BROAD-LEAVED TREES HAVING SIMPLE LEAVES
=46. The Elm.= The elm is the well-known shade tree of New England. Its
tall, graceful form is familiar to every visitor and native of that
section of country, where it is found along every roadway and in every
city.
[Illustration: FIG. 103. The American Elm]
Who can think of New England without its noble elms? It would indeed
be a different country. The elm may be said to represent New England
character,—dignified, sturdy, graceful, and refined. Being tall, with
foliage well up, the general shape of the tree gives the desired shade,
yet does not obstruct the view; while its stately dignity gives an air
of comfort and repose to the grounds, which it seems to protect from the
elements.
Its wood is valuable for certain kinds of work, being tough and strong,
but it is not suitable for cabinetwork, as it is difficult to polish. It
is used considerably for wheel hubs and in cooperage.
[Illustration: FIG. 104. Leaf of American Elm]
Observe the edge of the elm leaf carefully. The teeth not only curve
gracefully toward the extreme tip of the leaf, but they are themselves
also toothed,—a form known as double-toothed. The leaf is coarse and
rough to the touch, in marked contrast to the birch family, whose leaves
it slightly resembles. There are several elms famous in the history of
our country. At Cambridge is the old elm under which George Washington
drew his sword and took command of the American Army on July 3, 1775;
there are several other “Washington Elms” in different parts of the
country, while New Haven is known as the City of Elms. William Penn made
his famous treaty with the Indians under the branches of a magnificent
elm, which remained standing until it was over two hundred years old,
when it was finally blown down. The spot has been marked by a marble
column.
The tree is called the _American_, or _white_, _elm_, and we have several
other varieties growing wild, including the well-known _slippery elm_, so
called because the inner bark is slippery and edible.
=47. The Birches.= If the black birch with its sweet, aromatic bark is
not known to a boy, the white, or canoe, birch is sure to be. It seems to
be the fate of this beautiful tree to be disfigured by every wandering
youth who has strength enough to tear off a strip of its paper-like bark.
[Illustration: FIG. 105. Leaf of Black Birch]
The leaf of the black, or sugar, birch may be distinguished from the elm
by its smoothness and thinness. Its base is slightly heartshaped, the
edge is double-toothed, the tender bark on the twigs is sweet to the
taste, and the leaves grow in pairs.
[Illustration: FIG. 106. Birches bordering a Canal]
=48. White Birch.= The famous white, paper, or canoe birch has a leaf
somewhat broader than the black variety, but without the heartshaped
base. Its bark is its peculiar feature and cannot be mistaken. It comes
off in layers and possesses a resinous quality which makes it waterproof,
a fact fully appreciated by the Indians, who constructed their canoes of
it. The wood is hard and tough.
=49. Gray Birch.= A smaller tree, known as the _gray birch_, also has
white bark, but it is not as perfect as that of the canoe birch, does not
peel in layers, and has triangular black spots on the trunk beneath every
limb.
[Illustration: FIG. 107. Leaf of Gray Birch]
It loves barren, rocky places, abandoned farms, etc., and is sometimes
called _old field birch_. It has a fine, delicate foliage, which is not
duplicated in the forest. Each leaf swings from a long, slender stem,
and every passing breeze gives it a trembling effect, like the aspen.
The leaf form is very odd,—a broad, flat base, and then a long, graceful
curve out to a fine point, the whole edge being finely double-toothed.
=50. The Beech.= The difference in the leaf forms of the birch and beech
is very marked. Both have toothed edges, but in the beech the spaces
between the teeth are so remarkably shallow that one has to search for
them.
[Illustration: FIG. 108. A Remarkable Growth of Beeches in Greater New
York]
There has been a common belief for generations that the beech is proof
against lightning, and recent experiments prove that beech wood offers
considerably greater resistance to the electric current than oak, poplar,
or willow; so our ancestors were partly right. The wood is hard, strong,
and tough, and will take a high polish.
=51. Hornbeam.= Closely related to the beeches are two little trees which
have delicate birchlike foliage and wood of great hardness,—the hornbeam,
or blue beech, and the hop hornbeam, or ironwood.
[Illustration: FIG. 109. Leaf of American Beech]
[Illustration: FIG. 110. Ironwood, or Hop Hornbeam]
The leaves of these two varieties are quite similar, that of the ironwood
being somewhat the larger.
The name _hop hornbeam_ is derived from the fruit, which resembles the
hop, and the name _ironwood_ from the great strength and hardness of the
wood.
=52. Buttonball.= No list of trees would be complete which did not
include those three forest giants, buttonball, tulip, and sweet gum.
The names _buttonwood_, _buttonball_, _sycamore_, and _plane tree_, as
the same tree is called in different parts of the country, all apply
to that fine American tree which sheds its bark as well as its leaves,
leaving a ghostly monarch of tree life, which produces an enormous crop
of buttonballs so well known to country boys and girls. The leaves are
in proportion to the size of the tree, often measuring a foot in length,
and being frequently covered on the under side with a white down called
_fungus_.
[Illustration: FIG. 111. Leaf of Buttonwood]
The wood of the sycamore, as it is incorrectly called, is valuable for
cabinetwork, having a beautiful grain and taking a high polish. It is,
however, difficult to work, and has a tendency to warp.
=53. Sweet Gum.= The sweet-gum tree also produces a crop of balls, or
seed pods, but although the same size as the buttonballs, they need never
be confused, as the gum balls are covered with somewhat sharp points,
while the buttonballs are comparatively smooth.
The leaves of the sweet gum, or _liquid amber_—so called from the
amber-colored gum the tree gives out—remind one of the starfish, being
five-fingered and decidedly different from any leaf in the forest. The
tree grows to a height of one hundred and fifty feet, and its wood is a
handsome brown color with fine and intricate markings. It warps badly,
but is valued for wood turning on account of its softness and even grain.
[Illustration: FIG. 112. Sweet Gum, or Liquid Amber]
=54. Tulip.= The lumber furnished by the tulip tree, commonly called
_whitewood_, is less liable to warp than gum wood, and is somewhat
harder. Just why it should be called whitewood is not clear, as it is
much darker than white pine and of a greenish-yellow color. The leaf of
the tulip tree is very peculiar, having only four points, without any
small teeth, and with an outline so odd that one often wonders if nature
did not use a pair of scissors in cutting it out.
Each leaf stands out aggressively on a long stem. The glory of the
tree—which gives it its name—is the mass of tulip-shaped flowers it
bears in the spring. They are large and brilliant, yellowish-green in
color, with dashes of red, and develop a narrow, light-brown cone, which
remains on the tree all winter. The tree thrives best south of the Ohio
valley, where it is frequently found from five to seven feet in diameter.
The Indians formerly made their dugout canoes from its trunk, and in some
sections it is still called _canoe wood_.
[Illustration: FIG. 113. Tulip, or Whitewood]
=55. Basswood, or Linden.= A very valuable group of trees for both shade
and timber are the basswoods, or lindens. There are several varieties,
the European linden thriving here as readily as our native varieties.
These trees may always be distinguished by the leaves, which are
heartshaped and lopsided, i.e. one side from the middle line being always
larger than the other, as if two leaves of different sizes had been
joined along the center.
This is a very common feature among certain classes of trees, such as
the elms. Another remarkable feature is the seed, or bract, shown in the
sketch (Fig. 115).
The tree is sugar-loaf in shape, gives a dense shade, and has sweet
flowers so fragrant that it is sometimes called the _bee tree_, because
the bees swarm all over it in the summer time. Its timber is valuable,
being free from knots and of such an even grain that it is much sought
after for some kinds of carving.
[Illustration: FIG. 114. American Linden, or Basswood, showing the
Sugar-Loaf Form of the Tree]
The familiar cigar-store Indian is usually carved from basswood.
Among the broad-leaved trees there are still several familiar families,
all loved by some of us for some reason.
The willow is always a striking tree, not only because of its weeping or
drooping appearance, but also because we usually associate it with water.
What is more common in the country than a stream hidden by the willows
which crowd its bank and dip down into the clear water!
Then, too, we watch it for the first sign of spring, and friends in
different states often vie with each other to discover the first _pussy
willow_, the name given to the soft, downy buds which appear often before
the snow has melted.
[Illustration: FIG. 115. Leaf and Bract of Linden]
The willow is dear to boys, because on the green twigs in spring the
bark can be separated from the wood and a whistle or simple flute
manufactured.
The wood of the willow is not very valuable, being used chiefly by pulp
makers, but it grows where no other trees can exist, being found nearly
all over the world, and creeping nearer to the north pole than any other
broad-leaved tree except the birch. It has over one hundred and fifty
varieties, which vary from small shrubs up to trees a hundred feet high.
Its soft and gentle beauty is sufficient excuse for its existence.
[Illustration: FIG. 116. A Weeping Willow]
=56. The Poplars.= In the poplars we have a group of trees similar to the
willows in some ways but very different in others. The wood is weak and
of little use except for fuel and paper pulp, but there the likeness
ends.
To this family belongs the quaking aspen, whose leaves are continually
trembling,—in fact, the whole family is a restless one, the constant
motion being due to the shape of the long stems, which are flattened.
The people of Scotland have a superstition that it was of aspen wood
that our Saviour’s cross was made, and that the tree shivers in constant
remembrance of that fact.
[Illustration: FIG. 117.
Aspen
Aspen Poplar, or Large-Toothed Aspen]
Beside the quaking aspen is the large-toothed aspen, the Lombardy poplar,
and the cottonwood.
The Lombardy is the spirelike tree which seems to reach toward the
clouds, and its tall, narrow form is familiar in many sections of our
country, although the tree was originally imported from Europe.
Cottonwood and balm of Gilead are two well-known members of this family.
Cottonwood is best known in the West, where it often constitutes the
chief and only growth along the water courses, and balm of Gilead is
known as one of our common city shade trees. This latter tree, often
called the balsam, is really an important tree of the great northwestern
country, being found plentifully in the Klondike, and often forming in
that far northern country great forests thousands of square miles in
extent. It is used as a shade tree because it stands the smoke and gas of
the city where many other trees pine away and die.
[Illustration: FIG. 118. Cottonwood, or Carolina Poplar]
=57. Sassafras.= We find many freaks in the tree world, and nature seems
to have tried to see how odd she really could be; for instance, on the
sassafras tree we find three distinct kinds of leaves, having one, two,
and three divisions.
[Illustration: FIG. 119. Sassafras]
This tree, which in the northern states is usually quite small, grows
under favorable conditions to a height of fifty feet. It is noted for
the pleasant taste of its leaves, twigs, and roots, which are used
considerably in flavoring medicines.
=58. Mulberry.= Another tree noted for the peculiar shape of its leaves
is the mulberry. There are three common kinds, named, from the color of
their berries, _red_, _black_, and _white_.
It is the white mulberry whose leaves are the food of the silkworm. The
leaves of this tree are quite regular, but those of the red and black
vary apparently as they please. No two leaves seem to be alike either in
size or shape, and they are very soft and downy.
[Illustration: FIG. 120. Red Mulberry, showing Variation in Leaf Form]