744 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



resembles ivory, for inlay work, tool handles, whip stocks 

 and walking sticks. Engravers prize it very highly to 

 engrave upon an art now almost out of date ; and it 

 also has many other uses. This tree, that is, the 

 American holly, will, within the next half century, be 

 utterly extinct in the United States. Other hollies are 

 the Yaupon, the Dahoon, the Swamp or Meadow holly, 

 and the Mountain holly. In the Old World there are 

 still different species of Ilex, and nearly all of them are 

 fine and ornamental trees, worthy of far better protec- 

 tion than they 

 now receive. 



Far back into 

 history the holly 

 and the mistle- 

 toe are closelv 

 associated, in a 

 decorative way, 

 all through the 

 holiday season, 

 and many of the 

 customs have 

 come down to 

 us. 



"The ni'stletoe hung 



in the castle hall, 

 And the holly 



branch hung on 



the old oak wall; 

 The baron's retain- 

 ers were blythe 



and gay 

 Keeping their 



Christmas h o 1 i- 



day." 



Holly trees 

 transplant very 

 successfully i f 

 proper precau- 

 tions are taken, 

 and a very beau- 

 t i f u 1 species, 

 with immense, 

 red berries, is 

 being intro- 

 duced here from Japan. All the various kinds now to be 

 found in the country should, at the suggestion of the 

 American Forestry Association, be protected by both 

 State and Federal Governments before it is too late to 

 save them. 



More than abundant all through the. autumn, and often 

 up to the arrival of winter, is the well-known little White 

 Heath Aster (Figure 2), which looks for all the world 

 like an extremely small edition of our common daisy of 

 the meadows. It has also received the name of Michael- 

 mas Daisy, White Rosemary. Farewell Summer, and 

 Frostweed because Jack Frost sometimes sees it in 

 bloom. It rarely grows more than a yard high, and is 

 sometimes so massed in favorable places that it appears, 

 at a little distance, like some kind of a feathery inflores- 

 cence. Occasionally its little flowers are more or less 

 strongly tinged with magenta or pale purple. The cen- 

 tral discs are bright yellow, while the leaves of the plant 

 are light green, minute, linear and heathlike, to become. 



AMERICAN HOLLY, A TREE RAPIDLY DIS- 

 APPEARING IN SUBURBAN DISTRICTS 



Fig. 1. It is said ihat the generic name. Ilex, 

 of this splendid tree is the ancient Latin name, 

 originally applied to the Holy Oak; opaca is 

 its specific name. Its drupes are of a lirilliint 

 red or vermilion color, while in some of the 

 other hollies they are yellow. 



near the base of the smooth stem, more lance-shaped and 

 blunt ; these latter may be minutely toothed or serrate. 



In some parts of the country the bee-keepers have en- 

 couraged the spread of this tiny aster, for not only is it 

 known to yield a large amount of nectar, but the latter is 

 of a brand that our honey-bees are extremely fond of. 

 This miniature edition of the daisy may readily be 

 identified by its very small and very rigid leaves. Last 

 summer (1917) many of the early autumn flowers this 

 little Michaelmas daisy or aster among them were 

 ushered in with a flourish of trumpets, as it were, if one 

 may be permitted to thus refer to the imaginary finale of 

 the trumpet-flowers, as they drop out of the list of flowers 

 that bloom in the northwestern sections of the country as 

 September draws to a close. 



Flowers of the Trumpet-creeper are among the most 

 conspicuous of all those that are to be seen in the districts 

 where the plant thrives, which includes, as a rule, the 

 time extending from April to September, depending upon 



the latitude 

 where it is 

 found. T h ose 

 who have had 

 the pleasure of 

 seeing these 

 great orange 

 and scarlet flow- 

 ers growing 

 wild are not 

 likely to ever 

 forget the sight. 

 Sometimes the 

 vine may be 

 massed over the 

 great stone pier 

 of a bridge at 

 its initial an- 

 chorage, when 

 hundreds of the 

 flowers are in 

 view at once. 

 They stand out 

 with especial 

 prominence iti 



HERE WE HAVE ONE OF THE LITTLE the Setting they 

 RAGAMUFFINS OF THE ROADSIDE ^^^^-^^ f^^^ ^^e 



1 u X u r i ant f o- 

 je of this 

 great climber, 

 its toothed and 

 pointed leaflets being of a paler shade than the dark, 

 shiny green, matured leaves, which are ])innate in out- 

 line and ovate in form. As will be noted in Figure 3, the 

 flowers are corymbed, the brilliant corolla being funnel- 

 formed, five-lobed, and somewhat irregular. The vine 

 itself is woody, and climbs by means of its aerial root- 

 lets. Its pods are well illustrated in Figure 4, where, too. 

 may be seen some of the flattened, winged seeds. This 

 flower is a great favorite with our Ruby-throated Hum- 

 ming-bird, and Audubon attempted to portray that spe- 



Fig. 2 This tiny white aster is pretty generally 

 known as the Michaelmas Daisy or Heath Aster 

 (.Aster ericoides). In the middle districts of its 

 range, it sometimes blooms as late as November; 

 it is a very abundant species as far south 

 Kentucky. 



