Chapter IV: Part 4

Song birds, especially the blackbirds, love to eat cherries, and as we are very grateful to the birds for eating the many grubs and insects which destroy our fruit and corn, we must not grudge them a feast from our Cherry trees. It is probably the birds who have carried the seeds to the many different places where we find Cherry trees springing up.

The Wild Cherry (1) is a tall tree with wide-spreading branches. It has a smooth grey bark, from which you will often see oozing large drops of clear gum. This gum is very sticky, it will not melt in cold water, and it is very difficult to remove from your fingers. The Wild Cherry leaves (2) appear in spring, long oval leaves ending in a point, and with sharp teeth along the edge. These leaves are very soft, and they droop from the twigs. At first the leaf is folded lengthways, with the two edges meeting, and it is a dull brown colour; but this colour soon changes in the sunshine to a soft green, and when autumn comes you find leaves of every shade of pink and red and crimson.

The large white Cherry blossoms (2) come almost at the same time as the leaves, and they grow in loose clusters, in which the flowers hang from the end of long, drooping stalks. There are always many small leaf-like scales where these flower stalks join the twig. Each blossom has a pear-shaped calyx at the end of the flower stalk, and this calyx is edged with five green points. These points fold back against the stalk after the flower is withered.

There are five large snowy petals which make the flower clusters look very lovely in the spring sunshine, but the petals fall very quickly and strew the ground with their snowy flakes.

Within the petal circle there are many slender stamens, and you can see a long red-tipped point rising from the seed-vessel, which lies concealed in the pear-shaped calyx which stands beneath the petals and sepals.

The Wild Cherry fruit (3) is black, and sometimes dark red. It is rather sour, and the cherries we buy in the shops are usually cherries which have been cultivated in an orchard, and have been grown in a warmer country.

In Cambridgeshire there is a festival called Cherry Sunday, when every one goes to the Cherry orchard, and on paying sixpence may eat as many cherries as he pleases.

For some unknown reason the cuckoo has always been associated with the Cherry tree. There is an old proverb which says, “The cuckoo never sings till he has thrice eaten his fill of cherries”; and country children play a delightful game in which he has a part. They join hands and dance round a Cherry tree, singing--

“Cuckoo, Cherry tree,
Come down and tell to me,
How many years I have to live.”

Then each child shakes one of the Cherry tree branches, and the number of cherries that fall tell him how many years he will live. If five cherries fall he has five years to live, and if twelve cherries fall he will live twelve years, and so on.

There is a cunning little bird called the woodpecker which very often visits the Cherry tree. He eats the insects that live on its bark; and you can hear his bill peck, pecking at the trunk as he picks up his food.

The wood of the Cherry tree is hard, yet easily worked. It is much in demand by furniture makers, and is a rich red colour which can be highly polished.

PLATE XXV

THE WHITEBEAM

In the old Saxon language, which was once the language spoken by most of the people in England, the word beam means a tree, so we must be careful not to speak of the Whitebeam tree, as that would be just the same as to say the White tree tree.

The Whitebeam (1) is not nearly so common as the Oak, or the Ash or Beech, and yet it has been known in this country for many hundred years. It is found growing stiff and tall on bleak chalky pastures as well as in beautiful parks and plantations. The trunk is covered with a rough brown bark, and there are great deep roots which spread widely and keep the tree firmly attached to the soil.

THE WHITEBEAM

1. Whitebeam
2. Flower Cluster with Leaves
3. Fruit Cluster with Leaves]

It is easy to see why this tree is called the Whitebeam. Look at the fat buds which have been on the tree all winter, making you think that spring was close at hand. In April these buds burst open, and you see that the young leaves inside are covered with a thick coating of woolly down. They are the woolliest buds which grow in this country, and the leaves (2), when they first come out, are as white as if they had been sprinkled with flour. They are pretty leaves, broad and oval, with large teeth cut all round the edge and with clearly-marked veins. At first each leaf is white above as well as below, but as it gets older the woolly down disappears from the upper side, and the leaf becomes a dark, glossy green. But watch the tree some day when the wind is stirring, and at every gust the dark green leaves blow upwards and sideways, and you will see that the back of each leaf is silvery white--the woolly lining has remained. You remember that the white Poplar or Abele tree had leaves which were white-lined too.

The flowers of the Whitebeam (2) resemble those of the Rowan, but they are larger and are not so closely clustered together on their short stalks. Each flower has five pointed green sepals standing out like the rays of a star beneath the circle of five white petals. There is a ring of delicate stamens with yellow heads within the petal circle, and the seeds are concealed in the pear-shaped swelling which supports the flower at the end of the flower stalk. There are often dark spots on the main flower stem from which all the smaller ones branch.

After the white petals and the stamens have fallen off, the swollen flower stalk enlarges and becomes an oval berry (3), considerably larger than that of the Rowan. At first the berries are covered with white down, but soon that wears off, and you see that the berries are smooth and are a rich red colour. They are not good to eat, these attractive-looking berries, though people say they are pleasant when over-ripe and ready to decay. But the birds love them, and so do hedgehogs and squirrels.

In France the people plant a great many Whitebeams. This is because the small birds require the berries for food in the winter, when there are no longer grubs and insects to be found. These grubs and insects destroy the vines and corn when they are young and tender in early spring, and the small birds are needed because they eat these pests, and so save the young plants.

The wood of the Whitebeam is not much used, though small objects, such as wooden spoons, knife handles, and combs, are made of it. It is very hard, and will take a high polish.

PLATE XXVI

THE ROWAN OR MOUNTAIN ASH

“Their spells were vain, the boy returned
To the Queen in sorrowful mood,
Crying that witches have no power
Where there is Roan tree wood.”

--Old Song.

The Rowan tree is closely related to the roses, and is a cousin of the Hawthorn, the Apple, and the Pear. It is not related in any way to the Ash, but the leaves have some resemblance, because, like the Ash tree leaves, they are made up of many pairs of small leaflets growing opposite each other on each side of a centre stalk, and with an odd leaflet at the end. But the leaflets of the Ash tree have each a stalk; those in the Rowan have none, and in the Ash tree each large feathery leaf is planted exactly opposite its neighbour, while in the Rowan the leaves grow alternately. The name Mountain Ash is a mistake.

THE ROWAN

1. Rowan Tree in Autumn
2. Flower Cluster
3. Leaves and Fruit]

The Rowan tree (1) is seen at its best among the wild glens and mountains of the north and west of Scotland. It requires air and light, and will flourish in almost any kind of soil, and many are the tales which are woven round the life of this beautiful tree. It is called the Roan, or whispering tree, because it has secrets to tell to those who will listen. No witches or evil spirits can cross a door over which a branch of Rowan is nailed, and no harm will happen to him who has a sprig of Rowan pinned to his coat. In every churchyard in Wales a Rowan tree is planted to scare away demons who might disturb the sleep of the dead; and on lonely farms high up on the mountain sides, the Witchin, or Wiggin tree, as it used to be called, is placed close beside the dwelling-house.

The Rowan is not a large tree; it grows easily and requires no pruning, as its branches rarely die, and the tree never loses its graceful shape. The branches are wiry and slender, and they all point upward. The bark is a dark purple colour and is glossy and smooth; across it there are many curious deep gashes, as if the tree had been scored with a knife.

The Rowan is often planted in new coppices to shield the young trees, but as soon as these grow up and throw out many branches, they stifle their kind nurse, which cannot grow without plenty of light and air.

Early in spring the Rowan buds appear, fat woolly buds covered with grey cottony down. The young leaves (3) are carefully packed inside among plenty of cotton wool, and very downy they look when they first come out. Each leaflet is toothed round the edge, and is dark glossy green above and much paler green underneath. These leaves remain on the tree till late in autumn, then when the frost touches them with its icy fingers they change to wonderful shades of gold and scarlet and pink, and they fall with the October winds.

The Rowan tree flowers (2) blossom in May, and they grow in dense dusters, each flower at the end of a small stalk. There are many small stalks, all about the same height, and they branch again and again from the main stem, forming a thick cluster. The flowers are very delightful, though they lack the snowy beauty and have none of the delicate scent of the Hawthorn. Each Rowan flower has five green sepals and five creamy white petals. These are placed round the end of the flower stalk, which is slightly swollen, and inside this swelling lies hidden the seed-vessel; you can see three sticky threads rising from it in the centre of the ring of petals. There is a circle of yellow-headed stamens within the petal ring.

By the end of June the Rowan flowers have faded and the creamy petals strew the ground. But the tree does not only depend for its beauty on the creamy flowers or on the changing leaves.

The swollen flower stalks have been growing all summer, and now the end of each stalk has become a small round berry (3), and a dense cluster of these berries hangs in a bunch from the main stem. In autumn these berries turn a rich yellow red, and very brilliant they look among the dark green leaves. Song birds love these Rowan berries, and so long as any remain on the tree the blackbird and thrush will be its constant visitors.

When corn was scarce in the hard winters of long ago these Rowan berries were dried and made into flour. Many people to-day make them into jelly, which is a rich golden colour, but has rather a bitter taste.

The wood of the Rowan tree is very tough, and is principally used for making poles.

PLATE XXVII

THE HAWTHORN

“Mark the fair blooming of the Hawthorn tree,
Who, finely clothed in a robe of white,
Fills full the wanton eye with May’s delight.”

--Chaucer.

We cannot think of the Hawthorn as one of our noble forest trees, like the Oak and the Beech; it is dear to us as a village tree, a friendly, bushy tree which has grown in our garden, or in the fields and meadows close to our country cottages. We remember the long sunny May days when we gathered armfuls of its lovely blossoms, and the frosty autumn mornings when its berries shone like rubies on the bare, wind-stripped branches. It has always been in close touch with our lives, and it has left many pictures graven deep in our memory.

The Hawthorn (1), or May, or White-thorn, as it is often called from the colour of its flowers, has been known to us since very long ago. When the hero Ulysses came home from his weary wanderings, he found his old father alone; all the servants had gone to the woods to get young Hawthorn trees to make a hedge, and the old man was busy digging trenches in which to plant them.

THE HAWTHORN

1. Hawthorn Tree in Early Summer
2. Leaves and Blossoms
3. Fruit]

Even in that far-off time people had discovered that nothing makes so good a hedge as young thorn trees. They grow very quickly and send out many side-shoots and small branches. Each branch bears sharp thorns, and so closely do these thorny branches grow together that it is impossible to push your hand through the hedge without being badly scratched. Young cattle and horses love to feed on the Hawthorn leaves, and one wonders how they can eat them without getting many scratches.

Long after the time of Ulysses we find that bunches of flowering Hawthorn were carried in wedding processions as an emblem of hope, and torches made of its wood were burned. There is a strange old legend which tells how Joseph of Arimathea landed on the island of Avalon at Christmas-tide. He was very weary, and lay down to rest, but first he planted his staff of Hawthorn firmly in the ground beside him. And in the morning he found that the staff had put out roots and was covered with Hawthorn blossoms. By this he knew it was meant that he should stay in Avalon, and he built a monastery for himself and his brethren and remained there till he died.

Until not so long ago the country people in England used to hold gay sports in the village in the month of May. A tall mast, or Maypole, was planted in the ground, and the men and maidens decorated it with wreaths of Hawthorn blossoms. Then they danced, and sang, and held merry games around the Maypole in honour of summer’s return.

In early spring the Hawthorn tree, if you find one growing singly in a field or meadow, is most easily recognised by its bushy appearance. The tree trunk is dark grey and very rough; often it is twisted like a rope, but it is rarely a thick trunk, as you seldom find a large Hawthorn. Even when very old-about two hundred and fifty years some are said to live--the Hawthorn is always a small tree.

In April the young leaf buds appear; pale green knobs, or little bundles, bursting from every branch. Each leaf (2) is cut up into blunt fingers, and soon it loses its paleness and becomes dark green and glossy. In autumn these leaves change to gold and dark red and brown; but the frosty nights and cold winds soon strip them from the branches.

May is the month when the flowers (2) begin to bloom--clusters of tiny snow-white balls, each at the end of a slender green stalk. In England it was the custom to give a basin of cream for breakfast to the person who first brought home a branch of Hawthorn in blossom on the first of May.

When the flower balls or buds unclose, you find that they have five snow-white petals, which are set in the throat of the calyx cup. Within this ring of petals, round the mouth of the cup, grow many slender stamens, each with a bright pink head. And if you look at the back of the flower, you will see five green points which stand out like the rays of a star behind the white petals. These are the sepals.

Below this green star the stalk looks slightly swollen: this swelling contains the seed, and by the time autumn comes it will have grown into a small green berry. After the white petals and the pink-headed stamens have fallen, you will find clusters of these berries, which are called haws, each with the withered remains of the sepals clinging to the top, as you find them in the Rose and in the Apple. The berries (3) become crimson when the frost comes, and birds eat them greedily.

We have few trees which flower so beautifully as the Hawthorn. In May and June the hedgerows are laden with its masses of snowy blossoms. Sometimes you will find Hawthorns on which the flowers are a vivid crimson, and these are so transparently beautiful they look as if the light shone through them. And in autumn no tree is more attractive than the Hawthorn, with its gleaming berries and many-coloured leaves.

The wood of the Hawthorn is not very serviceable. It is hard and may be highly polished, but the trees are too small for the timber to be useful.

The branches, like those of the Ash and the Whin, burn readily, even when green, and in Scotland the bark was used in olden days to dye wool black.

PLATE XXVIII

THE BOX

Many of us only know Box as the name given to the small bushy plant which is placed along the edges of our garden borders to keep the earth from falling out on the gravel path. And we are surprised to learn that this plant is only the Dwarf Box, and that the true Box is a tree, a fair-sized tree, which may be seen any day in Oxford growing to a height of over twenty feet. We must learn to recognise the Box tree, for in the South of England there are still many districts where it grows freely.

It has been known in this country for hundreds of years, but its fame has come down to us in a curious way. In old books we read that the Box was chiefly prized as the tree which would stand more clipping than any other. People in those days had a strange fancy for cutting trees and bushes into quaint shapes. They had Box trees which looked like peacocks, and Box trees shaped like beehives. There were arm-chairs, and tubs, and even statues made of growing Box, cut and trimmed by the gardener’s clever shears.

THE BOX

1. Box Tree
2. Leaf Spray with Flowers
3. Single Flower
4. Fruit]

The best gardener then was the one who clipped best, and a very difficult art it was, to clip the tree into a certain shape and yet not to kill it. Nowadays these quaint Box tree curiosities are scarcely ever made, but a Box tree hedge is often planted, and its masses of closely-crowded evergreen leaves afford good protection to young plants in a windy garden.

The Box tree (1) has a dark grey-green bark, and the young shoots are four-sided. It grows very slowly--only a few inches each year--and because of this the wood is very hard and fine, as fine as ebony.

The leaves (2) are placed opposite each other, and are small and egg-shaped, with smooth edges. Above they are dark green and very glossy, but underneath the colour is paler. They are very poisonous these Box leaves, and fowls are known to have died from eating them.

The poet Wordsworth tells us that at country funerals it was usual to have a basin filled with sprays of Box standing at the door, and every friend who came to the funeral took a spray, which he carried to the churchyard and laid on the new grave. Rosemary or Yew sprays were often used in the same way.

The flowers are very tiny; you will scarcely be able to see how they are shaped without a magnifying-glass. They grow in crowded yellow clusters at the foot of the leaves, where they join the stem. In each cluster there is usually one seed flower (3) with a tiny green pea in the centre, from which rise three curved horns. All the other flowers will be stamen flowers, which shed plenty of pollen dust over this single green pea. The fruit (4) is a green berry, enclosing a tiny black seed, which you cannot see.

Box-wood is very valuable and is scarce in this country. Most of what we use comes from other lands. In France there is a large Box-wood forest near the village of St. Claude, and all the people in that village spend their days making the Box-wood into small articles, such as forks and spoons, and rosaries and snuff-boxes, for which they get a good deal of money. The wood is pale yellow, and may be cut into the finest pattern without breaking. For many years Box-wood has been used by engravers for making the blocks from which pictures and patterns are printed; the wood is so hard that these blocks can be used many, many times without the edges becoming worn.

Near London there grew a famous wood called Boxhill, and when the trees in that wood were cut down they were sold for ten thousand pounds.

PLATE XXIX

THE WALNUT

The Walnut tree (1) comes to us from sunny Italy and France, where it has grown for many centuries and is greatly prized. Its Latin name, _Juglans_, means the nut of Jove, and the Romans called it so because they thought the fruit was worthy to be set before their chief god Jove. It was brought to this country about five hundred years ago, and seems to have been grown in many districts until the beginning of last century, when there came a great demand for its wood. As much as six hundred pounds was given for a single Walnut tree, and at once all the people who had Walnut trees cut them down and sold them. This greatly reduced the number.

THE WALNUT

1. Walnut Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Bud
4. Scar
5. Stamen Flower
6. Seed Flowers
7. Fruit]

It is a large, handsome tree, which grows to a considerable height, and has a very thick trunk covered with grey bark. This trunk is smooth when the tree is young, but turns rugged as it grows older. The Walnut branches are large and spreading; they are sometimes twisted, but the tips of each branch always turn to the sky. For long it was thought to be dangerous to sleep beneath the shade of a Walnut tree, but for what reason I have not been able to discover.

The leaves (2) are very handsome; each leaf is made up of several pairs of leaflets placed opposite each other on a central stalk, with a single leaflet at the end. When they first come out these leaflets are dull red, but the colour soon changes to a pale olive green, and each leaf is smooth and soft and has a delicious scent if crushed ever so slightly. The twigs which carry these leaves are very stout, even to the tips, but they break easily, and you will find many lying on the ground after a windy night. The bark on these young twigs is very smooth and glossy.

The Walnut tree produces two kinds of flowers, which are both found on the same tree, and one kind, the stamen flowers (5), requires a whole year to ripen. If you look at the twigs which support the leaves you will see several tiny cone-shaped buds (3) dotted here and there on either side, close to the scars (4) left by last year’s leaf stalk. These are the beginnings of next year’s stamen flowers, and they remain like that all summer and all winter until the following spring. Then the bud lengthens and becomes a slender, drooping catkin (5). This catkin is covered with small flowers, each made up of five green sepals enclosing many stamens. These stamen catkins drop from the tree when the pollen dust is scattered.

The Walnut seed flowers (6) are so small that they require to be looked for carefully. They grow among the leaves at the end of the twig, and their small seed-vessels, each with a closely-fitting calyx covering, are ready before the leaves come out. Very soon the small seeds develop into smooth green fruits, which continue to grow all summer, and in July they are the size of a small plum. This fruit is a nut (7), the famous Walnut, and at first you will not see in it any likeness to the Walnut which we eat at dessert after cracking the pale brown shell. But look more closely. The green fruit is a soft juicy envelope which conceals a large nut. This green envelope turns brown when it is ripe and splits open, showing the nut inside, a nut with a crinkled skin, which is soft and green at first, but which becomes a hard, pale brown shell when the fruit dries. It is the kernel of this nut which we eat with salt as a dessert fruit.

The Walnuts usually ripen in October, but often they are gathered in July before the juicy green covering has turned brown, and they are preserved in vinegar and used as a pickle. Ripe Walnuts contain a great deal of oil, and the oil is much valued by artists, who mix it with their paints. It is the most liquid of all the oils, and it dries very quickly.

If you look at your fingers after gathering Walnuts you will find that they are stained a dark brown. The Walnut tree contains a juice which leaves a dark stain. It is said that with this juice the gipsies dye their skin brown; and it is also used to stain floors.

Walnut wood is very valuable. It is light in weight and dark in colour, with beautiful veins and streaks throughout. Much fine furniture is made of Walnut wood, and it can be polished till it shines like satin. To-day it is largely used in the manufacture of guns and rifles.

You will now understand what an important tree the Walnut is, as it yields fruit and oil and wood, which are all valuable.

PLATE XXX

THE SWEET CHESTNUT OR SPANISH CHESTNUT

The Sweet Chestnut is a cousin of the Oak, and belongs with it to the great family of cup-bearing trees, or those that bear their fruit sitting in a cup. Like the Oak, it is a tree with a great and ancient history, although nowadays we are apt to take little notice of this tree, which was once well known and grew abundantly in many parts of England.

The largest Chestnut in the world grows in Sicily, in the great forest which covers the slopes of Mount Etna. It is said that a Spanish Queen was once overtaken in this forest by a tremendous storm, and that she and a hundred soldiers and horses were all able to find shelter beneath the wide-spreading branches of this one tree.

In this country we have a famous big Chestnut tree in Gloucestershire which is believed to be a thousand years old; it is written about in old books, which tell us that this tree belonged to a certain house in the time of King Stephen.

THE SWEET CHESTNUT

1. Sweet Chestnut Tree
2. Leaf Spray with Flowers
3. Stamen Flowers
4. Seed Flowers
5. Fruit in Case]

The Sweet Chestnut (1) is a large bushy tree with beautiful leaves, which painters love to put in the background of their pictures. The branches are heavy and spreading, and they sweep downwards. Each branch is thickly covered with long green leaves (2), which are so thick and glossy that you expect them to be evergreen. Each leaf is sharply oval, and has a stout rib running up the centre, from which straight veins branch to the very edge of the leaf, where they each end in a point. These points make the edge of the leaf look as if toothed. Insects do not destroy these Chestnut leaves, and they hang on the twigs till late in autumn, when they turn pale yellow; this yellow deepens to gold and brown, and when winter comes they cover the ground with a thick carpet of rustling leaves. These leaves are often gathered to make winter bedding for the poor people, who call them “talking beds” because they rustle and crackle so when lain on.

Those leaves that are left on the ground greatly enrich the soil.

The trunk of the Chestnut tree is scored up and down with many deep ridges, and these ridges seem to bend round the tree strangely, as if they had been twisted, like the strands of a rope, when the tree was young and tender.

The Chestnut flowers appear on this year’s shoots early in May or June, and they are of two kinds, both of which grow on the same tree. The stamen flowers (3) are in long catkin spikes, which rise stiffly among the leaves. The centre stem of the catkin is very stout, and seated round it are tufts of yellow-headed stamens, each enclosed in a green calyx. These stamen heads are filled with yellow dust, which they shed in the same way as the Pine tree stamens, in such quantities that it lies like sulphur on any still lake or pond that may be near.

On the same catkin spike, near the foot, grow the seed flowers (4). These look like short, fat paint brushes with a stout green handle. There is a cup made up of many slender green leaf-like points, and inside this cup sit the seeds; you can see a bunch of their points standing up like the bristles of the paint brush. When plenty of the stamen dust has fallen on these bristles, the seed sets about getting ready its fruit, and the stamen part of the catkin spike shrivels and falls off; its work is done.

But the seed grows bigger and bigger, till it looks like a round green ball (5) covered all over with bristles. The seeds are ripening inside this ball, two or three, sometimes five, seeds closely packed side by side. In October the green covering splits into four pieces and the seeds fall to the ground. Notice how beautifully this bristly covering is lined with soft, silky down to protect the smooth skin of the nut.

Each nut is slightly flattened at the sides where it was tightly pressed against its neighbour, and it comes to a point at the top, where the withered remains of the seed bristles show in a dry brown tuft. The skin on the Chestnut is dark brown, and there is a large scar at the foot of the nut where it was fastened to the green cup.

In Italy, where there are miles and miles of Chestnut forests, the nuts are gathered in sackfuls when October comes. They are then spread out on a brick floor in a thick layer, and a fire, made of dry leaves and sticks, is lit beneath. This fire is kept burning for ten days, and the nuts are frequently turned with a wooden shovel. Whenever the skins crack off quite easily the nuts are ready; the hard, cracked brown skins are removed, and the nuts are ground into flour from which many delicious foods are prepared.

The fruit of the Chestnut is one of the most important tree fruits we know. In France and Italy the people use Chestnuts as much as we do potatoes, and many are the clever ways in which they prepare and cook them, but the commonest way is to boil and eat the chestnuts with a little salt. When the cook is preparing the nuts, he makes a slit in the skin of every Chestnut except one, and when that one bursts and cracks with a loud noise, he knows that the others are ready.

The Chestnut fruit ripens in the South of England, but it is never so large, nor is it so plentiful, as in the sunny South.

The wood of the Chestnut tree is valuable. For many years people believed that the great beams in some of our old historic buildings were Chestnut wood, and this made them think that the trees must have grown much larger then than they do to-day. But it is now decided that these old beams must be made of Oak. Old Oak beams are very like Chestnut beams, but clever people tell us that Chestnut wood is best when it is young, as the old wood is apt to break off in little pieces, and it would not really be a suitable wood to use in buildings where strength was needed.

Chestnut wood makes excellent fences and is also used for wine casks; the hoops which go round these wine casks should be made of it, as it does not rot in a damp cellar. Chestnut wood burns badly; it sends up a great many sparks, and it smoulders, but will not burn brightly.

PLATE XXXI

THE HORSE CHESTNUT

The Horse Chestnut is not related in any way to the Sweet Chestnut; there is no resemblance between them except the appearance of their nuts, and even in these there are many points of difference. It is said that the name Horse Chestnut was given because the nuts of this tree were only fit for horses to eat, whereas the Sweet Chestnuts are valuable as a food for human beings. Even horses will not eat the nuts of the Horse Chestnut tree. You must not forget that if the Chestnut is spoken of without an adjective, it is the sweet Spanish Chestnut that has the right to the name, and is by far the more valuable tree.

THE HORSE CHESTNUT

1. Horse Chestnut Tree in Autumn
2. Young Leaf
3. Full-grown Leaf
4. Sticky Bud in Leaf Scar
5. Flower Spike
6. Single Flower
7. Fruit in Case]

The Horse Chestnut (1) was brought to this country five hundred years ago, and we prize it greatly for its beautiful flowers and leaves. It has a large, stout trunk, covered with a rough, scaly bark, on which you will frequently notice many green patches caused by a tiny plant which makes its home there.

The branches are large and spreading, and they sweep downwards to the ground, then rise again towards the tips, forming graceful curves. The shoots bearing the buds always point towards the sky, and in spring these shoots grow very fast for about a month, then they do not become any larger, but the shoot thickens and is soon tough and woody.

All winter the Horse Chestnut buds can be seen on the tree--large, dark, purply brown buds (4) covered with a thick coating of sticky gum. In April these buds begin to swell and the gummy covering melts. It held together twelve dark brown scales, and these fall to the ground, showing an under layer of paler scales. The growing bud inside soon pushes itself through these scales, and the young leaf appears, a delicate, pale green bud, with its leaves closely folded like a fan. They open very quickly in the warm sunshine, but for some days after they have shaken themselves loose from the scaly coverings each leaf (2) hangs on its stalk like a half-opened parasol, with all its tips pointing to the ground. But soon the leaf tips rise, and the parasol is fully opened and a beautiful leafy screen it is.

The leaf (3) is cut up into seven leaflets, and every leaflet is shaped like a pear, with the broad part pointing outwards and the narrow end joining the leaf stalk. These pear-shaped leaflets are not all the same size; there are two which are quite small and two a little larger, and the other three are larger still. The leaflets have small teeth round their edges, and there is a raised rib running up the centre, from which branches a network of fine veins all over the leaflet.

The Horse Chestnut leaves grow opposite each other in pairs, and each pair is placed cross-ways to the pair farther down on the branch, in the same way as those of the Sycamore. In July the leaves begin to change colour; they turn red and brown, and they fall very early in autumn. Look closely at the twigs and you will see on them many curious marks shaped like horse-shoes; these are the scars (4) where a leaf stalk joined the twig, and above each of these scars you can see next year’s leaf bud already distinctly formed.

In May the Horse Chestnut is in flower (5), and a wonderful sight it is; the tree is laden with snowy spikes, which look like great candles set on a bushy Christmas tree. A giant’s nosegay, it is sometimes called by the country people, this great tree, with its wealth of fan-shaped leaves and these stiff snow-white spikes rising from every branch.

The lowest flowers (6) in each spike open first, and they are called by botanists perfect flowers, because each one has all its parts complete. They have a green bell-shaped calyx with five divisions round the mouth. Within this calyx are five separate white petals, one of which is much larger than the others, and these petals have many hairs on them and are splashed with crimson and yellow stains.

In the throat of this flower there are seven stamens with curved stalks and pale salmon-coloured heads, and among these you can see a slender curved green thread rising from the seed-vessel, which lies hidden in the centre of the flower.

The upper flowers on the spike have no seed-vessel, and they fall off as soon as their stamen dust is scattered. The spike may bear thirty or forty flowers, yet only a few will remain to produce seeds after the beautiful petals are withered.

When this has happened the seed-vessel grows larger and larger till it becomes a rough, horny green ball (7) studded with short spines. It is not bristly all over like the Sweet Chestnut fruit ball, but is hard and smooth, and its spines are thick and clumsy, with a wide space between each. If you open one of these balls before the fruit is ripe, you will find a nut inside, which is white and polished like a piece of ivory and which fits the covering closely. But if you leave the fruit to ripen on the tree, then the green ball splits into three pieces, and you see that the nut (7) inside has shrunk a little and has become a rich, dark brown. It is so glossy that it looks as if it had just been oiled, and it is almost round.

There is a white scar at the foot of the nut, where it was fastened to the inside of the green ball.

In the Sweet Chestnut, you remember, there were always two or three nuts inside each bristly ball, and these nuts were dull, and not glossy like those of the Horse Chestnut.

Although horses will not eat this fruit, deer and cattle and sheep all like it. In this country the nuts are usually left to rot on the ground where they fall. After they decay these nuts may be pounded and made into a kind of soap; they contain a juice which is said to be good for cleansing.

The Horse Chestnut is a very fast-growing tree. In fourteen years a tree grown from a nut will be large enough to sit under, and the wood, on this account, is less hard and lasting than woods that have taken longer to grow. It is used for cabinet-making and for flooring.

THE CEDAR

1. Cedar Tree
2. Leaf Spray
3. Stamen Flower
4. Seed Flower
5. Closed Cone and Open Cone]

The tree does not produce any fruit till it is twenty years old, but after that it will bear nuts yearly till it is two hundred.

There is a variety of Horse Chestnut with pink flowers, which has not been so long known as the white-flowered tree.

PLATE XXXII

THE CEDAR OF LEBANON

In the Old Testament we read that when Solomon was building the temple he sent to Hiram, King of Tyre, for stores of goodly Cedar wood from the forests of Lebanon. And Hiram sent the wood by sea in floats, or rafts, as much Cedar and timber of Fir as King Solomon wanted. This was used to cover the stonework of the temple, within and without.

There is a delightful fragrance in these planks of Cedar wood which is said to come from the sap or resin with which the tree abounds. Cedar oil is made from this resin, and it was long in use as a safeguard against the attacks of insects, which dislike the smell.

The Cedar (1), as we see it in this country, rarely rises to the dignity of a large tree; it is most familiar to us as a stunted, bushy tree with a thick, short trunk divided into more than one main stem. Short branches rise from these stems, and at first these point upwards to the sky, but after the branch has grown some length it bends backward and stands straight out from the tree. From a distance the tree looks as if the branches grew in layers, or shelves, with a clear space between each shelf. You will always recognise a Cedar by these layers of branches densely covered with gloomy green leaves. It is said that in countries where much snow falls the Cedar branches always remain upright, because the tree knows that it could not carry the great weight of snow that would gather on its leafy shelves if they grew flat as in warmer lands.

The Cedar is frequently found growing in churchyards, beside the Yew tree, and a dark, gloomy tree it is. The trunk is covered with a thick rough bark of a pale greenish brown colour, but on the branches this bark is thin and flaky. The Cedar grows very slowly. The tree may be a hundred years old before it produces any seeds, though you sometimes find seedless cones on Cedars that are twenty-five to thirty years old.

The leaves (2) are evergreen, and usually remain on the twigs for four or five years. They grow in tufts, like those of the Larch, on the upper side of the twig; but each leaf is needle-shaped, as in the Scotch Pine, and is much harder than the soft Larch leaves. In colour they are a dark bluey green.

The Cedar has two kinds of flowers. Those that bear the stamens (3) appear at the end of short, stunted little twigs which have taken many years to grow. The stamens are in slender catkins, about two inches long, and are a pale reddish yellow colour.

The seed flowers (4) grow in cones, and the Cedar of Lebanon has very curious cones. They grow in pairs, and are like fat green eggs, sitting upright on the branch, with the blunt end uppermost. These cones look quite solid, because the scales are so tightly pressed together. You can scarcely see where one begins and the other ends. It takes two or three years before these scales unclose, and during that time the cones (5) become a rich, dark purple. When the scales unclose, the three-cornered seeds are blown out by the wind, and each seed is furnished with a wing to float it away on the air. The Cedar cones remain on the tree several years after all their seeds have fallen.

The timber of the Cedars grown in this country is of little value; the tree is usually planted for ornament. But in warmer lands, where there are large forests of mighty Cedar trees, the wood is sold for a great deal of money.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.