STUDIES OF LEAF AND TREE (PART 1) 



33 



grow almost anywhere, and is employed as an ornamen- 

 tal tree in homes and estates of every class and descrip- 

 tion. They are also planted for wind-breaks in various 

 places on our coasts. The aromatic sap of this Red 

 Cedar is of a resinous quality and much disliked by 

 moths. Evergreen berries are greedily eaten by many 

 species of birds, the cedar bird having derived its vernac- 

 ular name from being conspicuous in that regard. 



The full history of our various species of Juniper 

 trees and their introduced relatives, many of which be- 

 long in the same genus, would furnish ample material 

 for a good-sized volume. 



From the very extensive 

 conifer group we may 

 pass to a small family in 

 which occur but very few 

 genera and species. Upon 

 casual examination they 

 appear to be hardly at all 

 related while botanical 

 taxonomers find no diffi- 

 culty in demonstrating to 

 us that they are. The 

 group referred to is the 

 Witch-hazel family, the 

 scientific name for which is 

 the Hamamelidaceae . In 

 this we find the common 

 Witch-hazel (Hamamelis 

 virginiana), a most inter- 

 esting shrub, with a folk- 

 lore altogether too long to 

 make record of at this 

 time. The genus Fother- 

 gilla (F. gardeni), found 

 in the low grounds of Vir- 

 ginia and Georgia also 

 hold generic place in this 

 group. Finally there is the 

 Sweet Gum tree (Liquid- 

 ambar styraciflua), which, 

 as Doctor Gray informs us, 

 is "a mongrel name from 

 liquidus, fluid, and the 

 Arabic ambar, amber, in 

 allusion to the fragrant 

 terebinthine juice which 

 exudes from the tree." 



The Sweet Gum tree is also called Bilstead, it being 

 for the most part a coastwise species that flourishes best 

 in swampy woods, and having a distribution extending 

 from southern Connecticut throughout the South and 

 westward as far as the Mississippi Valley to Texas. In 

 Fig. 6 we have an excellent representation of the termi- 

 nal branches of the Sweet Gum, when well started in 

 flower and leaf in the spring. These came from a mag- 

 nificent tree that grows in a swamp at Hyattsville, Mary- 

 land, only a few miles north of Washington, D. C. ; 

 other splendid examples grow in the same locality. The 



RED CEDARS AS THEY FLOURISH IN NATURE 



Fig. 5 The Red Cedar is often scattered over old farms and unused lands 

 in many parts of the country. In such situations they frequently come to 

 be of great age and size, and lend a peculiar interest to the landscape. 



foliage of the Sweet Gum turns to a superb crimson 

 in the fall, and the tree is readily recognized at a dis- 

 tance. Its wood has a fine grain ; the bark is of a dark 

 gray color, and we all know of the corky ridges that 

 grow in broken rows down the branchlets. Its curious 

 catkins, both normal and abnormal, are well shown in 

 Fig. 6 of the present article. Sweet Gums in the South 

 grow to be of immense size, and often attain a height of 

 150 feet or more. Through all that region it is linked 

 with song and story, for much of which the slaves of 

 prebellum days are responsible; in this too the 'coon 



and the 'possum cut no in- 

 significant figure. 



There is something ap- 

 proaching similarity be- 

 tween the seedballs of the 

 gum and those of the syca- 

 more ; though as a matter 

 of fact they are really 

 very different beyond the 

 fact that both hang on 

 their respective trees all 

 winter, swinging from the 

 lower ends of their pedun- 

 cles. 



Julia Rogers very truly 

 says "The sap of the 

 sweet gum is resinous and 

 fragrant. It is easy to 

 find this out by crushing a 

 leaf or bruising a twig. 

 Chip through the bark of 

 a tree and an aromatic 

 gum accumulates in the 

 wound. In the Northern 

 States this exudation is 

 scant, but it becomes more 

 and more plentiful as one 

 proceeds South. The most 

 copious flow is from trees 

 in Central America. This 

 gum is known to com- 

 merce as 'copahnbalm,' 

 large quantities of which 

 are shipped to Europe 

 from New Orleans and 

 from Mexican ports each 

 year. A Spanish explorer 

 in Mexico described in 1651 'large trees that exude a 

 gum like liquid amber.' This was the beginning of 

 the trade." 



The wood of the Sweet Gum has many uses ; it is also 

 a valuable and highly ornamental shade tree. 



Another very important group of trees, and one far 

 removed from the Witch-hazel family, is the Fagaceae 

 the Beech family. Here we see associated some of the 

 best known and most valuable trees in the United States. 

 It derives its name from one of the included genera 

 from the Beech, which is Fagus. Besides the two spe- 



