8o6 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



4. Sketch the bracts from below. Is one pair wider than the other? 

 Is the wider pair inside or outside? Why is this so? 



5. Where are the flowers of the dogwood bonie? How are the twigs 

 arranged so as to unfurl all the banners and not hide one behind another, so 

 that the whole tree is a mass of white? 



6. While studying the flowers, study where the young leaves come from. 

 Can you still see the scales which protected the leaf buds ? 



7. What kind of fruit develops from the dogwood blossoms? What 

 colors are its leaves in autumn ? 



THE VELVET, OR STAGHORN, SUMAC 



Teacher's Story 



The sumacs with flame leaves at half-mast, like wildfire spread over the glade; 

 Above them, the crows on frayed pinions move northward in ragged parade. 



f/K ; h\^V HE sumacs, in early autumn, form a "firing line" along 

 '*. 9'* the borders of woodlands and fences, before any other 

 plant but the Virginia creeper has thought of taking 

 on brighter colors. No other leaves can emulate the 

 burning scarlet of their hues. The sumacs are a glory 

 to our hills; and sometime, when Americans have 

 time to cultivate a true artistic sense, these shrubs 

 will play an important part in landscape gardening. 

 They are beautiful in summer, when each crimson 

 "bob" (a homely New England name for the fruit 

 panicle) is set at the center of the bouquet of spread- 

 ing, fernlike leaves. In winter nakedness they are 

 most picturesque, with their broadly branching twigs bearing aloft the wine- 

 colored pompons against the background of snow, and calling to the winter 

 birds to come and partake of the pleasantly acid drupes. In spring, they 

 put out their soft leaves in exquisite shades of pale pinkish green, and when 

 in blossom their staminate panicles of greenish white cover them with loose 

 pryamids of delicate bloom. 



Well may it be called velvet sumac, for this year's growth of wood and 

 the leaf stems are covered with fine hairs, pinkish at first, but soon white; 

 if we slip our fingers down a branch, we can tell even without looking where 

 last year's growth began and ended, because of the velvety feel. The name 

 staghom sumac is just as fitting, for its upper branches spread widely like a 

 stag's horns and, like them, the new growth is covered with velvet. 



The leaves are borne on the new wood, and therefore at the ends of 

 branches; they are alternate; the petiole broadens where it clasps the 

 branch, making a perfect nursery for the little next-year's bud, which is 

 nestled below it. The leaves are compound and the number of leaflets 

 varies from eleven to thirty-one. Each leaflet is set close to the midrib, 

 with a base that is not symmetrical; the leaflets have their edges toothed, 

 and are long and narrow; they do not spread out en either side the midrib 

 like a fern, but naturally droop somewhat, and thus conceal their under- 

 sides, which are much lighter in color. The leaflets are not always set 

 exactly opposite; the basal ones are bent back toward the main stem, mak- 



