Rural School Leaflet 



1235 



Leaf of tulip tree 



The tulip tree. — This is one of the stateliest and most magnificent of 

 all our native American trees. In the southern mountains, where it 

 reaches its finest development on rich, moist soils of protected slopes, 

 it is not uncommon to find the tulip tree (or yellow poplar, as it is called 

 there) growing to a height of one hundred and sixty feet and a diameter 

 of six feet. Its trunk is often so straight and clear of limbs that a large 

 amount of valuable lumber is obtained from 

 a single tree. Notice the leaves of the tulip 

 tree as shown in the drawing; did you ever 

 see a leaf that resembled this at all 5 

 Probably not, for this tree is one of two 

 species which are relics of ancient times. 

 The other species is found in China. 



The beautiful flowers of the tulip tree 

 appear immediately after the leaves unfold. 

 They resemble tulips, from which fact the 

 tree takes its name, but they do not last 

 long. The fruit looks somewhat like a cone. 

 The seeds that it bears are unfortunately 

 very poor in vitality, so that, although many seeds may be distributed 

 by the tree, only a few germinate and the tulip tree is therefore not so 

 common as we should like to have it. Wherever it is found it should be 

 protected and encouraged. 



The tulip tree yields a very high grade of lumber. It is soft, easily 

 worked and unusually free from knots. It is much used for interior 

 finish. Much of the timber has been exported to Europe from even the 

 most inaccessible parts of the southern mountains, the wide boards from 

 large trees being in great demand. 



The juniper. — The juniper is distinguished from all other conifers by 

 its fruit, which is a berry. The blue berries of our common juniper, or 

 red cedar as it is frequently called, are a familiar sight. The tree is very 

 slow-growing, but it can be grown on poor, sterile soils where nothing 

 else will thrive. The juniper, which is common in rocky pastures, rarely 

 has an opportunity to grow more than tnirty or forty feet tall, for long 

 before it attains its full size it is cut down for fence posts or other useful 

 purposes. A southern form of this cedar was formerly very extensively 

 used in the manufacture of lead pencils, but it has become so scarce of 

 late years that other and cheaper woods have been substituted for it. 

 The wood of the juniper is light, easily worked, and very aromatic. The 

 odor, which is so pleasant, is distasteful to insects, and this renders the 

 wood proof against their attacks. The wood is also very durable when 

 in contact with the soil. For these reasons cedar is used largely for fence 

 posts and for the manufacture of chests in which to keep woolen clothing. 



