194 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



deserve to be called complete and intelligent, and to see 

 the kind of illustrative figure that would make its action 

 plain ; it is needless to say that the interest would be 

 heightened, to me at least, if the describer should turn out 

 to have been incited by the hint with which I now close 

 my account of the house-cricket. 



XXXV. COMMON TREES. 



How TO TELL THE COMMON TREES. 



To be able to name the common trees at sight is 

 a necessary part of nature - knowledge. Country - bred 

 children learn to tell the trees as easily as they learn to 

 tell the 'faces of their neighbours, but town -children 

 often grow up totally ignorant of them, missing thereby 

 a piece of useful knowledge, and a capital lesson in 

 observation. 



Every naturalist ought to know the common trees by 

 their leaves, by their winter-boughs, by their buds, or 

 even by a piece of the bark. He ought to be able to tell 

 them at a field's length, and this either in winter or summer. 

 If he should lack this familiar knowledge of trees, he would 

 find it useful to compare the trees of his own country- 

 side, one by one, with a description, and to do this both 

 when the branches are in leaf and when they are bare. 

 Those who do not know the names of the commonest 

 trees, even in full leaf, are advised to take a country walk 

 with some better-informed friend, who will be good- 

 natured enough to name every tree that is passed on 

 the road. Do not suppose that it is enough to hang 

 up in the schoolroom a frame in which the leaves of the 

 common trees are exhibited and named. Knowledge, 

 supplied without effort on your part, does not stick. 



Alder (Family of Catkin-bearers). A small tree, usually 

 springing up on the banks of streams, the floating seeds 

 being transported by water. An alder may be recog- 



