BROAD-LEAVED TREES HAVING COMPOUND LEAVES
The beginner is often in doubt as to whether a twig with several leaves
is a compound leaf or a number of simple leaves. This is a very easy
thing to decide. At the end of the leaf stem, where the leaf joins the
twig or branch, is always a little bud. When the leaf drops off in the
fall the bud remains, and in the spring begins to swell and finally
develops into a leaf. This bud then is the promise of next year’s leaf,
and it is always found at the base of the leaf stem, as shown at _A_.
There is no such bud at the base of the leaflet on the compound leaf, as
shown at _B_. If then we find no bud at _B_, we must look farther down
until we discover it at _C_. This furnishes the test and we know that our
specimen is a compound leaf.
[Illustration: FIG. 97. Method of distinguishing Compound and Simple
Leaves]
This class of leaf is very common, as our horse-chestnuts, buckeyes,
hickories, and walnuts all have compound leaves.
The horse-chestnut is not a native American tree, but was imported from
Europe, where it is a great favorite. The leaflets number five or seven,
always an odd number, and they radiate from one central point, the odd
one in the center usually being the largest.
[Illustration: FIG. 98. The Horse-Chestnut]
It is very interesting to watch these leaves as they come out of the
sticky buds in the spring. They unfold and grow very rapidly and soon the
tree brings forth large pyramidal clusters of beautiful flowers.
The large, neat brown nuts which come later in the season do not seem to
be very useful, yet they are so solid and shiny that every boy delights
to gather them.
An American tree closely resembling the horse-chestnut is the buckeye.
The leaflets on the buckeye leaf number five, sometimes seven, and
radiate like the horse-chestnut from a common center.
[Illustration: FIG. 99.
Buckeye
Hickory]
This tree is well known through the Ohio valley, where it is very common,
Ohio being called the Buckeye State. The nuts are not edible, but the
wood is very tough and strong and is used extensively in making farm
implements.
Compare the leaf of the buckeye and the hickory shown in Fig. 99. Both
leaves are compound, and each has five leaflets, but they are quite
different, because the hickory leaflets are arranged on opposite sides of
the leaf-stalk instead of radiating from one point.
There are several varieties of hickory, including the shagbark, or
shellbark, the pignut, and pecan.
The name _shagbark hickory_ is taken from the peculiar appearance of the
bark, which hangs in loose pieces nearly a foot long and gives the tree a
very shaggy effect. _Shellbark_ is another common name for this tree.
The nut which this tree bears is hard and thick, but the kernel is very
sweet, and is considered by some superior to all other hickory nuts.
The _pignut hickory_ is so called because the nuts in some parts of the
country are used to feed the pigs. It is also called _broom hickory_.
The nuts are small and become bitter after having lain awhile. The wood,
however, like all the hickories, is valuable, being hard and tough. There
is a difference between strength and toughness. Oak is strong, but not
tough. Hickory is both hard and tough. A tough wood is one which will
stand bending without breaking. A wood which will bend easily but is not
strong cannot be called tough. It must be both strong and elastic, and
hickory has both of these qualities.
=41. The Pecan.= We usually think of the pecan nut as different from
the hickory, yet they belong to the same family. The pecan hickory is a
southern tree which delights in the warm climate south of the Ohio River,
and in Texas is found as a grand forest giant one hundred and fifty feet
high, producing an enormous crop of the sweetest and most delicately
flavored nuts. The leaf has nine leaflets and occasionally as many as
fifteen.
[Illustration: FIG. 100.
Black Walnut
Butternut]
=42. The Black Walnut and Butternut.= Perhaps no two trees are so
difficult for the city boy or girl to distinguish as the butternut and
black walnut. Both have compound leaves, the number of leaflets varying
from nine to seventeen for the butternut and from fifteen to twenty-three
for the black walnut. A leaf having fifteen leaflets, then, might belong
to either tree if there were no other way to distinguish them. The teeth
on the black-walnut leaflet are larger and sharper than on the butternut,
and the fuzzy stem is lacking. The green nuts, too, are different, the
black walnuts being just about the size and shape of green lemons, the
butternuts longer and thinner; but the unmistakable feature is the odor.
Having once smelled the crushed leaves of a butternut and a black walnut,
a person will thereafter need no other test.
The use of black-walnut lumber for making furniture was at one time very
common. The great supply of this valuable wood has been exhausted and
other woods have become fashionable. It is still used for gunstocks, for
which purpose nothing seems better suited.
Butternut is a light-colored wood, but takes a good polish and is
occasionally used in cabinet work.
=43. The Locusts.= The locust family is a large one; its members all bear
compound leaves, and their fruit is in the form of beans instead of nuts.
The common yellow or black locust is famous for its hard, durable wood,
its delicate light green leaves, and its white flowers.
The tree is not very beautiful when the leaves are off, but its wood is
so valuable that its beauty is not considered. The wood is yellow and
becomes very hard after it has dried.
The honey locust is another common member of this family.
[Illustration: FIG. 101.
The Locust
The Honey Locust]
=44. The Honey Locust.= Its leaves are much finer and somewhat resemble
ferns. It may always be known by the dangerous sharp-pointed thorns which
grow all over the tree. These thorns are unusually large, sometimes
being found in great bunches and as long as six inches. Its fruit is a
long, thin, brownish pod, which is sweet and contains little light brown
beans. The wood is strong and durable.
=45. The Ash.= Every boy who has owned a rowboat knows that oars are made
of wood from the ash. This is because the oar must be elastic as well as
strong, and the timber of the ash tree supplies these two qualities. The
ash is one of our tallest and noblest forest trees. It is rather slim
in build, with beautiful clean shiny green foliage. The members of this
group seem to be fond of colors, and we have the white ash, red ash,
green ash, blue ash, and black ash.
There are slight differences in the leaves and seeds, but, as in other
trees, when we have once seen an ash seed we can always thereafter
distinguish an ash tree. Fig. 102 shows the seed of the red ash. It is a
winged seed, with the seed part inclosed by the wing.
[Illustration: FIG. 102. Red Ash]
The compound leaf of the white ash has from five to seven leaflets and
the black ash has from seven to eleven. The wood is hard, tough, and
elastic, has a handsome grain, and is used for many purposes besides
making oars, such as furniture, carriages, and those farm implements
which require strength. The Indian could find no better wood for his bow,
and even Cupid is said to have first made his arrows of ash.