886 Home Nature-Study Course. 



or are they distinct and vertical? Are there any transverse markings 

 or sutures? If smooth, what is the texture? Does it peel or roll? 

 If so, how? 



(e) What is the color of the bark and what blotches are there on 

 it? Are these markings transverse or vertical? 



(f) Are the lower branches very large? Does the bark on them 

 resemble that on the trimk? 



(g) At what angle do the branches in general stand to the trunk? 

 (h) Are there many large branches? 



(i) Where is the spray borne, along the branches or at the tips? 



(j) The spray is a term used for the mass of twigs because they 

 resemble the spray of a fountain. Study the spray; is it coarse or 

 fine? Does it stand erect or droop? What is its color? 



(k) A study of buds often helps greatly in case of doubt. What 

 is their color; are they opposite or alternate; are they pointed or 

 blunt; are they large or small when measured by the width of the 

 twig; are they long and slender or nearly globular? Below the bud 

 is a scar where the leaf grew last year. The shape and size of these 

 leaf-scars may determine the species. Are they opposite or alter- 

 nate? Only three of our common trees have the buds and leaf- 

 scars opposite; these are the maples, the ashes and the horse-chest- 

 nuts. 



(1) Do the leaves cling to the branches during -^dnter? This is 

 quite characteristic of the beech and certain oaks. 



(m) See if there is any fruit or outer shells that contained fruit 

 still clinging to the tree. A dozen of our common trees may thus 

 be identified. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF SOME OF OUR COMMON TREES AS 



SEEN IN WINTER. 



The elm is perhaps the most unmistakable of all our trees when 

 leafless. It may be vase shaped, or its branches may droop so that 

 it looks like a flowing fountain, or it may be neither; but there is a 

 "quirly" look about the spray and a blackness of the bark when it 

 has a snow background that reveal its identity. 



The maple is another that flaunts its name in our faces; its branches 

 set close, at a sharp angle to the trunk, divide into a fine, erect spray 

 suggesting a giant whisk-broom. 



That slender aristocrat from France, the Lombardy poplar, lifts 

 its short branches so that it is alwaj^s a spire against the sky. And 

 the landscape artist, therefore, plants it where there are buildings 



