower, and these are so arranged as to form a pent-house roof over
the eight stamens. The female flowers are altogether different. They
each consist of a two-celled ovary, with two slender, crimson styles,
and enclosed in a kind of calyx, three-parted. Two of these flowers are
then associated in a bud-like involucre, situated at the end of a twig.
In spring, before the leaves appear, these open and the crimson stigmas
are put forth to catch a little of the flying pollen. By September one
cell of the ovary has developed into a hard shell containing one large
seed (kernel) and clasped by a large raggedly-cut hood--the developed
involucre.
When the tips of the nutshells become brown-tinged, then appear boys,
squirrels, dormice and nuthatches, and by their combined industry the
tree or bush is soon despoiled of its load.
[Illustration: =Hazel.=
Corylus avellana.
--CUPULIFERÆ.--]
All the many varieties of Filberts, Kentish-Cobs, Spanish-nuts, and
Barcelona-nuts are but varieties of _Corylus avellana_.
The name is from the Greek, _Korus_, a helmet, from the form of the
involucre.
=The Hornbeam= (_Carpinus betulus_).
It is in our experience that though many townsmen think they know the
Beech there are comparatively few of them that cannot be deceived into
accepting the Hornbeam as _Fagus sylvatica_. It must be admitted that
there is a strong superficial resemblance to a small Beech; but on
closer examination it will be found that the differences are greater
than the likeness. The Hornbeam has a light-grey smooth bark, but
instead of the very round trunk of the Beech, that of the Hornbeam
appears to have been laterally squeezed, for the diameter taken one
way is longer or shorter than if taken at right angles to the first
measurement. Then again the leaf of _Carpinus_ if placed upon that
of _Fagus_ will be found to be much less rotund in proportion to its
length; the surface is rough, and instead of the cleanly cut margins of
_Fagus_ we have a coarse double-toothing.
The Hornbeam when full-grown is a much smaller tree than the Beech,
rarely exceeding seventy feet in height, with a trunk circumference of
ten feet; whereas the Beech reaches a height of considerably over a
hundred feet, with a girth of nearly thirty feet. When naturally grown,
too, it is by no means so picturesque as the Beech, but in places where
it is most plentiful, as in Essex, especially Epping Forest, it is
generally pollarded, and seldom allowed to exhibit its true form.
The male flowers form a pendulous catkin, originating in the axils,
and each consisting of an egg-shaped bract, holding about a dozen
stamens at its base. The female flowers form an erect flower-head,
shaped like an artichoke at the end of a twig, the three-lobed bracts
each containing two flowers. After fertilization these lobes enlarge
considerably, and the flower-head lengthens into the pendulous string
of fruits shown in our illustration. The flowers appear in May.
[Illustration: =Hornbeam.=
Carpinus betulus.
--CUPULIFERÆ.--]
=The Osier= (_Salix viminalis_).
The Willow family, to which the Osier belongs, is, like the Brambles,
a difficult group even for the botanist, and he is a bold man or a
very clever one who undertakes to identify specimens off-hand. They
have suffered much at the hands of the “splitter.” Hooker gives the
number of British species as eighteen, with a considerable number of
varieties; but by Babington many of these varieties are given specific
rank, and his list of species runs to fifty-eight. It would, of course,
be absurd for us to attempt in this restricted space to give a key even
to Hooker’s list; but our details of the flower structure, etc., will
be found to apply in the main to all willows, and for a knowledge of
the other species our readers must refer to Hooker. It should be added
that, to increase the difficulties of the botanist, the plants that
bear male flowers as a rule differ considerably from those that produce
female flowers; for with scarcely an exception each plant is of one sex
only.
The Osier (_S. viminalis_) is one of our most common species, and is
the one most generally used for basket-weaving. It is a large shrub
or low bushy tree, growing in wet places beside rivers and pools, or
more frequently in Osier-beds. When allowed to grow uncut it attains
a height of twenty or thirty feet; its long, smooth, and straight
branches well furnished with very narrow leaves, tapering to a fine
point, and sometimes nearly a foot in length. The margins of the leaf
are quite free from teeth or lobes, and are curled back on the shining
white silky underside. Both male and female flowers form catkins:
the males each consisting of a hairy scale, to which are attached two
stamens; the females of a similar scale bearing the ovary. The catkins
appear before the leaves, in March or April. Salix is the old Latin
name for Willows and Osiers.
[Illustration: =Osier.=
Salix viminalis.
--SALICINEÆ.--]
=The Lombardy Poplar= (_Populus fastigiata_).
It is an easy step from the Willows to the Poplars, for the Genus
Salix and the Genus Populus together form the Order Salicineæ. We have
only two indigenous species in Britain--the White Poplar or Abele (_P.
alba_), and the Aspen (_P. tremula_). In spite of the fact that it
was not introduced until 1758 it may safely be said that the Lombardy
Poplar is now a better known tree than either of our native species. It
is the tree that is so frequently planted as a live screen, to break
the force of the wind or to hide some undesirable prospect. Its growth
is most rapid, and the story is told of a man who planted this tree in
his garden at Great Tew, in Oxfordshire, and was living fifty years
after, by which time his tree had beaten him considerably in the matter
of growth, being then a hundred and twenty-five feet high! But like
most other trees of rapid growth it attains no great age--for a tree,
that is--and it is doubtful if it exceeds a century of life. The whole
of its branches and shoots take an upward direction, which gives the
tree the _fastigiate_ or sharp-pointed outline which has suggested its
specific name.
In our native Poplars the shoots are downy; in _fastigiata_ they are
smooth. The leaves are borne on long compressed stalks, which give them
the ever-tremulous movement so well known in connection with the Aspen.
As in the Willows, the sexes are on separate trees, and the flowers all
in catkins. There is no perianth, a single bract-like scale serving
instead, though there is a cup-shaped organ, within which is found,
in one plant, a one-celled ovary, and in the other sex from twelve to
twenty stamens with red anthers are attached to the under-side of the
cup.
[Illustration: =Lombardy Poplar.=
Populus fastigiata.
--SALICINEÆ.--]
The name of the genus _Populus_ is the old Latin for Poplar and Aspen.
=The Oriental Plane= (_Platanus orientalis_).
One need not go far into the country in order to see the Plane. Its
virtue as a smoke-proof tree has now been well tested by the governing
authorities in large towns, and it is freely planted in recreation
grounds and by the sides of broad thoroughfares. In London it must
now be about the commonest tree; and some of the specimens grown in
the west-end squares are very fine. Several of the London Planes
have become quite “lions,” to be seen by all visitors who “do” the
Metropolis; such is the individual that overtops the old-fashioned
houses at the corner of Wood Street, Cheapside. More celebrated,
perhaps, is the Stationers’ Hall Court tree, which, though only about
sixty-five years old, is so important a feature of that corner of
the City that, on the rumour that it was to be cut down a few years
since to allow of certain improvements in the court, the denizens of
Paternoster Row and the precincts were up in arms, and evinced such
indignation that the building plans of the Stationers’ Company were
modified, and the tree spared to delight the sparrows of the vicinity,
and to bring thoughts of the country into the hearts of the publishing
and bookselling fraternity who daily pour through the court.
In spite of its apparent enjoyment of London smoke and fog the
plane-tree is not even a Britisher. Its introduction to England has
been credited to Francis Bacon, but Loudon declares it was in our
gardens prior to 1548--thirteen years before the birth of the Lord
Keeper.
The leaves of the Plane are very similar to those of the Sycamore
and False-Sycamore (_see_ page 134), but one feature will serve to
identify it at any season--the pale yellow patches on the trunk of
the Plane caused by its constant shedding of flakes of bark. In the
autumn, too, there is a striking contrast between the winged samaras of
_Acer_ and the ball-fruits of _Platanus_. _Acer_, again, has the leaves
opposite, whilst in _Platanus_ they are alternate.
[Illustration: =Oriental Plane.=
Platanus orientalis.
--PLATANACEÆ.--]
The Planes are lofty trees (sixty to eighty feet), with thick
cylindrical trunks, wide-spreading branches and abundant foliage. The
leaves are five-lobed, with a few coarse teeth, and smooth surface.
The flowers of both sexes are in globular clusters and borne on the
same tree, but on separate branches. The male flowers have a perianth
of four narrow leaves alternating with the stamens. The female flowers
consist of a one-seeded ovary with a curved style, one side of which is
stigmatic. Flowers April and May.
_P. occidentalis_, the Western Plane, is very similar, but its leaves
have red stalks, and are less deeply lobed and toothed; its bark scales
less.
_Platanus_ is the old Greek name for the Plane-tree, and is probably
derived from _Platos_, breadth, in allusion to the broad leaves or the
ample shade afforded by its branches.
=The Birch= (_Betula alba_).
The most graceful of our native trees is the White or Silver Birch.
It is the very antipodes among trees of the solid unbending oak. The
slim stem, scarcely ever a foot in diameter, tapers away almost to
nothing at a height of fifty or sixty feet. This is at full maturity
at forty or fifty years; thereafter it makes little progress, and it
is believed not to reach far beyond its hundredth year. It has the
singular reputation for producing a bark that is more enduring than
its timber. In spite of its effeminate grace it is a most hardy tree,
and stands alone on the bleakest hillsides, and is the only tree that
endures the rigorous climate of Greenland, though there, of course,
it is greatly diminished in stature.
[Illustration: =Birch.=
Betula alba.
--CUPULIFERÆ.--]