H 



CHAPTER III. 



HOW TO IDENTIFY SHADE TREES 



OW many trees do you know well enough to call by 

 name at sight? Can you tell an Oak from a Beech, 

 a Red Oak from a White Oak or a Norway Maple from a 

 Sugar Maple? Do you know the difference between the 

 Buckeye and the Horse Chestnut? 



The man who loves trees should be able to identify 

 them at a glance. This does not mean that he should 

 turn botanist and spend his life in the pursuit of such 

 terms as "staminal differentiation" or "pinnately com- 

 pound," or that he must study the trees of Borneo or 

 Madagascar. It does not call for scholarly research into 

 the many-syllabled Latin names employed by the scien- 

 tists. Platanus Occidentalis is all right for the expert, but 

 for the plain citizen the simple name of Sycamore meets 

 every demand. The one thing that is suggested is that he 

 should make himself familiar with the trees most commonly 

 found in his own section of the country and that he 

 learn to know them by the names in everyday use. 



A little study along this line may save one from em- 

 barrassing moments when somebody asks the name of a 

 particular tree in city park or by country roadside. 



Take the Oaks, for instance. The average man is not 

 concerned with the distinction between Quercus palustris 

 and Quercus velutina. What he wants to know is how to 

 tell the Pin Oak from the Black Oak. He would like 

 to be able to distinguish an Oak from the other trees and 

 the different species of Oaks from one another. 



As a group the Oaks carry general marks of distinction 



from other trees. One of these marks is the bearing of 



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