PYRUS. 101 



XXVII. THE APPLE TREE. 



The Tree. — The transition from the humble herb to the 

 lofty tree is sufficiently abrupt ; but except in growth and 

 stature, the real difference may be slight. While the herb 

 devotes its entire annual income to its offsprings the tree 

 reserves a portion for itself, treasuring up solid wood in its 

 stem and branches. 



The Tru7ik is the appropriate name for the stem of a 

 tree — one of the most interesting and useful of all natural 

 objects. In the Apple Tree, it is short and definite, seldom 

 more than 7 or 8 feet high. At the base in the ground, and 

 at its summit, it suddenly terminates, dissolving into roots 

 strong and far-reaching below,* and into branches, branchlets 

 and spray above, forming the rounded, aerial liead. This 

 kind of trunk is termed solvent, in distinction from the 

 excurrent trunk, as shown in the Pines (p. 216). 



The Wood, seen in cross-sections easily made with a saw 

 and plane (8), displays, 1st, the pith in or near the center ; 

 2d, the purple heart-wood \ around it ; 3d, the white sap-wood 

 around the heart-wood ; 4th, the larTc around all ; 5th, the 

 annual layers or wood-rings, here two only, of which the 

 outer is the younger ; and 6th, the silvery medullary rays 

 running from the pith {medulla) to the bark. Each layer is 

 the growth of a year ; consequently the number of the lay- 

 ers suggests the age of the branch, and a similar section of 



* If all the roots of growin<2: plant? could be laid bare of earth, the siiiht would be 

 marvelous. It is roughly estimated that an Elm is as large below as above ground. 

 What shall we say of the root of the common Red Clover, which has been known to 

 descend a distance of five feet ; or a stalk of Wheat which, within forty-seven day^ 

 after planting, sent down its fibers into a light subsoil seven feet ? The roots, blindly 

 searching around after food, often seem to be endowed with some special sense. 



t More properly called duraiiun (r/?/r>^,hard). It is heart-wood only in respect to 

 situation, for it bears no part in the life and vegetation of the plant. It is more the 

 seat of death than of life ; henee it often decays, leaving the trunk hollow while the 

 tree is as flourishingas ever. Thus the tree at once both lives and dies, like the Coral, 

 Which is dead below and alive at the extremities. 



