388 Home Nature-Study Course. 



is dark and reddish in color and is in rags and tatters, making this 

 tree appear the beggar in the forest world. 



Three other birches are found in our woodlands. The black 

 sweet birch can be identified by its glossy, dark bark which looks 

 somewhat like that of the black cherry, and by the wintergreen 

 flavor of the bark on its twigs. The canoe or white birch grows to 

 be a large tree, and is known by its gleaming white bark which is 

 parchment-like when peeled, and covers other pale tan-colored 

 layers, which are used for MTiting. The gray birch also has white 

 bark, but need not be confused with the canoe birch, as it is a shivery 

 little tree, and huddles together with its fellows on poor, rocky, or 

 sandy soils, each branch having a dark triangular blotch below its 

 base. The white birch of Europe is commonly planted in our yards 

 and parks, its white, rather stifY trunk and branches almost hidden 

 by its purplish gracefully drooping spray. 



The poplars resemble the birches in a general way in color of bark, 

 but they are far more tidy, and will never be confused with them 

 even by the casual observer. 



The beech is sometimes mistaken for the birch by people who do 

 not see what they look at. The two are not in the least alike; the 

 soft gray bark of the beech may bear transverse blotches of white, 

 but it is not satiny in texture; it is dull and soft like " undressed kid," 

 and fits as close as a glove on the hand of a well-dressed person. 

 This glove-like quality is also characteristic of the soft maples, 

 though their bark is quite different in color and general appearance 

 from that of the beech. 



The ashes may be recognized by their beautiful bark which lies in 

 close, even, vertical ridges, making the trunk look as if it had been 

 shaded with lengthwise strokes of the pencil. The spray of the ash 

 tree is coarse and has a blunt look, and the leaf buds are opposite. 



The oaks are characterized by their gnarled and rugged branches, 

 which leave the trunk at a wider angle than is the case Avith most 

 species of deciduous trees. There is a staunch and burly look to the 

 oaks that reveals their powers of endurance. 



The hickories haA^e much the same sturdy character as the oaks, 

 but usually they are more slender in outline. The shagbark hickory 

 which is more nearly like the oaks in form than the others may be 

 easily identified by the rough, loose bark, which gives the appearance 

 of shift lessness to an otherwise handsome tree. 



Thus does each tree species reveal its identity, though it be leafless. 

 The limits of this leaflet forbids the characterization of more kinds, 

 butjtjs hoped that each pupil in the Home Nature-Study class will 



