STUDIES OF LEAF AND TREE (PART 1) 



35 



falling to the ground in the autumn. Its wood is tough 

 and hard, as would be expected in so virile and vigorous 

 a tree, while its barlj is extremely rough and very dark. 

 With respect to its leaves, they alternate in the matter of 

 arrangement, and specimens have been met with having 

 a length of ten inches. Its deeply furrowed bark is very 

 rich in tannic acid ; hence this species is very widely 

 known as the tan-bark oak, and sometimes these tan- 

 bark oaks grow to be at least one hundred feet in height. 

 Taken altogether, then, the chestnut oak is one of our 

 most valuable trees; and to the many uses to which we 

 put its wood and bark must be added the fact that in our 

 parks and on many handsome estates it occurs as one of 

 the most elegant among the ornamental shade trees grown 

 in such places. 



In studying our trees, we occasion- 

 ally meet with a family in which oc- 

 curs but a single genus, created to 

 contain but a few species. Such is 

 the case with the Sycamores or But- 

 tonwoods, which constitute the Plane 

 Tree family (Platanaceae) . All 

 these sycamores are confined to the 

 genus Platanus and there are usually 

 four species of them recognized, 

 these being the sycamore (P. occiden- 

 talis), the California sycamore (P. 

 racemosa), and the Arizona syca- 

 more (P. wrightii), with the Oriental 

 Plane tree (P. orientalis). Two 

 other species occur in the Old World, 

 and others may be found in the 

 Southern Hemisphere. Their distri- 

 bution in present and geologic time 

 is a most interesting subject, but far 

 too extensive a one to go into here. 



No tree in nature or elsewhere may fertile flowerheads of the syca- 



u r 1 J vl * MORE TREE 



be more quickly and with great- 

 er certainty identified than a but- B* SrllS* <= us " al \. sin ? le > one on . the , end 



J of each peduncle. Here the latter are single or 



tOnball Or Sycamore tree; itS brit- b , ranche d. and as many as six heads attached; 

 J ' there may be more. 



tie, light-colored and smooth bark 

 gives the tree away at once. Then, when this bark 

 flakes off as it is its nature to do the white layer be- 

 neath is exposed, making the trunk appear as though it 

 had been white-washed, with patches of thin, light- 

 colored bark irregularly stuck on. There can be no doubt 

 as to what tree one is considering, as no other tree ever 



has this appearance. In addition to these characters we 

 have in summer the big leaves which look like giant 

 maple leaves ; and most of the year, especially in winter, 

 we see the seed balls swinging at the ends of their 

 peduncles. These seed balls are almost unique and 

 there can be no such thing as mistaking a sycamore for 

 a sweet gum tree. (Compare Figs. 7 and 15.) 



In the American Plane tree (P. occidentalis) two seed 

 balls may be found on one peduncle one below the 

 other ; while in other species, as the California sycamore 

 (P. racemosa), and doubtless in many others as many 

 as seven of these may be strung in one pendulous line 

 together. (Six are shown in Fig. 15.) They are smaller, 

 and of a beautiful green color in the spring, when 

 the new leaves appear with them; 

 and they are of many sizes, as will 

 be appreciated by referring to Fig. 

 13 illustrating the present article. 

 This beautiful and very instructive 

 branch was gathered just beyond the 

 city limits of Washington, D. C, 

 where many of its kind flourish in 

 all of their magnificence. Indeed, 

 some of these trees up the Potomac 

 above the city have grown to be- 

 come most superb examples of their 

 kind ; a group of these are here shown 

 in Fig. 16. Surely the one in the 

 foreground is over 150 feet in 

 height with a diameter of trunk to 

 correspond. Curiously enough, they 

 all lean towards the river, but for 

 what reason it is difficult to say. All 

 about them, in shade and shadow, 

 grow the most lovely flowers we have 

 in the flora of this region. It is 

 a charming locality to ramble through 

 in the summer time, that is, un- 

 til an up-the-country rain swells 

 the turbulent old stream some day 

 so that its roaring, chocolate-colored flood comes plung- 

 ing down, carrying all before it among other things in- 

 undating both banks often to a depth of ten or twelve 

 feet, or even more, rendering all these beauty-spots 

 veritable muddy marshes with every trace of nature's 

 garden gone. 



"C 1 OUR tracts of National Forest spruce are being sold 

 -*- by the United States Forest Service in District No. 

 6. No other species will be used except as needed inci- 

 dentally in the logging operations. The contract re- 

 quires lumber to be manufactured in such a manner as to 

 produce the maximum amount of airplane material. In 

 order to make it possible to get out the spruce quickly, 

 the Forest Service has sacrificed some of the usual re- 

 quirements. Only those trees containing airplane stock 

 will be cut. 



rp IMBER 4000 years old, probably the oldest timber in 

 -* the world which has been subjected to the use of man, 

 is found in the ancient temple of Egypt, in connection with 

 stonework which is known to be at least 4000 years old. 

 This was the only wood used in the construction of the 

 temple, and is in the form of ties, holding the end of one 

 stone to another. When two blocks were laid in place 

 an excavation about an inch deep was made in each 

 block in which one of these wooden ties shaped like an 

 hour-glass was driven. Boston Traveller. 



