July 25, 1917 



:/.ii:j5iKtiX!i3^^ 



\^saixiii:Miixx>iiKXX^x;^C}iiM'i)!!iy^m^ 





•mm 



w- 



§c 



Trees Which ISfature iSJeglected 





Does purpose run through nature's works? 



When the Duke of Argyle wrote that masterpiece, ' ' Unity oi 

 Nature," he produced evidence which he considered sufScient to 

 answer that question in the affirmative; and it cannot be denied that 

 he made a strong showing. But, somehow, the negative evidence 

 appealed to him less strongly than the positive. He overlooked cer- 

 tain apparent inconsistencies and lack of unity in the various means 

 supplied some trees for dispersing their seeds, and the absence of 

 any comparable means furnished others. Some are amply provided 

 for, some apparently not at all. 



Much has been said of trees which are helped in their struggle for 

 existence by the provision of wings, appendages, or other means of 

 seed dispersal, such as Cottonwood, whose seeds sail through the air 

 enmeshed in balls of silky fiber ; sycamore, whose minute seeds are 

 prepared to ride on the wind or float on water; those of birch, ash, 

 and mhple, which fly on membranous wings, while basswood's glide 

 away on bracts that serve as parachutes ; Jamaica dogwood 's are 

 steadied by papery keels during their aerial voyages, while man- 

 grove's seeds are equipped admirably for transportation by water 

 to the very spots where they can thrive best. 



These provisions, and others similar, have often been selected as 

 texts for discourses on nature 's marvelous provision for the perpetua- 

 tion of tree species. It has been many times asserted that, without 

 such provision for the scattering of their seeds, these trees would 

 long ago have perished from the earth. The proverb, "nature takes 

 care of her own," is usually quoted as a conclusion of the argument 

 that every plant and animal is amply provided for. 



Will that stand the test of fact? Is there any evidence that maple 

 would have perished, or that its range would have been more re- 

 stricted, had its fruit been a wingless, keelless, unfloatable buckeye 

 instead of a winged samara? It is a beautiful theory, and many 

 wonderful facts support it, but there are inconsistencies, real or 

 apparent. How about those trees whose seeds have no cottony bal- 

 loons to carry them before the wind, no wings for sailing, no keels 

 for gliding through the air, too heavy to float on water, and not even 

 equipped for tumbling, as the pusillanimous Eussian thistle is? These 

 would seem to be instances where nature forgot to provide for her 

 own; yet, some of the trees thus circumstanced are the strongest, 

 most kingly of all the forest trees of the world. 

 Holding Ground Firmly 



The seed that falls from the chestnut tree has no means of locomo- 

 tion. When it escapes from its frost-split burr it drops as plumb 

 as a line and there it lies if let alone. Its shell is too thin to protect 

 It even from the feeble jaws of the raucous bluejay who is usually 

 haunting in the vicinity, ready to make a stab with his sharp bill, lay 

 the kernel open, and scream as he devours the feast The bristling 

 burr, which apparently was designed to protect the growing nut, 

 fails in that function. Long before the nut is ripe it is liable to be 

 doomed to destruction by the sting of the balaninus, an insect almost 

 as insignificant and contemptible as a thrip, yet able to pierce the 

 burr and blast the chestnut. 



In spite of enemies and other handicaps, chestnuts have always 

 succeeded in getting themselves planted about as successfully as the 

 basswood whose bracted seeds sail away like aeroplanes. 



The seed of the oak is an acorn. If it falls on a steep hillside it 

 may roll to the bottom ; but it has no other means of locomotion. 

 It is devoid of wings and keels, and unless it is quite dry, if it falls 

 on water, it sinks like a pebble. In spite of drawbacks and disad- 

 vantages in its means of dispersing its seeds, the oak has been able 

 to hold its ground in the face of the most vigorous opposition, and it 

 easily crowds out many trees whose seeds can fly or float and thus 

 become widely scattered. 



The beech is handicapped even more than oak and chestnut. Its 

 triangular nuts will not so much as roll down hill. They neither fly 

 nor swim ; and they are so small that nearly any bird can gulp them 

 without being put to the necessity of breaking the hulls. The nuts 



always separate from the burrs before falling and thus become easy 

 picking for all feathered or furred enemies which have only to lie in 

 wait beneath the beech trees and pounce on the nuts as they drop. 

 In spite of this, the beech forests have maintained their positions 

 from remote antiquity till the present time. 

 The Walnut Family 



The walnut family, in<'luding the hickories, furnishes a still more 

 striking illustration of survial in face of odds. The nuts are large 

 and heavy. The black walnut comes to the ground encased in a 

 hull as bitter as gall, as large as a medium-sized orange, and almost 

 perfectly round. Sphericity is the only advantage possessed by it 

 in the work of finding a place for its own planting. The nut of 

 the black walnut tree is the best roller of the forest. If the tree 

 grows on a hillside the unhulled nut has a chance to roll to the 

 bottom, or to lodge in some favorable recess on the way down. 

 Gravity is the impelling force. When the nut has found lodgment, 

 a short time suflSces for larvae to destroy the outer husk and let the 

 naked nut down upon the ground. 



On the face of it, that process might appear to be a provision of 

 nature for scattering walnuts and extending the range of the species; 

 but, unfortunately for the theory, the black walnut is not usually a 

 hillside tree. It is found in the level rich bottomlands, where the 

 roundness of the nut is no advantage, so far as rolling by the stress 

 of gravity is concerned. The nut stays where it falls. Therefore, 

 the only provision for the disposal of the heavy, round nuts of the 

 walnut tree seems to have been largely nullified by the tree's choice 

 of location. 



The butternut, which is as large as the black walnut and is its near 

 relative, is denied the small boon of being able to roll down hill. 

 Its shape dooms it to stay where it falls, and it is further crippled 

 by a sticky gum which covers it. If the butternut starts to roll, it 

 picks up leaves and twigs on its tarry surface and is brought to a 

 short stop. Everything militates against its efforts to find a planting 

 place beyond the shadow of the parent, yet the butternut tree has 

 managed to disperse itself over, and maintain itself on, a million 

 square miles of territory. 



Though the walnuts and hickories were turned down when nature 

 was devising ways of dispersing tree seeds, yet, if the whole history 

 of trees is considered, it will be found that these two have shown 

 more vigorous perseverence in their fight for existence than any 

 other broadleaf trees of record in the world 's geological annals. 

 They have lost some great battles in certain regions, but they forti- 

 fied themselves in other regions and hold them. 



The walnuts were among the first hardwoods to make their ap- 

 pearance in the ancient world. They have come down to us through 

 an immense period of time. They date from the middle of the 

 Cretaceous age. No one ventures to measure that time in years, but 

 it would run into millions at least. Since the first appearance of 

 walnut in those distant ages, the different species and genera have 

 circled the globe — not everywhere at once, but at one time or another 

 they have flourished on every continent, Europe, Asia, Africa, North 

 America, and South America. They grew in Alaska and on the 

 opposite side of the Pacific in Japan and Saghalen island; they 

 ranged from Spitzenbergen and Greenland to the Andes mountains, 

 south of the equator. The nuts have been found buried in mud 

 beneath the prehistoric lake dwellings in Switzerlan.l. Black walnuts 

 and butternuts which have been dug from the lignite deposits in 

 Germany are indistinguishable in form and development from those 

 DOW growing in the Ohio valley. Even the Egyptian deserts give up 

 their fossil walnuts. The Fayum, which was treeless during the 

 earliest periods of Egyptian history, had forests of walnut at a far 

 remoter period. 



Ranges Past and Present 



The wahiut family in its long battle for existence, has lost much 

 ground. So have many other trees which are not half so old and 

 which have not fought half so courageously. The walnut still holds 



—19— 



