Chapter II: Part 2

But if you wish to know what a Lime tree really looks like at its best, then you must find one growing in some country park where there is space, and fresh air, and plenty of sunshine; then you will see how beautiful a tree it can be. The Lime is a tall, stately tree. It has many slender branches closely covered with leaves, which have each a long stalk. In old trees the branches often bend down close to the ground, but the sunshine always succeeds in finding its way under the Lime tree branches, and it flickers on the grass as it never does beneath the Beech tree boughs.

In winter the Lime tree is difficult to recognise, although there is one feature you may notice: its bare stems and twigs are very black against the sky, and many of the branches hang so awkwardly that they look as if they were dead. But go to the park in spring, and at once you will know which is the Lime tree. Every little twig is coloured a delicate shade of olive green tinged with crimson, and bears many small oval buds (3) which are red like rubies. In May these ruby buds burst open, and their crimson coverings fall to the ground, disclosing the pale emerald-green leaf that is tightly folded within. The leaves (2) soon open in the sunshine, and you see that each is shaped like a large pointed heart, and that the two sides of the heart are uneven.

The edge of the leaf is cut into sharp teeth, and all over it a network of fine veins is spread. When the leaf is still young you find tufts of soft, downy hairs on the under-side, and at first each leaf hangs straight down from its stalk as if it had not strength to rise and face the sunlight. But they soon raise themselves, and gradually their pale green colour darkens, though the Lime tree leaf never becomes so dark, nor is it as glossy, as the leaf of the Beech tree.

In September the Lime tree leaves turn pale yellow: rather a colourless yellow, very different from the rich gold and red-brown of the Beech, and they fall with the first touch of frost.

You may sometimes find leaves which are marked with large black, sooty-looking spots. These spots are caused by a tiny insect which has made its home on the leaf.

If you sit beneath the branches of the Lime on a warm summer day you will hear the constant hum of myriads of bees which are buzzing round the tree. They are gathering honey from the Lime tree flowers, whose delicious perfume is scenting the air.

From the spot where next year’s leaf bud will grow there hangs a long stalk; at the end of this stalk there droops a cluster of flowers (4), and at the base of each flower cluster stands a long slender leaf called a bract. This bract looks like a pale yellow wing, and is covered all over with a network of fine veins.

The flowers have five greeny white petals and five pale green sepals. In the centre is a small seed-vessel like a tiny pea, and from it there rises a slender green pillar which ends in five sticky points. Closely surrounding this seed-vessel is a ring of many stamens. Each stamen has a white stalk with an orange-coloured head, and among these stamens lie the drops of sweet juice which attract the bees.

The stamen dust is ripe before the sticky points of the seed-vessel on the same plant are ready for it; but the bees, when they bend down to suck the honey juice, brush against the ripe stamen heads, and their backs become covered with the fine powder. Away they fly to the flowers on another Lime tree, and the powder will probably be rubbed off on one where the seed-vessel is ready to receive it.

When the seed is ripe you see many little downy fruit-balls (5), each hanging from a slender stalk. In warm countries this seed ripens into a small nut which is ground down and made into a kind of chocolate. But it never ripens in England.

In some countries there are large forests of Lime trees, and the air is filled with the busy hum of the bees. The peasants make large holes in the tree trunks, and these holes the bees fill with honeycomb, which the peasants easily remove and sell. This Lime tree honey is much prized for its fine flavour.

The wood of the Lime tree is not hard enough for building purposes, but it is greatly in demand for carving. It is light and soft, and much of the beautiful wood decoration in our churches is carved from Lime tree wood. It does not easily become worm-eaten as do so many of our harder woods.

We read that in old days the soldiers’ shields were made of Lime tree wood, as the blow of a weapon was deadened when striking it.

THE ELM

1. Elm Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Ready Buds
4. Flower Spray
5. Stamen Flower enlarged
6. Seed Flower enlarged
7. Fruit Clusters and Wing]

The inner bark of the tree has always been valuable. From it are made those mats of light brown grass which gardeners use to protect their delicate plants during winter; and these tails of dried-looking grass with which they tie bunches of flowers instead of using string, are also made from the Lime tree bark. This inner bark is called “bass” or “bast,” and is chiefly made in Russia and Sweden.

It is from this bass or string that the tree gets its name, which is not really Lime, but Line or Linden, and is so called in other countries. We in Britain have got into the bad habit of mispronouncing the word. The true Lime tree is a cousin of the Orange and Lemon trees, and bears a yellow fruit called Limes. But the Linden tree is no relation of this Lime tree, and is so called because it is the tree from which we get gardener’s dried string or line, and we must remember that our popular name is a wrong one, and not the true name of the tree.

PLATE VIII

THE COMMON ELM AND WYCH OR BROAD-LEAVED ELM

There are two kinds of Elm which grow abundantly in this country, and both are lofty, noble trees. The Common Elm (1) you will recognise easily, because its rough black trunk is clothed right down to the ground with a dense mass of brushwood. This brushwood is really a forest of small branches, and shoots, and twigs which spring from the Elm tree root; and if you separate some of these young shoots and plant them alone they will grow into young Elm tree saplings.

In winter you will always know the Common Elm by its brushwood clothing, and in early spring, in March, after there have been a few sunny days, you will see tiny green leaf buds opening in this brushwood sheaf before the large upper branches show any signs of life.

The Common Elm is one of our tallest trees. It has a thick rough trunk, on which are many large gnarled bosses or knobs. The bark of the tree is very rugged and is covered with many deep furrows.

The branches of this Elm do not grow gracefully in sweeping curves like those of the Ash tree; they have a dwarf, zig-zag appearance, and often they are twisted and knotted.

The young twigs that grow on these branches are short and tiny, a network of little bushy sprays growing close to the branch, and their bark is downy and corky when it is young, but becomes hard as the season advances.

In early spring these tiny twigs bear many small scaly buds (3) like beads. These beads open very early, before the end of April, and from each there bursts a bunch of flowers (4). What you notice first in this flower tuft is the crowd of reddish stamens with large purple heads. But if you gently pull to pieces one of these flower bunches, you will find that the stamens are not growing loose, but that they are held together in groups of five or more, in a dark green or purplish vase (5). This vase is funnel-shaped, and widens out round the mouth into four scallops. The oval seed-vessel (6) is at the bottom, hidden from sight. Do not forget to notice that in the Elm tree the stamens and seed-vessel grow close together in one flower.

The stamens soon shrivel and fall off, and their place is taken by bunches of flat green wings (7), each with a tiny knob in the centre, which is the fruit. These green shields, or wings, serve the same purpose as the keys or wings of the Ash tree. They are thin and light like paper, and in the Common Elm each shield is deeply notched at one end, almost to the centre seed.

When the seed is ripe the wind blows these bunches of papery shields away from the twigs, and they are carried long distances.

The Elm tree seed is almost ripe before the leaves (2) begin to sprout. The leaf buds are pink and downy, and the young leaves are folded fan-ways inside. Each leaf has a short stalk, and is small and narrow, with two rows of unequally-sized teeth round the edge. These leaves are rough and harsh above, with many hairs along the centre rib, hairs like those on the Nettle, which is a member of the same family as the Elm, but these hairs, though they irritate, do not actually sting. In October the leaves turn yellow, and after a touch of frost they fall in showers.

Sometimes you will notice large black spots disfiguring the leaves. These spots are caused by a minute plant which makes its home on the leaf and in the end destroys it. After the leaves have fallen, they lie on the ground till spring comes again, then this black plant increases rapidly, and soon covers all the leaf, which quickly decays.

Cattle love the Elm tree leaves when they are green and young, and in some places they are stripped from the trees in sackfuls to feed the cows.

Many insects make their home on the Elm tree. The caterpillar of the large tortoise-shell butterfly feeds on the leaves, and there is an insect beetle that burrows little tunnels in the wood and loosens the bark from the tree. If you pick up some pieces of Elm tree wood where a woodman has been sawing, you will see curious markings like the veins of a skeleton leaf, tunnelled in the wood. These are made by a tiny beetle, and are very injurious to the tree.

But the beetle has an enemy that comes to the tree’s rescue. Sometimes on a still day if you are sitting quietly in the woods, you will hear a gentle tap-tapping close beside you. This is the woodpecker, a bird which is perched on the rough bark of the Elm tree, and with his bill he pecks at the tree in search of insects which form his favourite meal.

Birds love the Elm trees, as their shade is not too dense to shut out the sunshine, and you will often find rooks’ nests in the upper branches, tossed and swayed by the gales.

The Elm tree is useful for many purposes. Farmers plant it in their hedgerows, as grass will grow freely above its roots.

In Italy the Elms are trained to carry the Vines. The young trees have all their lower branches cut off, leaving the bare stem like a living pole; round this pole the slender vine is twined, and its graceful trails hang in festoons from the crown of Elm branches which are left at the top of the pole to give shade. In poetry you read of the Vine tree wedded to the common Elm, which it clasps with its clinging arms.

Elm tree wood is very valuable as timber. These rough bosses which grow on the trunk are prized by cabinet-makers, who find the wood curiously veined and streaked.

The inner lining of the bark is very tough, and is made into ropes and garden string or bast, as in the Lime tree. And the wood is sought for all purposes where durability is needed; it lasts well in water, and is much in demand for ship-building.

The Wych Elm or Broad-leaved Elm resembles the Common Elm in many ways, but there are several small differences you must note. There is no brushwood sheaf clothing the base of the Wych Elm trunk; it is bare and rough right down to the ground. The leaves are larger and much broader, resembling those of the Hazel, and the branches of the Wych Elm are long and spreading and much more graceful than the twisted boughs of its sister Elm.

If you look carefully at the green wings that surround the tiny seed of the Wych Elm and compare it with those of the Common Elm, you will find that the seed lies nearly in the centre of the wing, and that the notch which is cut at the end of the wing is smaller than the deep notch of the Common Elm.

The Wych Elm is far the more graceful of the two trees, and it grows much more quickly than its rugged sister.

The name Wych is supposed to be Scotch. Small pieces of the wood were said to be effective as charms against witches, and country dairy-maids used to place a tiny bit of this Elm wood in the churn so that the witches could not prevent the milk from becoming butter!

THE ASH

1. Ash Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. “Keys” or “Spinners” Ash Fruit
4. Black Buds
5. Leaf Scars
6. Stamen enlarged
7. Seed enlarged
8. Ash Flowers]

PLATE IX

THE ASH

“If the oak before the ash,
Then you’ll only have a splash;
If the ash before the oak,
Then you’re sure to have a soak.”

--Old Saying.

If the Oak is well named the King of the woods, to the Ash belongs the honour of being called Queen, the wood’s fairest. She is a queen with an ancient history. In the dim long ago there must have been Ash trees, for we read that the great spear of Achilles was an “ashen spear”; also, that the gods held council under the boughs of a great Ash tree: on its highest branches sat an eagle; round its root a serpent lay coiled; and a tiny squirrel ran up and down the branches carrying messages from one to the other.

In much later times the Ash tree was held to have magic powers of healing. Sick babies were said to be cured if they passed through a cleft made in its trunk; and there are many tales of men and animals who recovered from illness on touching an Ash twig gathered from a tree in which a shrew mouse had been buried.

Nowadays we have grown so wise that we think differently about these things, and we love the Ash tree because of its beauty, and are grateful for the many ways in which the wood is useful to us.

You should try to find an Ash tree (1) in early spring. It is one of the easiest trees to recognise before it is clothed in leaves.

The trunk is very straight, and has none of the knobs and bosses which grow on the Oak and Elm tree trunks. When the Ash tree is still young the bark is a pale grey colour--ash-colour, we call it--and it is very smooth. But as the tree grows older the bark cracks into many irregular upright ridges, which remind you of the rimples left by the waves on a sandy sea-shore.

At first the lower branches grow straight out from the trunk, but soon they curve gracefully downwards; then they rise again, and the tips point upward toward the sky.

Notice the tips of these branches--they are quite different from all other tree tips. In an Ash tree you will not see a network of delicate branching twigs outlined against the sky. Each branch ends in a stout pale grey twig, which is slightly flattened at the tip, as if it had been pinched between two fingers when still soft. Beyond this flattened tip you see two fat black buds (4), and there are smaller black buds at the sides of the twig. It is these curious black buds at the tips and on the sides of the twig which will make it easy for you to distinguish the Ash tree from every other.

Long after the other trees have put on their young green leaves the Ash tree stands bare and leafless, waiting till the frost and cold winds are gone before its black buds will unfold. Then out it comes, flowers first. The sooty buds at the sides of the twig open, and you see that they have dark brown linings, and that in the middle of each bud there lies a thick bunch of purple stamen heads (6), crowded together like grains of purple corn; these are the Ash tree flowers (8).

Ash tree flowers have no petals and no sepals; they have only a green, bottle-shaped seed-vessel (7), which stands between two stamens with pale green stalks and fat purple-coloured heads. Sometimes there is not even a seed-vessel; you may find nothing but a crowded bunch of purply stamens. This latter kind of Ash tree cannot produce any fruit.

In a few weeks these stamens shrivel and the purple heads fall off. The seed-vessels, too, become very different. They change into long flat green wings, which hang each from its own stalk in a cluster at the end or from the side of the branch. These silky green wings are called “keys” (3), or in some places, “spinners”; at one end they are notched, and at the other, close to the stalk, lies the fruit. Long after the Ash tree leaves are withered and fallen you can see these bunches of “keys,” grown brown and shrivelled, still clinging to the branches. When wintry weather comes they are torn off by the wind, and the winged seed, spinning round and round in the air, is carried a long distance.

You will see Ash trees growing high up on rocky precipices, where only the birds or the wind could have left the seed.

By the month of May, when the keys of the Ash are fully formed, the green leaves (2) begin to appear. They are beautiful feathery leaves, full of lightness, and grace, and strength. Each leaf is made up of from four to eleven pairs of leaflets, shaped like a lance, with toothed edges, and these are placed opposite each other on a central stalk: there is nearly always a single leaflet at the end. The leaves are pale green, and when they first open you see a soft browny down on the leaf ribs, but this soon wears off. They droop gracefully from the twigs, which you can now see require to be stout and strong to carry such large wind-tossed feathers.

But the Ash tree leaves are among the first to fall. Whenever the cold winds come they wither, and a single night of frost will strew them in hundreds on the ground. Where the leaf stalk joined the twig you will see a curious scar (5) shaped like a horse-shoe, and next year a black bud will appear inside this scar. The Ash tree will live for several hundred years. It is not fully grown up till it is forty or fifty years old, and till then you will not find any bunches of keys, with their seeds, growing on the tree.

THE FIELD MAPLE

1. Field Maple in Autumn
2. Leaf Spray
3. Flower Spike
4. Fruit]

Notice that the ground beneath the branches of the Ash tree is usually bare. Many of its roots spread out to a great distance close below the surface, and they are so greedy, and require so much nourishment for the tree, that there is none left for other plants. Some farmers think that the raindrops which drip from the feathery Ash leaves are hurtful to other plants, so they are unwilling to plant Ash trees in their fields and hedgerows.

The wood of the Ash is very valuable, and will bring as much money as that of the Oak or Elm. It is used for all kinds of work--for furniture and for ship-building, and for making wheels and poles, and it lasts well and does not readily split.

PLATE X

THE FIELD MAPLE

There are many mistakes made in naming the Maple and Plane trees. The Sycamore or False Plane tree, the Oriental Plane, and the Field Maple are often called wrongly by each other’s names. So you must note carefully the differences between them. The Sycamore and the Field Maple are cousins, but the Oriental Plane is not even a distant relation of these, and only resembles them in the shape of its leaves. It is not really difficult to distinguish one from the other.

The Field Maple (1) is nearly always a small tree which you find growing in the hedgerows, where it is more like a large bush than a tree. You rarely find it standing alone in a wide park, bearing great branches heavily clothed with leaves, as you find the Sycamore or Great Maple. In England it is a common hedgerow tree, but it is not native to Scotland and is seldom found there.

Early in spring you find the long slender shoots covered with buds, from which burst small leaves of a beautiful bright crimson colour. These leaves (2) are toothed round the edges and are shaped like a hand with five short fingers; in the Field Maple the fingers are blunt at the points, not sharp as are those of the Sycamore and of the Oriental Plane.

As the spring advances those pretty crimson leaves become dark green above and a light green on the under-side, and they lose the soft down which covered them, but even when fully out they are never so large as those of the Sycamore. When autumn draws near, with its cold winds and frosty nights, the Field Maple leaves change colour once more and become brilliant yellow; you will see them shining in the hedgerows like a bush of gold.

Many of the leaves are disfigured by small red spots, and if you look at one of these spots with a magnifying-glass you will see that is caused by a tiny insect which has made this little red nest in which to lay its eggs.

The leaves of the Field Maple, like those of the Sycamore, are placed opposite each other on the twig; in the Oriental Plane they grow alternately, one a little way above the other on opposite sides of the spray. There is a great deal of sugary juice in Maple leaves, and cattle love to eat them. In some countries they are stripped from the trees and kept for winter fodder for the cows.

The bark of the Field Maple is noted for its strange corky nature and its curious growth. It grows in upright ridges, deeply furrowed, which look as if they could easily be broken off. In the Oriental Plane the bark is quite smooth, and it peels off in large flakes, leaving patches of different colours on the tree trunk.

In April, when the leaves are still unfolding, the Field Maple brings out its spikes of flowers (3). You will at once notice that these flower clusters stand erect, and do not droop in pointed tassels like those of the Sycamore. Now, look at the flowers in an Oriental Plane, and you will discover that they bear no resemblance either to those of the Sycamore or of the Field Maple, with which it is often confused. They do not even grow in clusters, but in round, prickly balls which are threaded on a slender green chain.

The flowers of the Field Maple are what botanists call “perfect flowers,” which means that each flower has all its parts complete within itself. In every bloom you will find five narrow green sepals and five narrow green petals; within the ring of petals stand eight yellow-headed stamens, and seated in the centre of the flower is a seed-vessel with a small wing at each side and with two curly horns standing up at the top. There is plenty of honey juice hidden among these stamens, and the bees buzz all day long around the Maple blossoms.

As the season advances, the petals and sepals and stamens fall off, but the seed-vessel grows larger and larger, till you find bunches of winged seeds (4) standing erect where the flowers once grew.

Notice that in this tree the seeds are close together beside the stalk, and that the wings stand straight out from the seeds and are not bent into the shape of the letter U, as they are in the Sycamore. These bunches of winged seeds are frequently tinged with bright crimson, and are very attractive among the glossy green leaves.

In autumn the strong winds strip them from their stalks and the wings bear the seed far from the parent tree. Some botanists tell us that these seeds require to lie in the ground for more than a year before they begin to grow.

THE SYCAMORE

1. Sycamore Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Fat Bud
4. Flower Spike
5. Winged Fruit]

The Field Maple is full of sugary sap, but nothing is made of it in this country, as the trees do not yield enough to make it worth while. But in Canada the sap is drawn from the trees and made into sugar. I am sure you must have seen the brown blocks of Maple sugar in the confectioners’ windows.

The wood of the Field Maple is too small to be of much use, but it is strangely and beautifully marked and veined with spots and stripes like the skin of a tiger or panther, and is eagerly bought for decorative purposes. The knots that grow on the roots were said to be worth their weight in gold, and in old history books you read that the thrones of great kings were made of Maple. Nowadays the wood is largely used for making small articles such as plates, and cups, and trays, and it can be cut so thin without breaking that the light may be seen through it.

In France the long slender Maple shoots are used for coachmen’s whips.

PLATE XI

THE SYCAMORE, OR GREAT MAPLE, OR MOCK PLANE

There is a good deal of confusion in people’s minds as to the right name for this familiar tree. Sycamore is not an English word, but is made from a Greek word meaning fig or mulberry. The tree has been so called because many years ago people believed that it was a relation of the fig tree which grows so abundantly by the roadside in Palestine. The leaves are a little alike, but there is no real resemblance between our English Great Maple and the Eastern Sycamore: the name has been given by mistake.

Another mistaken name given to this tree is Plane tree. The Great Maple is only a mock Plane tree or false Plane tree; it is not even a relation of the real Plane any more than it is a relation of the Fig or Sycamore. But mistakes even in names are very difficult to correct, and in many places, particularly in Scotland, you will find that Sycamore (1) or Plane tree is the name usually given to the Great Maple.

It is a large heavy tree, with a great central trunk covered with a gnarled bark which peels off in flakes, leaving patches of different shades. From every side of this central trunk there grow stout branches covered with masses of thick foliage, the thickest and heaviest foliage of any British tree.

If you look at the Sycamore tree as it stands in an open field, or in a hedgerow, with grass growing close to its very trunk, I think what will strike you most is how evenly it has grown all round. There are so many trees that grow all to one side if they are much exposed to a cold wind. Look at the Beech, or the Hawthorn, or the Elm on the crest of a ridge, and you will at once know from which direction the wind blows strongest and coldest, by seeing how the tree puts out all its best branches on the sheltered side. But the Sycamore tree is indifferent to cold, or even to the salt sea winds; it sends out its branches equally on every side, and there is always a thick roof of leaves at the top.

The Sycamore tree prefers a dry soil, in which it grows very quickly; and it will not die if transplanted.

In early spring the twigs bear many large fat buds (3), which are covered with soft downy pink scales. The Horse Chestnut is the only other tree which bears such large buds, but they are dark and very sticky.

In country places the children call the largest buds at the end of the Sycamore twig “cocks,” and the smaller buds which grow along the sides they call “hens.” When these buds open early in May you see how beautifully the leaves are folded fan-ways inside. Each leaf (2) is shaped like a large hand with five bluntly-pointed fingers; the edges are coarsely toothed, and the leaf is dark green above and a paler green underneath. They grow on long stalks, which are a reddish pink colour so long as the leaves are young, and each stalk is scooped into a hollow at the end, so that it may fit closely to the twig.

These leaves are not placed alternately on opposite sides of the branch, as in the Beech or Elm: they grow in clumps, or bouquets, and each pair of leaves is placed cross-ways to the pair above. Those that come out first have long stalks and are the largest; then the second pair is smaller, and the third pair smaller still, till the bouquet is finished with two tiny leaves in the centre.

Notice that the leaves of the Sycamore are often marked with sticky drops. By old writers these drops are called honey-dew. It is believed that the sap of the Sycamore is sugary, and some of this sugary juice escapes through the leaf pores to the surface. These handsome leaves are often spotted with small black dots, which are caused by a tiny plant. This plant makes its home on the Sycamore leaf, and unknowingly disfigures its kind host.

Before the leaves are quite out the flowers appear. They grow in drooping spikes (4), or large tassels of a pale yellowish green colour. Each tassel is made up of many separate flowers, and most of these flowers have a calyx with five to twelve narrow strap-shaped sepals, and a corolla of the same number of yellow-green petals. There is also a ring of slender stamens standing round a flat green cushion or disc. In the centre sits the seed-vessel, which has two curved horns at the top. But in the flower tassel you may also find flowers in which some of the parts are awanting: one flower will have stamens, but no seed-vessel, and its neighbour will have a seed-vessel and no stamens, while in a third the petals may be awanting. You must examine each flower till you find one which is perfect. These Sycamore flowers contain much honey, nearly as much as those of the Lime tree; and the bees are glad to hover round the tree flowers, which blossom long before those in the meadow are open.

After the flowers are withered the seed (5) develops wings like the Ash and the Elm. But these wings are very different from those of any other tree. They are shaped like the letter U, with the two seeds at the bottom of the letter where it joins the stalk. Each seed is like a small pea, and is snugly packed in a horny case lined with the softest and silkiest down. When it is ripe the wind blows the winged seeds from the tree and carries them a long way. They fall into the ground, where the horny case prevents the young seed from rotting during the cold winter months before it is time for it to begin to sprout. Then when spring comes the baby seed bursts its covering and sends up two tiny green ribbon leaves which are the beginning of a new Sycamore tree. The wings of the Sycamore seed are beautifully tinged with pink.

The wood of the Sycamore or Great Maple is white and very soft, but it is closely grained. Sometimes you see big knobs on the tree trunk where a branch has died or been broken off, and cabinet-makers prize these knobs, as the wood is very curiously marked with beautiful veins and streaks. Maple wood will polish as smooth as satin, and the backs of violins are often made of it. In old books we read of table-tops that were made of curiously marked pieces of Maple, and it is told that more than eight hundred pounds was given for one of these Maple tables.

In Scotland the Sycamore tree was often called the dool tree, or tree of mourning, because the nobles used to hang disobedient servants or vanquished foes on its strong branches; and at Cassilis, in Ayrshire, there is a Sycamore tree which is well known to have been used for this cruel purpose.

PLATE XII

THE ORIENTAL PLANE

There are two kinds of Plane tree which have come to us as strangers from foreign lands and have taken kindly to our cold climate and biting winds. These are the Oriental or Eastern Plane and the Occidental or Western Plane. The differences between them are not great, and the one which you will most easily remember is, that in the Oriental Plane the leaf stalk is green, whereas in the Occidental Plane tree it is purply red. We owe a special debt of gratitude to these Plane trees because they add beauty to so many of the dingy streets and squares in our big cities.

THE ORIENTAL PLANE TREE

1. Oriental Plane Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Stamen Flower Balls
4. Seed Flower Balls
5. Fruit]

The trunk of the Oriental Plane (1) is very smooth, and is usually ash-grey in colour; sometimes it is a very dark green. The outer layer of this trunk peels off in flakes, leaving large patches of greenish yellow, and these give the tree a curious speckled appearance. It is a tall, handsome tree, and if you look at it from a distance you see that the broad leaves group themselves into large masses with a wide space between each mass. This you can only see in a full-grown tree, and such trees are rarely met with in our dusty towns.

On account of its leaves the Oriental Plane tree is frequently confused with the Sycamore, so you must notice carefully wherein they differ. The leaves (2) of the Oriental Plane are shaped like a hand with five sharply-pointed fingers, and each finger is cut all round into sharp teeth. The leaves are very smooth, and light, and fine, and are as thin as paper. They will lie quite flat if you lay them on a table. Each leaf is placed alternately with its neighbour on the twig, the second leaf growing on the opposite side of the twig, but a little further up than the first leaf. In the Sycamore you remember that the leaves grow in pairs placed exactly opposite each other, and that the second pair is always placed cross-ways to the first pair? These Oriental Plane leaves are so smooth that the rain easily washes all dust and soot from them, and this is why this tree manages to live in a city better than those which have crinkled, or hairy, or sticky leaves, which catch and keep the choking dust.

In most trees the leaf buds are to be found growing between the base of the leaf stem and the twig which supports it. You will find no trace of such buds in the Oriental Plane; they are carefully hidden, and are tenderly protected in a marvellous way.

You see that the base of the leaf stalk is considerably swollen, and that round it there is a line? If you gently pull the leaf, it will come apart from the twig at this line, and then you will discover that the swollen part of the leaf stalk is hollow, and is fitted like a cap over the tiny leaf bud, which is cosily sheltered within. This baby leaf bud is very sensitive to cold, and has many wrappings as well as the leaf cap. Its outer case is lined with sticky gum, which keeps out any damp; then come many small scales covered with soft fur, and inside these lie the tiny leaves, wrapped in a quilt of soft, silky down. This silky down is golden-brown in colour, and it remains on the young leaf till it is quite grown up. Sometimes the young buds are tempted by bright sunshine to throw off their winter coverings too soon. Then if biting frost comes they all die, and the tree will bear no more buds that year. The Plane tree gets its name from a Greek word which means a shield, and this name was given because its broad, flat leaves cast a very welcome shade in hot Eastern lands.

In winter it is easy to recognize the Oriental Plane by its curious seeds. Hanging on the bare branches are strings of round bristly fruit-balls (5), three or four, or even five, threaded like large beads on a long slender chain. There are no seed balls such as these on the Sycamore tree, nor on its cousin the Field Maple.

These seed balls are very interesting. Early in spring you see them dangling in the air, and you must pluck one of the green chains and examine its round beads. In one ball are grouped together bunches of purple stamens (3), which have a few pointed, dry scales at the base of each group. As soon as these stamens are ripe and their pollen dust has been blown away, these balls shrivel and fall off. But close beside them, on a similar green chain, are dangling the seed balls (4). Inside these balls there is a soft green cushion, and all over this cushion are stuck small green seeds shaped like pears, each with a tiny point like a stalk standing up at the top. After the stamen dust has fallen on these seeds they enlarge into a small hard nut, and a tuft of bristly down grows up from the base of each seed. The ball becomes a dark brown colour, and it dangles all winter on the tree; then in spring, when the leaves are ready to burst their coverings, these brown balls fall to the ground and the dry seeds are blown away, each seed floating in the air by the aid of its bristly down.

In America these Eastern and Western Plane trees are called Button trees, because the seed balls resemble old-fashioned buttons.

The wood of the Oriental Plane is used by piano-makers, coach-builders, and cabinet-makers. It is a light brown colour, and is said to be very tough.

PLATE XIII

THE WHITE POPLAR OR ABELE TREE

In the old Greek legends we read that Hercules won a victory over Kakos on Mount Aventine. On the mountain grew a thick grove of Poplar trees, and Hercules, overjoyed with his triumph, bound a branch of the graceful leaves around his brow as a sign of victory. Soon afterwards he went down into the infernal regions, the place of tears and gloom, and when he came back to earth it was seen that the upper side of his leafy garland was darkened with the smoke of Hades, but that the under-side of the leaves had been washed silver white with the sweat which streamed from his brow. Ever since that day the leaves of the Aventine Poplar grow white on the under-side, and in course of time its seeds were brought by travellers to Britain, and the tree has taken kindly to our less sunny land. So the tale runs.

THE WHITE POPLAR

1. White Poplar or Abele Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Seed Catkin
4. Stamen Catkin]

It is by these dark green leaves with their thick white lining that you will always know the White Poplar or Abele tree (1), and when you learn how many relations it has, and how closely they resemble each other, you will be glad to have this marked distinction by which you may easily know this member of the family.

The Poplar, like the Willows, prefers to grow in damp places. The most perfect trees are found in meadows close to a river. In France the people plant them along the river banks, and from far away you can trace the windings of the water by the tall Poplar spires which edge its banks.

The Poplars are very fast-growing trees; they will shoot up to a great height in the life-time of a man, and for this reason they are often planted where a screen is quickly required. The lower part of the trunk is dark and is deeply furrowed, but the upper is a dingy yellow colour, and on it there are many black streaks.

Early in March the White Poplar begins to flower. It is one of the catkin-bearing trees, and high on the upper branches there dance and dangle long slender woolly tails of a purplish red colour. These are the stamen catkins (4), and you must pick one to pieces and see how beautifully it is made.

The stamens are grouped together in little bunches of from eight to thirty on a round disc, and at the foot of this disc, on one side, rises a scale which is green on the lower half and reddish brown on the upper half. This scale is deeply and irregularly toothed all round the edge, and is surrounded with fine silk which stands up like a fan. These bunches of stamens are placed all round the catkin tail, with the scales nearly covering the purple stamen heads. As soon as the pollen dust in the stamen heads is ripe and the wind has shaken it out of their dust-bags, the catkin shrivels and falls to the ground. You will find the ground strewn with them in early spring.

But the White Poplar has another catkin flower which bears the seeds, and this flower grows on a separate tree. These seed catkins (3) are stouter and shorter, and are not nearly so noticeable as the long stamen catkins. The green seed-vessel sits in a tiny cup, and on the top of the seed you see a cross of four yellow rays. On one side of the cup rises a scale which is brown at the upper edge and is fringed with down as in the stamen catkin. The wind brings the stamen dust to the four yellow rays on the top of the little seed-vessel, but if there should be no stamen-bearing trees growing near, then the White Poplar can produce no new seeds; it remains barren.

The leaves (2) of the White Poplar are triangular in shape and are deeply jagged all round. When in bud the sides of the leaf are rolled towards the centre, so that the under-side of the leaf, with its thick white lining, is turned outward. The young branches and buds are also thickly covered with fine white down.

The Poplar leaves never seem to be still; they dance and sparkle in the sunshine, and even on quiet days you will see them fluttering. In autumn these leaves turn golden yellow before they fall.

The wood of the White Poplar is too quickly grown to be very durable. It is largely used for making children’s toys, because it does not readily split when nails are driven into it. It will not burn easily, and for this reason it makes good floors for dwelling-houses.

Besides the White Poplar or Abele tree there are two other Poplars which are fairly common in this country. One is the Lombardy Poplar, which grows tall and slender like a church spire; its branches rise upward like the flame of a torch, and the tree trunk is clothed to the very ground with withered branches, which never spread outwards, but grow close to the main stem. There is no difficulty in recognising the Lombardy Poplar.

The Black Poplar is also common in many parts of Britain. Its leaves are not lined with white; they are heart-shaped, with no jagged edges, but with dainty little teeth cut evenly all round. The heads of the stamens, which grow in groups on the catkin tail, are very dark purple, and they hang from the end of twigs, which are rough with the scars of last year’s leaves.

PLATE XIV

THE ASPEN

“Variable as the shade
By the light, quivering aspen made.”

--Scott.

The Aspen (1) is a member of the Poplar family, and in many ways it resembles its cousins. But you will always know an Aspen tree by its leaves (2). These are never still unless when a storm is brooding and the air is perfectly calm; at all other times they shake and quiver incessantly, and you can hear the gentle rustle they make as each leaf rubs against its neighbour. In the Scottish Highlands the country people tell you that the Aspen trembles because at the Crucifixion the cross of Christ was made of Aspen, and the tree must always shudder at the recollection of the cruel purpose it served.

THE ASPEN

1. Aspen Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Stamen Catkins
4. Seed Catkin]

The Aspen is usually found growing in copses, or in meadow lands, where it flourishes best in a damp soil; but it is also found on mountain ground, and is very common in the north of Scotland. It is not a long-lived tree: the heart of it begins to decay after fifty or sixty years, just at the age when many of our most familiar trees are at their finest. The wood is very soft, and is of little use either for building or for manufacturing purposes; but it is beautifully white, and sculptors use it for decorative carving; also many of the wooden blocks required by engravers for printing are made of Aspen wood.

The Aspen is one of our catkin-bearing trees. Early in spring you will see dangling on the branches long fluffy tails, which you must pluck and examine carefully. There are two kinds of flowering catkins on the Aspen, and both kinds may be found growing on the same tree. Sometimes you find them close beside each other on the same branch.

In the stamen catkin (3) you see many bunches of tiny stamens with bluey-purple heads: these bunches are dotted all over the catkin tail, and each stamen bunch is nearly hidden by a large scale which rises at one side. This scale is green in the lower half and pale brown in the upper half, and its edges are cut into deep jagged points. This jagged scale lies above the stamen bunch, so that you can just see their heads appearing under the torn edge of the scale. Each stamen is surrounded by a mass of soft grey woolly down, which makes all the catkin look fluffy and silky.

The seed catkin (4) of the Aspen looks much the same as the stamen catkin; it is a long, dangling fat tail, covered with fluffy grey down; but it has no stamens. This catkin bears the seed-vessels, and each seed-vessel resembles a small green pea sitting in a tiny green cup. This pea splits open at the top, and you see four pale pink points rising from the opening. These points are waiting for the stamen dust to reach them, and as soon as that happens they shrivel and disappear; then the seed busies itself in preparing the new plant. Above each green seed-vessel there stands a scale with the edge cut into large torn-looking points. These scales nearly cover the seed-vessel, and they look like brown splashes on the bed of soft fluffy down.

When the seeds are ripe the catkins fall from the tree; the seeds separate from the tail, and the wind blows them a long distance by the aid of the fluffy down which surrounds each seed.

THE WHITE WILLOW

1. White Willow Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Pussy Buds
4. Stamen Catkin
5. Seed Catkin]

The Aspen leaves (2) are very dainty and pretty. Each leaf grows at the end of a long slender stalk which is flattened like a ribbon, and is placed edge-ways to the twig. The stalk is not strong enough to hold the leaf upright, so it droops, unless when the breeze lifts it in the air, and then you hear a constant rustle-rustle, as if the leaves were whispering to each other. These Aspen leaves are nearly round, and they have evenly-cut teeth on the edges. They are rather small and are dark in colour, and there is no white lining underneath except the soft down which you often find on very young leaves, and which soon disappears.

Through the grass beside its root the Aspen sends up a great many young shoots which are called suckers. The leaves on these young suckers are heart-shaped, and the edges are quite smooth, without any teeth.

Cattle are very fond of these young leaves, so are deer, and goats, and even the beaver. In some places people strip the Aspen leaves from the trees and give them to the cattle, which eat them greedily.

PLATE XV

THE WHITE WILLOW

To distinguish different members of the Willow family is very difficult. It contains many brothers and sisters who are so much alike that you would require to study nothing but willows for many a day if you wished to know each from the other.

In this book are described three different Willows. The first is a lofty tree with a thick trunk and spreading branches; the second is usually a bushy mass of slender twigs bending over the river bed; and the third is a small creeping shrub which twines itself among the roots of the heather, and carpets the ground with masses of silky down. And I think if you know well these three kinds of Willow, you should be able to group the other members of the family around them.

The White Willow (1) is the name given to the largest Willow tree, and very beautiful it is in early spring when the leaves unfold. It has a thick trunk covered with rough, rugged bark, and it sends out large branches, from which grow many smooth, slender twigs. The leaves (2) appear about the middle of May, long narrow leaves which taper to a point, and from a distance you would think that the edges were quite smooth. But when you pick a leaf you find that there are dainty little teeth cut all round the edge. These narrow leaves are covered on both sides with a silky grey down; this gives them a pale, silvery-grey colour, and from a distance you can easily recognise a White Willow tree by the glistening of this beautiful grey foliage, so different from the vivid young green of the Larch and the yellow-green of the Limes and Sycamores.

The White Willow produces two kinds of flowers, and these grow in catkins on different trees. The stamen catkins are the prettiest, and they appear about the same time as the young leaves. At first these stamen catkins are small egg-shaped buds, closely covered with silky grey down--pussy buds (3) the children call them; but they open very quickly, and in a few days you will see, dropping from the branches, small green catkins which curl slightly like caterpillars. Each catkin is covered with closely-shut scales, and by the time the leaves are out the scales of these stamen catkins unclose (4). Behind each scale there rises a pair of stamens on long slender stalks. These stamen stalks are hairy on the lower half, and so are the catkin scales. The heads of the stamens are sometimes tinged with red, and between each pair of stamens there lies a honey bag. Notice how constantly the bees are heard buzzing among the Willow branches. When the stamen heads are ripe they burst open, and the fine dust inside is carried by the wind to a Willow tree, on which the seed catkins grow.