Home Nature-Study Course. 387 



with cupolas, turrets and steeples, as it helps give the eye a heaven- 

 ward lift. 



Very different from the Lonil)ardy poplar in its habits of growth 

 is the low, broad thornapple, which spreads itself like a tent in fence 

 comers. 



Other lovers of the fence corners are the wild cherries. Of these 

 two are black, one being a true wild cherry, and one being the sweet 

 black cherry, which by the aid of birds has escaped from cultivation 

 to live a happy-go-lucky life in the fields. Both these black cherries 

 may be recognized by the dark, shiny bark. The two may be sep- 

 arated by these characteristics when fully grown: The bark of the 

 wild cherry is peeled off in little curls and appears more ragged, 

 its twigs are slim and drooping instead of erect, and its buds are 

 slender and small instead of nearly globular. The choke cherry and 

 the red wild cherry also flourish in the fence corners. They do not 

 grow so large as the black cherries, and their bark is lighter in color. 



The hone}" locust planted by our forefathers to shelter the home- 

 stead holds aloft on its twisted branches the long "polished, ma- 

 hogany" pods nearly all winter; though some of them the winds tear 

 loose, and they skate over the snow drifts to plant their seeds far 

 from the parent tree. The common or black locust has the same 

 habit and holds fast to its little, rustling pods until late in the season. 

 These pods so dot its upper branches that this tree is easil}'' recog- 

 nized from the window of a railroad train. 



The horse-chestnut planted so generally as an ornamental tree 

 may be distinguished by its sparse, coarse twigs, each ending in a 

 large bud that always calls to mind the knobs formerly placed on the 

 horns of cattle before the era of dehorning. 



Some trees love to grow by streams and just the location helps 

 determine them: 



The sycamore or button-ball tree is one of these and its trunk and 

 large limbs bearing great blotches of white and dull yellow proclaim 

 its identity from afar. 



Quite different in appearance is that other stream lover, the 

 willow, with its great trunk and giant gnarled limbs upholding a 

 confused mass of slender, whip-like terminal twigs. One of the 

 willows has this great bouquet of twigs ochre yellow, and thus brings 

 autumn warmth into the colors of the winter landscape. 



The yellow and the red birch also cling to the banks of creeks and 

 rivers. The yellow birch has yellowish-brown bark with silken 

 sheen that breaks off in shabby scrolls. The bark of the red birch 



