HOW I KNOW SOME OP OUR TREES IN WINTER. 237 



HOW I KNOW ISOME OF OUK TKEEfcs IN WINTER. 



BY W. J. DEAL. 



I never tire of lookiug- at trees and for some years 1 have been trying 

 to determine what are the one or two, possibly three, leading points 

 peculiar to each species by which I know them. At close range there 

 are many good points to be utilized, but what are the marks that tell 

 the trees as one is rapidly moving through the country on the trolly or 

 steam cars? At such times a tree is only in sight for a very little while 

 and is then lost to view. In the notes here offered, I confine myself en- 

 tirely to trees as seen during the winter season. The bark of many trees 

 is well marked by the lichens seen on the surface, but during the past 

 winter more especially these marks have largely disappeared on trees 

 that grow in streets of towns or on a College Campus, for the reason that 

 the smoke of great quantities of soft coal has left its impression on every 

 thing it touches. 



Only a few of the woody plants of ^lichigau bear buds that are alter- 

 nate and two ranked, viz. : American elm, red elm, rock elm, hackleberry, 

 mulberry, bass wood, beech, blue beech, and witch hazel. With us witch 

 hazel is a shrub, and mulberry is too scarce to be thought of in this connec- 

 tion. Hackleberry may be distinguished from either of the elms by its 

 bark. Thrifty young branches of elm, when two or three years old, put 

 forth buds from most of the branches. The American elm exhibits this 

 peculiarity in the most marked degi'ee. The form of the top of this species 

 varies so much that one needs to recognize three to five or more types. 



The American elm exhibits (1) some twigs bearing alternate two- 

 ranked branches, (2) the twigs are very numerous along the sides of 

 branches even up to two inches in diameter, (3) orioles' nests are often 

 seen on the ends of drooping branches. The top of red elm has fewer 

 branches than those of the American elm, and they are larger and 

 straighter. The branches are leggy, i. e., those from one to two inches 

 in diameter contain few or no smaller twigs. 



The young branches of young trees of rock elms are freely supplied 

 with corky ridges, more or less vertical, and the branches are not droop- 

 ing. When a foot or more in diameter, the ridges of bark of a hackle- 

 berry tree are vertical and tortuous, turning one edge nearly straight out 

 from the trunk. These flakes are half an inch wide or less, as wide at 

 the surface as at the base, and often extend outward an inch from the 

 rest of the bark. 



The trunk of a small basswood is smooth and the limbs are large and 

 rigid, bearing more or less of Ihe fruit that lias dccuvrent winged bracts; 

 often having sprouts close to the stump. 



The bark of most buttonwoods is very thin, showing white spots and 

 streaks; balls of fruit at the top. 



Tulip trees bear dry cone-like fruits. 



Tamarack has the excurrent stem peculiar to most conifers, but bears 

 no leaves in winter. 



