212 



CHIPS. 



[July 1885. 



swells into a bulb like a jnn head) are 

 blown by the wind, the little "fuzz" 

 they hold enabling them to float a 

 great way botli in wind and on water. 

 They begin falling eai'ly in the sjn-ing 

 months, and if a flood is receding at 

 the time, they stick to the soft, moist 

 banks wherever they touch them, and 

 particularly along the highest part of 

 the sand-bars. Were it not for the 

 subsequent floods the same spring, 

 there could no other trees grow, as the 

 sycamore, being the flrst to shed, would 

 seed all the tree-growing space (each 

 large tree beaiing one hundred and 

 fifty million seeds), and their broad 

 leaves would shade the ground till 

 nothing else could sprout. But during 

 their early infancy they are easily 

 killed by an overflow, and this ill- 

 fortune happens to the greater portion 

 of them. 



The cotton- wood is the next in order 

 of shedding seed. If another flood is 

 receding while the cotton- wood is shed- 

 ding, this flood will have killed all the 

 sycamores, which it covered for only a 

 few days, and will sprout all the cotton- 

 wood seed that may fall on and along 

 the banks and bars. As the earlier 

 floods are generally the highest, there 

 will be some sycamores not reached by 

 the following floods, and they will hold 

 sway along that margin. If, when the 

 cotton-woods are a few inches high, 

 another flood follows, they too will be 

 killed to the extent that they are kejrt 

 under water for a few days. 



Next to the cotton- wood the soft, or 

 bottom, maple sheds its seeds. If a 

 flood is receding, this seed will occupy 

 all the space, as, having a smaller leaf 

 than the sycamore or cotton-wood, they 

 will grow closer together. They in 

 turn may be killed by a flood when 

 they are very young. 



I have forgotten the exact time that 

 each of these trees ■ sheds its seeds ; 

 something will, of course, depend on 

 the forwardness of the spring. But 

 along the Wabash banks, last spring, 

 I could see three belts of young trees, 

 and distinguish them by their general 

 appearance. The farther off", the plainer 

 these belts show, till lost to view. The 

 upper belt was sycamore, the second 

 (downward) cotton-wood, and the third 

 soft maple. In June following there 

 came a bigger flood than any that 

 caused the seeds to sprout, and killed 

 all of them. Thei'e was a bigger flood 

 in the preceding February, but no seed 

 fell then. 



It will sometimes happen that the 

 flood that plants the .sycamores will 

 be the last one for that year ; and 

 when they have lived through one 

 summer, they ai'e safe from any danger 

 from overflow. In still other seasons, 

 it will happen to favour the cotton- 

 wood, or the maple, or elm, or willow. 

 New bars are all the time extending 

 from the lower ends of the old ones ; 

 and as the elevation of these will be 

 such as to be sometimes flooded once 

 and not again for that year, the trees 

 that shed their seed with the flood 

 that barely covers such bars, will plant 

 them to overflowing fulness of their 

 kind ; and once they are secured from 

 other floods, they live out their time 

 of two hundred to three hundred years. 



The upper surface of the interior of 

 the bottoms (back from the rivers) is 

 built up by sedimentation, and when 

 built above the height of the average 

 floods, the burr oak, black walnut, 

 buckeye, pawpaw, and bottom hickory 

 make their appearance. Such syca- 

 mores, cotton-woods, and maples as 

 live long enough are relegated to the 

 interior (as very few of them do) by 

 the bottoms building I'iverward away 

 from them. They die at the end of 

 three hundred years at most, and leave 

 no heirs to the soil. — John T. CAjir- 

 BELL in American Naturalist. 



1 

 2 

 3 

 4, 

 .5 

 6 

 7. 

 8. 

 9. 



10. 



11. 



12. 



13. 

 14. 

 15. 

 16. 

 17. 

 18. 

 19. 

 20. 



21. 



22. 

 23'. 

 24. 

 25. 



AxswER TO Tree Conundrum : — 



. Pear. Tea. 26. Woodbine. 



Hop. 27. Broom. 



Beech. 28. Basswood, 



Spruce. 29. Vine. 



Tulip. Yew. 30. Eose. 



. Bay. 31. Satinwood. 

 . Peaches. Aloe. 



. Judas. 32. (H)elm. 



Fir. 33. Arbor-vitaj. 



Pine. 34. Dyewoods. 



Date. 35. Southernwood. 



Weeping wil- 36. Cork. 



low. 

 I^7. 

 SiDindle. 

 Caper, 

 Sycamore. 

 Locust. 

 Plane. 

 Medlar. 

 India rubber. 

 Sago palm. 

 Ficr. Damson. 



Smoke. Hazel. 



38. Elder. 



39. Poplar. 



40. Wavfaring. 



41. Birch. 



42. Ash. 



43. Coffee. 



44. Palm. 



45. Aspen. 



46. Deadly night- 

 shade. 



Chestnut. 47. Breadfruit. 



Lilac. 48. Orange. 



Honeysuckle. 49. (O)live. 

 Citron. 



