Tree Study 



803 



4. Are the hemlock cones borne on the tip of the twigs or along the 

 side ? How long does it take a cone to mature ? When does it fall ? How 

 many scales has it ? Where are the seeds borne ? How many seeds beneath 

 each scale? Describe and sketch a hemlock seed. How are the seeds 

 scattered? Study the tree in May, and see if you can find the blossom? 



5. Make drawings of the following: The hemlock twig, showing the 

 arrangement of the leaves ; single leaf, enlarged; cone; cone scale; seed. 



6. What creatures feed upon the hemlock seed ? What birds find pro- 

 tection in the hemlock foliage in winter ? 



7 . For what purposes is hemlock bark used ? What is the timber good 

 for? Is a nail easily pulled out from a hemlock board? 



THE DOGWOOD 



Teacher's Story 



Through cloud rifts the sunlight is streaming in floods to far depths of the wood, 

 Retouching the velvet-leafed dogicood to crimson as vital as blood. 



HERE is no prettier story among the flowers than 

 that of the bracts of the dogwood, and it is a 

 subject for investigation which any child can 

 work out for himself. I shall never forget the 

 thrill of triumph I experienced when I dis- 

 covered for myself the cause of the mysterious 

 dark notch at the tip of each great white bract, 

 which I had for years idly noticed. One day 

 my curiosity mastered my inertia, and I hunted 

 a tree over for a flower bud, for it was rather late in the season; finally I 

 was rewarded by finding the bracts in all stages of development. 



The flowering dogwood forms its buds during the summer, and of course 

 they must have winter protection; therefore, they are wrapped in four, 

 close-clasping, purplish brown scales, one pair inside and one pair outside, 

 both thick and well fitted to protect the bunch of tiny flower buds at their 

 center. But when spring comes, these motherly bud-scales change their 

 duties, and by rapid growth become four beautiful white or pinkish bracts 

 calling aloud to all the insect world that here at their hearts is something 

 sweet. For months they brood the flowers and then display them to an 

 admiring world. The artistic eye loves the little notch at the tip of the 

 bracts, even before it has read in it the story of winter protection, of which 

 it is an evidence. 



The study of the flowers at the center is more interesting if aided by a 

 lens. Within each blossom can be seen its tube, set in the four-lobecl calyx. 

 It has four slender petals curled back, its four chubby, 

 greenish yellow anthers set on filaments which lift them 

 up between the petals ; and at the center of all is the tiny 

 green pistil. There may be twenty, more or less, of 

 these perfect flowers in this tiny, greenish yellow bunch at 

 the center of the four great, flaring bracts. These flowers 

 do not open simultaneously, and the yellow buds and open Blossom and hud of 

 flowers are mingled together in the rosette. The calyx dogwood, enlarged. 



