132 AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



to the wood as the work of the sap is finished, and is 

 then not so easy to peel. In winter the woody jacket 

 forms almost the sole means of a ready identification 

 of the trees, and the study of it hence becomes then a 

 genuine necessity as well as a pleasure. It is when still 

 wet and dripping with rain that the trees are most evi- 

 dently alive; the mottled lichened trunks of some of 

 them, as, for instance, those especially of young soft 

 maples, looking like huge sleek snakes, with the spots 

 and striped markings left slippery and fresh and clean, 

 as after shedding their skins. 



The distinction between the different orders of trees 

 can not absolutely be determined in any other way than 

 by the inflorescence. This is the only hard-and-fast 

 line. The separation of trees into hardwoods and soft- 

 woods, including all the Conifers, and these only, under 

 the latter term, and placing all other kinds under the 

 former heading, is not a satisfactory classification, for 

 many of these so-called hardwoods, such as basswood 

 and poplar, are as soft as the conifers; it is only in 

 lumbering that such terms should be used, and in lum- 

 bering the term softwoods comprises many that are 

 not among the Conifers. Nor are the words decidu- 

 ous and evergreen much more decisive; for it is inter- 

 esting to observe that three of the coniferous species, 

 namely, the tamarack and cypress, and the exotic gingko, 

 shed their leaves annually, and that the flowering and 

 shiny magnolias, the American and English hollies, 

 boxwood, the live oak (and the holm oak of Europe), 

 and the laurel are all evergreens, though not conifers. 

 The word evergreen, however descriptive, is, too, in 

 itself almost a misnomer; for all trees, even those not 



