Read Ebook: Studies of Trees by Levison Jacob Joshua

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Ebook has 616 lines and 53346 words, and 13 pages

It covers large areas in various parts of northern North America and grows to its largest size in Manitoba. The black spruce has little value as an ornamental tree.

It grows to a large size in Colorado and the Middle West. In the Eastern States and in northern Europe where it is planted as an ornamental tree, it is usually much smaller.

HEMLOCK

The leaves are arranged on little stalks, a characteristic that does not appear in the other evergreen trees.

Form and size: A large tree with a broad-based pyramidal head, and a trunk conspicuously tapering toward the apex. The branches extend almost to the ground.

Range: The hemlock is a northern tree, growing in Canada and the United States.

Soil and location: Grows on all sorts of soils, in the deepest woods as well as on high mountain slopes.

Enemies: None of importance.

Value for planting: The hemlock makes an excellent hedge because it retains its lowest branches and will stand shearing. In this respect it is preferable to the spruce. It makes a fair tree for the lawn and is especially desirable for underplanting in woodlands, where the shade from the surrounding trees is heavy. In this respect it is like the beech.

Commercial value: The wood is soft, brittle, and coarse-grained, and is therefore used mainly for coarse lumber. Its bark is so rich in tannin that it forms one of the chief commercial products of the tree.

RED CEDAR

Leaf: In young trees the leaf is needle-shaped, pointed, and marked by a white line on its under side, Fig. 12. In older trees it is scale-like, Fig. 12, and the white line on its under side is indistinct.

Range: Widely distributed over nearly all of eastern and central North America.

Soil and location: Grows on poor, gravelly soils as well as in rich bottom lands.

Value for planting: Its characteristic slender form gives the red cedar an important place as an ornamental tree, but its chief value lies in its commercial use.

Commercial value: The wood is durable, light, smooth and fragrant, and is therefore used for making lead-pencils, cabinets, boxes, moth-proof chests, shingles, posts, and telegraph poles.

ARBOR-VITAE; NORTHERN WHITE CEDAR

Leaf: Leaves of two kinds, one scale-like and flat, the other keeled, all tightly pressed to the twig .

Form and size: A close, conical head with dense foliage near the base. Usually a small tree, but in some parts of the northeastern States it grows to medium size with a diameter of two feet.

Range: Northern part of North America.

Soil and location: Inhabits low, swampy lands; in the State of Maine often forming thick forests.

Enemies: Very seldom affected by insects.

Value for planting: Is hardy in New England, where it is especially used for hedges. It is also frequently used as a specimen tree on the lawn.

Commercial value: The wood is durable for posts, ties, and shingles. The bark contains considerable tannin and the juices from the tree have a medicinal value.

HOW TO IDENTIFY TREES--

There are nine recognized species of larch and two of bald cypress. The larch is characteristically a northern tree, growing in the northern and mountainous regions of the northern hemisphere from the Arctic circle to Pennsylvania in the New World, and in Central Europe, Asia, and Japan in the Old World. It forms large forests in the Alps of Switzerland and France.

The European larch and not the American is the principal species considered here, because it is being planted extensively in this country and in most respects is preferable to the American species.

The bald cypress is a southern tree of ancient origin, the well-known cypress of Montezuma in the gardens of Chepultepec having been a species of Taxodium. The tree is now confined to the swamps and river banks of the South Atlantic and Gulf States, where it often forms extensive forests to the exclusion of all other trees. In those regions along the river swamps, the trees are often submerged for several months of the year.

How to tell them from each other: In summer the larch may be told from the cypress by its leaves . In winter the two can be distinguished by their characteristic forms. The larch is a broader tree as compared with the cypress and its form is more conical. The cypress is more slender and it is taller. The two have been grouped together in this study because they are both coniferous trees and, unlike the other Conifers, are both deciduous, their leaves falling in October.

THE EUROPEAN LARCH

Leaf: The leaves are of a light-green color but become darker in the spring and in October turn yellow and drop off. The cypress, which is described below, is another cone-bearing tree which sheds its leaves in winter.

Form and size: A medium-sized tree with a conical head and a straight and tapering trunk.

Range: Central Europe and eastern and central United States.

Soil and location: Requires a deep, fresh, well-drained soil and needs plenty of light. It flourishes in places where our native species would die. Grows very rapidly.

Value for planting: A well-formed tree for the lawn. It is also useful for group planting in the forest.

Commercial value: Because its wood is strong and durable the larch is valuable for poles, posts, railroad ties, and in shipbuilding.

The larch differs from the bald cypress in the broader form of its crown and the cluster-like arrangement of its leaves. The twigs of the bald cypress are flat and feathery. The larch and bald cypress have the common characteristics of both shedding their leaves in winter and preferring to grow in moist or swampy soils. The larch, especially the native species, forms the well-known tamarack swamps of the north. The bald cypress grows in a similar way in groups in the southern swamps.

BALD CYPRESS

Leaf: The leaves drop off in October, though the tree is of the cone-bearing kind. In this respect it is like the larch.

Form and size: Tall and pyramidal.

Range: The cypress is a southern tree, but is found under cultivation in parks and on lawns in northern United States.

Enemies: None of importance.

Value for planting: An excellent tree for park and lawn planting.

Commercial value: The wood is light, soft, and easily worked. It is used for general construction, interior finish, railroad ties, posts and cooperage.

The form of the tree and the leaves are also characteristic in each of the maples, but for the beginner who does not wish to be burdened with too many of these facts at one time, those just enumerated will be found most certain and most easily followed.

THE HORSECHESTNUT

Leaf: Five to seven leaflets, usually seven. Fig. 21.

Form and size: Medium-sized tree, pyramidal head and coarse twigs.

Range: Europe and eastern United States.

Soil and location: Prefers a deep, rich soil.

Enemies: The leaves are the favorite food of caterpillars and are subject to a blight which turns them brown prematurely. The trunk is often attacked by a disease which causes the flow of a slimy substance.

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