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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



red pine as a forest tree. Our native pines of north- 

 eastern Pennsylvania may very readily be distinguished 

 by their leaves alone. The white pine has very slender 

 needles with five in a bundle. The pitch pine has three 

 in each bundle while the other two species have only 

 two leaves. These latter can be distinguished from one 



THE AMERICAN ELM 



The magnificent elm is the pride of many cities. It is one of the best 

 of trees lor shade and ornament. 



another by the long leaves of the red pine and the short 

 ones of the scrub pine. In other parts of our country 

 where a different grouping of species occurs a somewhat 

 different way of distinguishing them may be used. 



The coniferous trees present much the same aspect 

 in winter as in summer so let us turn to the deciduous 

 trees, the ones which present such great contrasts in the 

 two seasons. The arrangement of the buds and branches 

 of these trees is what we should note in arranging 

 them into groups. Buds form in the axils of leaves and 

 so their arrangement is the same as that of the leaves. 

 Trees have a definite plan in the placing of the leaves 

 just as definite as the carpenter's plan in arranging the 

 shingles on a house. The shingles are placed so they 

 will catch all the rain. Leaves are placed so they will 

 catch the sunbeams and trees have different ways of 

 arranging their leaves so they will do this work effective- 

 ly. The catalpa tree has a way all its own. It places 

 three leaves in a whorl and then at a little distance above 

 there is another whorl so placed that the leaves will cover 

 the spaces between the leaves below. In winter we can- 



not see these leaves but the leaf scars show where they 

 were and the buds just above add certainty to their 

 location. If we find a tree with the buds arranged in 

 this way on the vigorous shoots we may be assured it is 

 one of the two species of catalpa. 



The opposite arrangement of leaves, buds and branches 

 is much more prevalent. All our maples and ashes have 

 this characteristic. Horse-chestnut and the buckeyes also 

 have the opposite arrangement although it is less apparent 

 on account of the suppression of many of the buds by 

 the deep shade. As this group of trees is rather small it 

 is easy to distinguish the various species by other char- 

 acters, especially by the appearance of the buds them- 

 selves and by the peculiarities of the bark. For instance, 

 the red maple can be distinguished from all other maples 

 by the reddish twigs, the whitish gray bark of the limbs 

 and trunk until the latter reaches nearly a foot in diameter 

 when it takes on a rough surface and becomes dark 

 colored. The striped maple can be told at a glance by 



THE YELLOW BIRCH 



The bronze bark of the yellow birch distinguishes it from all our 



other trees. 



the green and white stripes upon the bark which give 

 the name to it. 



The hard or sugar maple is by far the most important 

 of all the maples. The lumber is valuable for many pur- 

 poses but the unique thing about the tree is the abund- 

 ance of sweet sap which it furnishes. While all the 

 maples have sweet sap none of the others are so import- 

 ant as sugar producers. This was appreciated in early 

 times and a century and a quarter ago when the real 

 estate men of that time were attempting to lure New 



