DECIDUOUS TREES WITH WINGED SEEDS
The Maples--The Ashes--The Elms
THE MAPLES
A single genus, _acer_, includes from sixty to seventy species,
widely distributed over the Northern Hemisphere. A single species
goes south of the equator, to the mountains of Java. All produce
pale close-grained, fairly hard wood, valued in turnery and for the
interior finish of houses. The clear sap of some American species is
made into maple sugar.
The signs by which we may know a member of the maple family are two:
opposite, simple leaves, palmately veined and lobed; and fruits in
the form of paired samaras, compressed and drawn out into large thin
wings. No amount of improvement changes these family traits. No
other tree has both leaves and fruits like a maple's.
The distribution of genus _acer_ is interesting. The original home
of the family is in the Far East. In China and Japan we may reckon
up about thirty indigo maples, while only nine are native to North
America. Of these, five are in the eastern half of the continent,
three in the West, and one grows indifferently on both sides of the
Great Divide.
=The Sugar Maple=
_Acer saccharum_, Marsh.
The sugar maple (_see illustration, page 198-199_) is economically the
most important member of its family in this country. As an avenue and
shade tree it is unsurpassed. It is the great timber maple, whose curly
and bird's-eye wood is loved by the cabinet-maker; and whose sap boiled
down, yields maple sugar--a delicious sweet, with the distinctive flavor
beloved by all good Americans. In October the sugar maple paints the
landscape with yellow and orange and red. Its firm broad leaves,
shallowly cleft into five lobes, are variously toothed besides. The
flowers open late, hanging on the season's shoots in hairy yellow
clusters. The key fruits are smooth and plump, with wings only slightly
diverging. They are shed in midsummer.
Hard maple wood outranks all other maple lumber, though the curly grain
and the bird's-eye are accidental forms rarely found. Flooring makes
special demands upon this wood. Much is used in furniture factories; and
small wares--shoe lasts, shoe pegs and the like--consume a great deal.
As fuel, hard maple is outranked only by hickory. Its ashes are rich in
potash and are in great demand as fertilizer in orchards and gardens.
The living tree, in the park, on the street, casting its shade about the
home, or glowing red among the trees of the woods, is more valuable than
its lumber. Slow-growing, strong to resist damage by storm, clean in
habit and beautiful the year round--this is our splendid rock maple.
Rich, indeed, is the city whose early inhabitants chose it as the
permanent street tree.
=The Black Maple=
_A. nigrum_, Michx.
The black maple is so like the sugar maple that they are easily
confused, but its stout branchlets are orange-colored, the leaves
are smooth and green on both sides, scantly toothed, and they droop
as if their stems were too weak to hold up the blades. The keys
spread more widely than those of the sugar maple.
The black maple is the sugar maple of South Dakota and Iowa. It
becomes rarer as one goes east. It is an admirable lumber tree, as
well as a noble street and shade tree.
Two soft maples are found in the eastern part of the country, their
sap less sweet, their wood softer than the hard maples, and their
fitness for street planting correspondingly less.
=The Red Maple=
_A. rubrum_, Linn.
The red maple is a lover of swamps. It thrives, however, on
hillsides, if the soil be moist; and is planted widely in parks and
along village streets. In beauty it excels all other maples. In
early spring its swelling buds glow like garnets on the brown twigs
(_see illustrations, pages 198-199_). The opening flowers have red
petals, and the first leaves, which accompany the early bloom, are
red. In May the dainty flat keys, in clusters on their long,
flexible stems, are as red as a cock's comb, and beautiful against
the bright green of the new foliage. In early September in New
England, a splash of red in the woods, across a swamp, is sure to
be a scarlet maple that suddenly declares its name. Against the
green of a hemlock forest these maples show their color like a
splash of blood. The tree is gorgeous.
In winter the lover of the woods, re-visiting the scenes of his
summer rambles, knows the scarlet maple by the knotty, full-budded
twigs which gleam like red-hot needles set with coral beads, against
the clean-limbed, gray-trunked tree. The red maple never quite
forgets its name.
As a street tree, it makes rapid progress when it once becomes
established, though it is apt to stand still for a time after being
transplanted. Its branches are short, numerous, and erect, making a
round head, admirably adapted to the resistance of heavy winds. It
is particularly suited to use in narrow streets.
=The Soft Maple=
_A. saccharinum_, Linn.
The soft maple or silver maple (_see illustration, page 199_) has a
white-lined leaf, cleft almost to the midrib and each division again
deeply cut. It is quick and ready to grow, and has been widely
planted as a street tree, especially in prairie regions of uncertain
rainfall. It is one of the poorest of trees for street planting,
because it has a sprawling habit and weak brittle wood. The heavy
limbs have great horizontal spread, and are easily broken by ice and
windstorms. When planted on streets, they require constant cutting
back to make them even safe. Thick crops of suckers rise from the
stubs of branches, but the top thus formed is neither beautiful nor
useful.
Wier's weeping maple, a cut-leaved, drooping variety of this silver
maple, is often seen as a lawn tree, imitating the habit of the
weeping willow.
=The Oregon Maple=
_A. macrophyllum_, Pursh.
The Oregon maple grows from southern Alaska to Lower California,
along the banks of streams. The great leaves, often a foot in
diameter, on blades of equal length, are the distinguishing marks of
this stout-limbed tree, that grows in favorable soil to a height of
a hundred feet. In southern Oregon it forms pure forest, its huge
limbs forming magnificent, interlacing arches that shut out the sun
and make a wonderful cover for ferns and mosses far below. The wood
of this tree is the best hard-wood lumber on the West Coast.
=The Vine Maple=
_A. circinatum_, Pursh.
The vine maple reminds one of the lianas of tropical woods, for it
has not sufficient stiffness to stand erect. It grows in the bottom
lands and up the mountain sides, but always following watercourses,
from British Columbia to northern California. Its vine-like stems
spring up in clusters from the ground, spreading in wide curves, and
these send out long, slender twigs which root when they touch the
ground, thus forming impenetrable thickets, often many acres in
extent.
The leaf is almost circular and cut into narrow equal lobes around
the margin; green in midsummer, it changes to red and gold in
autumn, and the woodsman, almost worn out with the labor of getting
through the maze these trees form, must delight, when he stops to
rest, in the autumn glory of this wonderful ground cover.
These little maples lend a wonderful charm to the edges of forest
highways in the Eastern states. Like the hornbeams, hazel bushes,
and ground hemlock, they are lovers of the shade; and they fringe
the forest with a shrubbery border.
=The Striped Maple=
_A. Pennsylvanicum_, Linn.
The striped maple is quickly recognized by the pale white lines that
streak in delicate patterns the smooth green bark of the branches.
The leaves are large and finely saw-toothed, with three triangular
lobes at the top. The yellowish bell-flowers hang in drooping
clusters, followed by the smooth green keys, in midsummer. This tree
is called "Moosewood," for moose browse upon it.
The shrubbery border of parks is lightened in autumn by the yellow
foliage of this little tree, and in winter the bark is very
attractive. "Whistlewood" is the name the boys know this tree by,
for in spring the bark slips easily, and they cut branches of
suitable size for whistles.
=The Mountain Maple=
_A. spicatum_, Lam.
The mountain maple is a dainty shrub with ruddy stems, large,
three-lobed leaves, erect clusters of yellow flowers and tiny brown
keys. It follows the mountains from New England to northern Georgia, and
from the Great Lakes extends to the Saskatchewan.
[Illustration: _See page 180_ _See page 178_
THE THORNY TRUNK OF THE HONEY LOCUST, AND THE FOLIAGE AND
FLOWERS OF THE BLACK LOCUST]
[Illustration: _See page 194_
SUGAR MAPLE
Maple sugar is made in February; the trees bloom in May; their
seeds ripen in October]
[Illustration: _See page 195_
THE RED MAPLE'S PISTILLATE (_left_) AND STAMINATE (_right_)
FLOWERS]
[Illustration: _See page 196_
SEED KEYS AND NEW FOLIAGE OF THE SOFT OR SILVER MAPLE]
=The Dwarf Maple=
_A. glabrum_, Torr.
The dwarf maple ranges plentifully from Canada to Arizona and New
Mexico. Its leaves, typically three-lobed and cut-toothed, vary to a
compound form of three coarse-toothed leaflets. The winged keys are
ruddy in midsummer, lending an attractive dash of color to the woods
that border high mountain streams.
Very common in cultivation are the Japanese maples--miniature trees,
bred and cultivated for centuries, wonderful in the variations in
form and coloring of their leaves. Tiny maple trees in pots are
often very old. Some leaves are mere skeletons.
The Japanese people are worshippers of beauty and they delight
particularly in garden shows. In the autumn, when the maples have
reached perfection, the populace turns out in holiday attire to
celebrate a grand national fAŠte. A sort of A|sthetic jubilee it is,
like the spring jubilee of the cherry blossom. To each careful
gardener who has patiently toiled to bring his maples to perfection,
it is sufficient reward that the people make this annual pilgrimage
to view them.
=The Box Elder=
_A. Negundo_, Linn.
The box elder is the one maple whose leaves are always cleft to the
stem, making it compound of irregularly toothed leaflets. The
clusters of flattened keys, which hang all winter on the trees,
declare the kinship of this tree to the maples.
Fast-growing, hardy, willing to grow in treeless regions, this tree
has spread from its eastern range throughout the plains, where
shelter belts were the first needs of the settlers. Pretty at first,
these box elders are soon broken down and unsightly. They should be
used only as temporary trees, alternating with elms, hard maples,
and ashes. Where they are neglected, or continue to be planted, the
character of the town or the premises must be cheap and ugly.
=The Norway Maple=
_A. platanoides_, Linn.
The Norway maple is counted the best maple we have for street
planting. Broad, thin leaves, three-lobed by wide sinuses, cover
with a thick thatch the rounded head of the tree. Green on both
sides, thin and smooth, these leaves seem to withstand remarkably
the smoke, soot, and dust of cities, and also the attacks of
insects. The keys are large, wide-winged, set opposite, the nutlets
meeting in a straight line. These pale green key clusters are very
handsome among the green leaves in summer--the tree's chief ornament
until the foliage mass turns yellow in autumn. A peculiarity of the
Norway maple is the milky juice that starts from a broken leaf-stem.
=The Sycamore Maple=
_A. pseudo-platanus_, Linn.
The sycamore maple is another European immigrant, whose broad leaf
is thick and leathery in texture, and pale underneath. Its
late-opening flowers are borne in long racemes, followed by the
small key fruits which cling to the twigs over winter, making the
tree look dingy and untidy. This tree has not the hardiness nor the
compact form of the Norway maple, and it is subject to the attack of
borers.
It is the "sycamore" of Europe, famed as a lumber and an avenue tree
abroad, but with us it proves short-lived, and we have no reason for
choosing it. The copious seed production of the far preferable
Norway maple puts it within the reach of all.
THE ASHES
Few large trees in our American woods have their leaves set opposite
upon the twig. Still fewer of the trees with compound leaves show
this arrangement. Consult the first broad-leaved tree you meet, and
the chances are that its leaves are set alternately upon the twigs.
There is a multitude of families in this class; but if the leaves
are paired and set opposite, we narrow the families to a very few.
Are the leaves simple? Then the tree may be a maple or a dogwood, or
a viburnum. Are the leaves opposite and compound? Then you have one
of two families. Are the leaflets clustered on the end of the
leaf-stalk? Then the tree is a buckeye or a horse chestnut--members
of the buckeye family. Are the leaflets set along the sides of the
central stem? Then the tree is an ash. A few exceptions may be
discovered, but the rule holds in the general forest area of North
America.
Ash trees have lance-shaped, winged seeds, borne in profuse
clusters, and often held well into the winter. But there is no
season when the leaf arrangement cannot be at once determined by the
leaf scars, prominent upon the twigs; and under the tree there will
always be remnants of the cast-off foliage, to show that it is
compound.
Ash trees are usually large and stately when full grown, with trunks
clothed in smooth bark, checked into small, often diamond-shaped
plates. This gives the trees a trim, handsome appearance in the
winter woods. As shade trees, ashes are very desirable, and they are
valuable for their timber.
The near relatives of ashes surprise us. They belong to the olive
family, whose type is the olive tree of the Mediterranean region,
now extensively cultivated in California for its fruit. Privets,
lilacs, and forsythias, favorites in the gardens of all countries
that have temperate climates, are cousins to the ash tree. One of
its most charming relatives is the little fringe tree of our own
woods. Thirty species of ash are known; half of that number inhabit
North America. There are ash trees in every section of our country
except the extremes of latitude and altitude. Tropical ash trees are
native to Cuba, North Africa, and the Orient.
=The White Ash=
_Fraxinus Americana_, Linn.
The white ash is one of the noblest trees in the American forest,
the peer of the loftiest oak or walnut. When young it is slim and
graceful, but it grows sturdier as it approaches maturity, lifting
stout, spreading branches above a tall, massive trunk. In the forest
the head is narrow, but in the open the dome of a white ash is as
broad and symmetrical as that of a white oak. A gray rind covers
the young branches and the bark is gray. The foliage has white
lining and each of the seven leaflets has a short stalk. These are
all characters that distinguish the white ash from other species and
enable one to name it at a glance. In the South the white ash is
undersized and the wood is of poor quality. In the Northeastern and
Central states it is one of the most important and largest of our
timber trees, with wood more valuable than any other ash. Its uses
are manifold: it is staple in the manufacture of agricultural
implements, carriages, furniture, and in the interior finish of
buildings. Tool handles and oars are made of white ash and it is
superior as fuel. The reddish-brown heart-wood, with paler sap-wood,
is tough, elastic, hard, and heavy. It is not durable in soil and
becomes brittle with age.
Ash trees are late in coming into leaf. When all the forest is green
and full of blossoms, the ash trees are still naked. Not until May
do the rusty yellow winter buds of the white ash swell and throw out
on separate trees their staminate and pistillate flower clusters
from the axils of last year's foliage. (_See illustration, page
214._) Then the leaves unfold; downy at first, becoming bright and
shiny above, but always with pale linings. On fertile trees the
inconspicuous flowers mature into pointed fruits, one to two inches
long. The wing is twice the length of the seed and is rounded to a
blunt point. The seed itself is round and pointed, on branching
stalks that form clusters from six to eight inches long.
As a street tree the white ash deserves much more general favor in
cities than it has yet achieved, for it is straight and symmetrical,
and its light foliage grows in irregular, wavy masses, through which
some sunlight can always sift and let grass grow under the tree.
This tree is a rapid grower, perfectly hardy in most sections of the
country, and has no serious insect enemies. The foliage turns to
brownish purple and yellow in the autumn.
=The Black Ash=
_F. nigra_, Marsh.
The black ash is a lover of marshes, found from Newfoundland to
Manitoba, and from Virginia to Arkansas. Its blue-black winter buds,
the sombre green of its foliage, and the dark hues of its bark and
wood have justified the popular name of this handsome, slender tree.
The leaflets, oval and long-pointed, are sessile on the hairy leaf
stalk, except the terminal one. At maturity the leaves are a foot or
more in length, of seven to eleven leaflets, that turn brown and
fall early in autumn. The keys of the black ash are borne in open
panicles, eight to ten inches long; each has a short, flat seed,
with a broad blade, thin, rounded, and notched instead of pointed,
at the extremity.
The wood of black ash has the tough, heavy coarse-grained qualities
of the white ash, but differs in being very durable and in being
easily split into thin layers--each a year's growth. The Indians
taught the early settlers to weave baskets out of black ash splints.
These splints are easily separated by bending the split wood over a
block. The strain breaks loose the tissue that forms the spring
wood, and separates the bands of tough, dense summer wood into
strips suitable for basket weaving. Black ash is used for chair
seats, barrel hoops, furniture, and cabinetwork. The saplings are
oftenest chosen for hop and bean poles.
As a lawn tree, the black ash has little to recommend it for it
often dies of thirst in the loam of a garden. At best it is
short-lived. Planted in swampy ground, the tree spreads by seeds,
and suckers from the roots, soon forming extensive thickets, and
drinking up the moisture at a marvelous rate.
=The Red Ash=
_F. Pennsylvanica_, Marsh.
The red ash follows the courses of streams and lake margins from New
Brunswick to the Black Hills and south into Florida, Alabama, and
Nebraska. This tree is much planted for shade and ornament in New
England, and in other Eastern sections. The tree is small, spreading
into a compact though irregular head of twiggy, slender branches.
The yellow-green foliage, a foot long, of seven to nine short,
stalked, lustrous leaflets, is lightened by a pale pubescence on
petioles and leaf-linings. The same velvety down covers the new
shoots. Summer and winter this sign never fails.
Red ash seeds are extremely long and slender, and have the most
graceful outlines of all the darts that various ash trees bear. The
heavy, round body has a wing twice its length by which the wind
carries the seeds far away. Very gradually an ash tree launches its
seeds. It is easy to understand why the family is so scattered
through any woods, for the wind is the sower. The reddish bark of
the twigs and trunk of this tree seems to be the justification for
its name. Its brown wood is inferior to white ash.
=The Green Ash=
_F. Pennsylvanica_, Variety _lanceolata_, Sarg.
The green ash has narrower, shorter leaves than the parent species
and usually more sharply saw-toothed margins. Instead of having pale
linings, the leaflets are bright green on both surfaces. This is the
ash tree of the almost treeless prairies from Dakota southward,
where it not only lives, but flourishes as well as in its native
habitat, the rich soil of stream banks farther east. Its range
crosses the Rocky Mountains and reaches the slopes of the Wasatch
Mountains in Utah. East of the Alleghanies the tree is little known.
It is in the West that it is the dominant ash. It is one of the few
important agencies which have turned the "Great American Desert"
into a land of shady roads and comfortable, protected homesteads.
=The Blue Ash=
_F. quadrangulata_, Michx.
The blue ash has four-angled twigs, often winged at the corners with
a thin plate of bark. The sap contains a substance that gives a blue
dye when the inner bark is macerated in water. The tree reaches one
hundred and twenty feet in height, above a slender trunk, and has
small spreading branches that terminate in stout twigs,
characteristically angled.
The tree is occasionally cultivated in parks and gardens in the
Eastern states where it is a distinct addition to the list of
handsome shade trees. It is hardy, quick of growth, and unusually
free from the ills that beset trees. In the forests it reaches its
best estate on the limestone hills of the Big Smoky Mountains. Its
wood ranks with the best white ash and exceeds it in one particular;
it is the most durable ash wood when exposed alternately to wet and
dry conditions. It is used for vehicles, for flooring and for
handles of tools especially pitchforks.
=The Oregon Ash=
_F. Oregona_, Nutt.
The Oregon ash follows the coast south from Puget Sound to San
Francisco Bay, and from the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada
to those of the mountains of southern California. In southwestern
Oregon the tree reaches the height of eighty feet, with a trunk
three to four feet in diameter. The stout branches form a broad
crown where there is room, and the luxuriant foliage is wonderfully
light in color, pale green above, with silvery pubescent
leaf-linings. Of the five to seven leaflets, all are sessile or
short-stalked, except the terminal one, which has a stem an inch
long. All are oval and abruptly pointed, thick and firm in texture,
turning yellow or russet brown in autumn. The lumber is counted
equal to white ash and is one of the most valuable of deciduous
timber trees in the western coast states.
A number of little ash trees, distinct in species from those
described already, are native to limited sections of the country.
All have the family traits by which they are readily recognized, if
seed form, leaf form, and leaf arrangement are kept in mind. In the
corner where Colorado, Nevada, and Utah meet, is an ash with its
leaf reduced to a single leaflet, but the seeds are profusely borne
to declare the tree's name to any one who visits its restricted
territory. In rich soil, three leaflets are occasionally developed.
=The European Ash=
_F. Excelsior_, Linn.
The _European ash_ is the large timber ash from the Atlantic Coast
of Europe to western Asia. The earliest writers have ranked its wood
next to oak in usefulness. It was known as "the husbandman's tree."
Its uses were listed at interminable length, for "ploughs,
axle-trees, wheel-rings, harrows, balls ... oars, blocks for
pulleys, tenons and mortises, poles, spars, handles, and stocks for
tools, spade trees, carts, ladders.... In short, so good and
profitable is this tree that every prudent Lord of a Manor should
employ one acre of ground with Ash to every twenty acres of other
land, since in as many years it would be more worth than the land
itself."
The saplings, cut when three to six years old, made excellent fork
and spade handles on account of the toughness and pliability of
their fibre. Crates for china were made of the branches. Steamed and
bent, this wood lent itself to the making of hoops for barrels and
kegs. The cutting off of the main trunk set the roots to sending up
a forest of young shoots, ready for cutting again when they reached
the size for walking-sticks and whip-stocks.
Quite independent of its lumber value, but possibly correlated with
it, was the great reputation the ash tree achieved in the myths and
superstitions of widely separated peoples. In south Europe,
tradition declared that a race of brazen men sprung from the ash
tree. In the North, the Norse mythology made _Igdrasil_, the ash,
the "World tree," from whose roots the whole race of men sprung.
The roots of this mythological tree penetrated the earth to its
lowest depths and its giant top supported the heavens. Wisdom and
knowledge gushed from its base as from a fountain, and underneath
were the abodes of the gods, giants, and the Fates. Superstitions of
all kinds have come down with the language of different peoples,
making the history of the ash tree a most interesting study.
A Chinese ash yields a valuable white wax which exudes from the bark
of the twigs. _F. ornus_, Linn., native to south Europe and Asia
Minor, exudes a waxy secretion from bark and leaves. This is the
manna of commerce. Last but not least of the products of the ash
tree are the curious and beautiful contortions of the grain found in
"burls" on the trunks of old trees of many species. These
warty excrescences are eagerly bought by special agents for
cabinet-makers. Woodwork from these abnormal growths shows
exquisitely waved lines when polished, as delicate as those in a
banded agate. Fancy boxes, bowls, and other articles brought fancy
prices when made of "ram's horn" or "fiddleback" ash, which often
went under the trade name of green ebony. The black ash in America
is particularly subject to contortions of the grain.
THE ELMS
Elms of sixteen distinct species are native to boreal and temperate
regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with this single exception:
western North America is without a representative. Europe has three
species, two of which extend their range into eastern Asia and
northern Africa. Southern and central Asia have their own species.
Five are native to our Eastern states. Two European species are in
cultivation in the North Atlantic states, especially in the
neighborhood of Boston, where they are as familiar as the native
species, in street planting.
Elm trees are valuable for shade and for lumber; their wood is hard,
heavy, tough, pale in color, often difficult to split. The trees are
distinguished from others by their simple, unsymmetrical,
strong-ribbed leaves, saw-toothed, short-stalked, always unequal and
often oblique at the base of the blade. The flowers, usually
perfect, are inconspicuous, and the seeds are flat, entirely
surrounded by a thin papery wing, that forms two hooks at the tip.
Wind-carried, these seeds have had much to do with the wide
distribution of elms.
=The White Elm=
_Ulmus Americana_, Linn.
The white or American elm is widely known as a tall, graceful
wide-spreading tree, usually of symmetrical, vase shape, with
slender limbs and drooping twigs. (_See illustration, page 215._) It
has the rough furrowed bark characteristic of the genus, dark or
light gray, with paler branches and red-brown twigs. The leaves are
alternate, two to six inches long, broadest near the abruptly
pointed apex. Distinctly one-sided at the tapering base, the leaves
have a fashion of arranging themselves in a flat spray so as to
present almost a continuous leaf area to the sun. One spray overlaps
another, and leaves varying in size fit in to fill every little
corner to which sunlight comes. This "leaf mosaic" is not confined
to elms alone. It is especially noticeable on the southern border of
any dense wood.
Winter offers the best opportunity for the study of tree forms. Our
common elm shows at least five different patterns. The first is the
"vase form," the commonest and most beautiful. This is best realized
by old trees which have had plenty of room. In it the branches
spread gradually upward at first but at a considerable height sweep
boldly out forming a broad, rounded, or flattened head. Second is
the "plume form," in which two or three main limbs rise to a great
height before branching, and then break into feathery spray. Trees
crowded in woods are likely to take this form. Third, the "oak tree
form" shows a horizontal habit of branching, and an angularity of
limbs usually more noticeable among oaks. Fourth, the "weeping
willow form," where trees have short trunks, from which the branches
curve rapidly outward and end in long, drooping branchlets. Fifth is
the "feathered elm," marked by a fringe of short twigs which outline
the trunk and limbs. This "feathering" is caused by the late
development of latent buds. It may occur in any of the tree types
just mentioned, but it is more noticeable in individuals of the
plume form.
The American elm is very familiar for it grows everywhere east of
the Rocky Mountains. Not to know this tree is a mark of indifference
and ignorance. No village of any pride but plants it freely as a
street tree. It is hardy and cheerful, reflecting the indomitable
spirit of the pioneer, whom it accompanied by seed and sapling from
the Eastern states into the treeless territories of the Middle
West. With him the tree seized the land and made it yield a living.
Elms, which have outlived the cottonwoods and willows, are not so
large yet as the patriarchal trees in old New-England villages, yet
time alone is needed to match, in the valley of the Missouri, the
elms in the valley of the Connecticut.
I think, with due appreciation of its summer luxuriance of foliage,
and the grace and strength of the elm's framework in winter, that
the moment of greatest charm in the life of a roadside elm comes in
the first warm days of late March. The brown buds on the sides of
the twigs are swelling and a flush of purple overspreads the tree,
while snow still covers the ground. A tremendous "fall of leaves"
ensues, for the tiny bud scales that enclose the elm flowers are but
leaves in miniature. The elms are in blossom! Each flower of each
cluster has a calyx with scalloped edges, and a fringe of four to
nine stamens hanging far out and surrounding the central solitary
ovary. The color is in the yellow anthers and the dark red calyx
lobes.
Speedily, the stamens shrivel and pale green pendants, which are the
seeds, cluster upon the twigs. Winged for flight, these ripen and
are scattered before the leaves are fairly open, and the growth of
the season's shoots begins. Only the pussy willow, the quaking asp,
and the earliest maples bloom as early as the elm. How much they
have missed, who never saw an elm tree in blossom!
The hubs of the "one-hoss shay" were of "ellum," its interlacing
fibres peculiarly fitting this wood for indestructibility. Saddle
trees, boat timbers, cooperage, and flooring employ it in
quantities. It is also used for flumes and piles, for it resists
decay on exposure to water.
=The Slippery Elm=
_U. fulva_, Michx.
The slippery elm is also known as the red elm and moose elm, because
its wood is red and moose are fond of browsing its young shoots. In
regions where moose are rarely seen, it is the small boy who browses
and often utterly destroys every specimen of this valuable tree.
Under the bark of young shoots a sweet substance is found, which
gives the tree its common name. What man lives who in the heydey of
youth has not had the spring craze for slippery elm bark, as surely
as he had the fever for kite-flying and playing marbles? The trees
in every fence row show the wounds of jack-knives; stripping the
bark, the boys scrape from its inner surface the thick, fragrant
mucilaginous _cambium_--a delectable substance that allays both
hunger and thirst. Fortunately the bark of the limbs supplies the
demand; many a veteran tree still suffers the pollarding process,
serving one generation of schoolboys after another.
The inner bark, dried and ground and mixed with milk, forms a
valuable food for invalids. Poultices of slippery elm bark relieve
throat and chest ailments. Fevers and acute inflammatory disorders
are treated with the same bark, which has passed from the list of
mere home remedies to an established place on the apothecary's
shelf.
How shall we tell a slippery elm tree from the American elm? By its
leaf in summer. The roughness of the foliage is one of its striking
characteristics. Crumple a leaf, and its surfaces grate harshly, for
they are covered with stiff, tubercular hairs. The leaves are
larger, often reaching seven inches in length. There is a reddish
or tawny pubescence on all young shoots, and especially on the bud
scales in winter. The tree itself, in winter or summer, is much more
coarse than its cousin. It is also unsymmetrical in habit, each limb
striking out for itself. Very often one meets a tree quite as
one-sided in form as its leaf, and this without any apparent reason.
But given a chance to grow without mutilation, the slippery elm
attains a height of seventy feet, forming a broad, open head, in
comparatively few years. It is well worth planting for its lumber
and for shade.
=The Rock Elm=
_U. Thomasi_, Sarg.
The rock elm or cork elm chooses dry, gravelly upland and low heavy
clay soil, on rocky slopes and river cliffs, from Ontario and New
Hampshire westward through northern New York, southern Michigan to
Nebraska and Missouri. It is more abundant and of largest size in
Ontario and in the southern peninsula of Michigan.
Its leaf is small, thick, and firm, dark green, and turns to
brilliant yellow in the autumn. Its flowers and fruits are borne in
racemes. At any season, one knows this cork elm by the shaggy bark
on its stout limbs that make the tree resemble a bur oak. "Rock elm"
and "hickory elm" are names that refer to the hardness of the wood.
The wheelwright counts it the best of all elms. Compact, with
interlacing fibres, there are spring, strength, and toughness in
this wood which adapt it for bridge timbers, heavy agricultural
implements, wheel stocks, sills, and axe-handles. The name "cork
elm" refers to the corky bark which runs out in winged ridges, even
to the twigs.
[Illustration: _See page 202_
THE WHITE ASH
Winter buds Pistillate flowers Staminate flowers]
[Illustration: _See page 222_
A GROUP OF WHITE PINES]
[Illustration: _See page 235_
LEAVES AND CONES OF THE SHORTLEAF PINE]
[Illustration: _See page 210_
AMERICAN ELM]
=The Winged Elm=
_U. alata_, Michx.
The winged elm, or wahoo, is dainty and small, its leaves and the
two thin corky blades that arise on each twig befitting the smallest
elm tree in the family. Despite its corky wings, it has none of the
ruggedness of the cork elm, but is a pretty round-headed tree. It is
distributed from Virginia to Florida and west to Illinois and Texas.
"Mountain elm" and "small-leaved elm" are local names. "Wahoo" is
local also, belonging chiefly to the South. Even the little seed of
this tree is long and slender, its wing prolonged into two incurving
hooks.
=The English Elm=
_U. campestris_, Linn.
The English elm is often seen in the Eastern states, planted with
the American elm in parks and streets, where the two species
contrast strikingly. The English tree looks stocky, the American
airily graceful. One stands heavily upon its heels, the other on
tiptoe. One has a compact, pyramidal or oblong head, the other a
loose open one. In October the superb English elms on Boston Common
are still bright green, while their American cousins have passed
into "the sere and yellow leaf."
=The Scotch Elm=
_U. montana_, Linn.
The Scotch or wych elm is planted freely in parks and private
grounds. It is a medium-sized tree of rather more strict habit of
growth than the American elm. Before the leaves open the tree often
looks bright green from a distance. This appearance is due to the
winged seeds which are exceptionally large and crowd the twig in
great rosettes.
One horticultural variety of this species is the weeping form known
as the Camperdown elm, which arches its limbs downward on all sides,
forming when full-grown a natural arbor. One often sees this tree
planted on lawns of limited extent, and so near the street as to
render utterly absurd its invitation to privacy. To serve that
reasonable and delightful end, the tree should be planted in a
retired corner of one's grounds, where an afternoon siesta may be
enjoyed undisturbed.