108 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



seams in bark canoes. The wood is hard, strong and durable. 



One of the leading orders of the vegetable world is the 

 legume or pea family, but though it is represented in our cli- 

 mate b}^ many plants such as the bean, pea, and clover, the 

 locusts are practically the only ones that become trees. Every- 

 body knows the locust blossoms and the bees knew them before 

 we did. The wood of this species is the most durable for out- 

 of-door purposes of all North American trees. The writer 

 knows of a fence post that is reputed to have stood in the 

 ground for more than seventy years. It still holds up its sec- 

 tion of fence, but has literally grown gray in the service. 



In a list of remarkable trees we must not forget the tulip 

 tree, known also as white wood and yellow poplar. The ma- 

 jority of our forest trees bear only inconspicuous flowrs, but 

 this makes up the deficiencies of other species by producing 

 great blossoms often four inches across. These are greenish 

 yellow marked within with orange. The leaves resemble the 

 leaves of the red maple with the central lobe cut squarely off. 

 The wood is light and soft. It warps quickly but is easily 

 worked and is much used in interior finishing under the name 

 of whitewood. This wood formed part of the "one boss shay." 



"The panels of white wood that cuts like cheese 

 But lasts like iron for things like these." 



The fruit looks something like a young cucumber and the 

 tree is sometimes wrongly called cucumber tree. 



The aspens which are quick to spring vip in wet or burned- 

 over places are related to the cottonwoods. They may be dis- 

 tinguished by their light green almost vegetative bark. The 

 wood is very soft and has no use in the arts except in the 

 manufacture of a coarse kind of paper. The phrase "trem- 

 bling like an aspen" really expresses something for aspens 

 have the most tremulous of leaves. This is due to the fact 

 that the leaf stem is flattened sidewise causing the leaf to sway 



