1202 The Cornell Reading-Courses 



and in crosswise sections, showing its grain and color in the natural 

 state as well as when oiled and polished in a manufactured form. 



It is best to begin with the study of a tree with which we believe 

 ourselves already famiHar. One cannot " look a bit " and then go away 

 and forget, if one would really know a tree. The study calls for an inti- 

 mate love and an almost daily questioning. At any hour some secret 

 of its ways may be revealed: when the buds begin to swell; whether a 

 bud develops into blossom or leaf; whether the leaves or blossoms first 

 appear; whether the flowers are perfect, or the staminate or pollen-bearing 

 flowers grow on one part of the tree and the pistillate or seed-bearing 

 flowers on another part or even on another tree; whether the pollen is 

 scattered by the wind or carried by insects, and, if the latter, the dis- 

 covery of the insects to which it is most indebted. 



The unfolding of the leaves is a wonderful thing, and the attempt to 

 draw them in different stages of development is a fascinating study. 

 So, too, is their arrangement with reference to the light when fully unfolded; 

 in order to appreciate this fact, a tree should be studied from above and 

 from below; one can then understand why the beech yields so slowly to 

 the penetration of the rain and is better shelter from sun and shower 

 than is the thickest evergreen. 



The study of the formation and growth of the fruit is equally interesting. 

 If possible, successive drawings should be made, showing development 

 and position of the fruit, whether growing on new wood or on twigs of 

 the previous season, how it is wrapped to protect it from cold weather 

 or from other harm. Note the period of ripening and the manner of seed 

 dispersal. 



Observ^e and chronicle the habits of different species of trees in the 

 doffing of their apparel in the autumn as well as in its donning in the 

 spring: the characteristic coloring of the leaves in their ripening process 

 and whether their fall is early or late, gradual or swift. 



One cannot study a tree without observing the bird life that it shelters; 

 the harmful insect life from which it needs to be protected by its human 

 friends as well as by its bird neighbors; the beneficial insects that prey 

 on its enemies and that need to become better known and protected. 



One should learn something also of the physical composition and the 

 powers of tlie tree : of its ability to temper the torrid heat of summer by the 

 transpiration and evaporation of the tons of water drawn from the depths 

 of the soil by its feeding roots and lifted to its green-leaf laboratories; of the 

 work going on in those laboratories — for it is here, in the green substance 

 of its leaves, that the food taken from the soil is combined with that drawn 

 from the air and, with the help of the heat and light given by the sun, 

 is changed to the starchy form in which alone it can be assimilated and 



