OF Ohio 27 



HOW TO STUDY TREES 



THE FIRST THING one usually wants to know about a tree 

 is its name. Each tree has two kinds of names — the 

 common name and the scientific name. One of our best known 

 trees has the common name of WHITE OAK. Its scientific 

 name is Quercus alba. Some trees have five to ten or more 

 common names. Whoever knows the common and scien- 

 tific names of a tree has mastered the first step in tree iden- 

 tification. 



There are a number of common ways to get acquainted 

 with trees. Some students are fortunate enough to have good 

 teachers who know the trees. When this is true, tree identi- 

 fication is very easy. But there are other less fortunate ones 

 who must study them from books. The study of trees is 

 one of the purest delights of outdoor life. It is so pleasant, 

 so fascinating, and so stimulating that it becomes a pastime 

 of rare delight. To know trees is to love and protect them. 

 In teaching our boys and girls about trees we will place in 

 their possession an unafraid attitude towards the out-of- 

 doors and thus instil into them the duty of preserving tree 

 homes for our cheery bird friends "Whose habitations in the 

 treetops e'en are half-way houses on the road to Heaven." 



Fortunate are the boys and the girls who can tell the names 

 of trees, know the quality of their fruit, the fragrance of their 

 flowers, the form of their leaves, the flavor of their twigs, 

 the color of the bark, and the properties of their wood; 

 especially whether the wood is tough or brittle, easy or hard 

 to chop and split into firewood. 



"He that plant eth a tree is a servant of God. 

 He provideth a kindness for many generations, and 

 faces that he hath not seen shall bless him." 



Henry Van Dyke. 



"/ have written many verses, but the best 

 poems I have produced are the trees I planted on 

 the hillside." 



Oliver Wendell Holmes. 



