90 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



it is somewhat difficult to determine the plan in the 

 arrangement of leaves, buds and branches. 



The birches form an interesting natural group of trees. 

 In winter the cylindrical bud that is destined to develop 

 into the catkin of staminate flowers is quite noticeable. 

 The pistillate bud is not so prominent but may be found 

 by a little searching. The birches can be distinguished 

 from one another by the appearance of the bark alone. 



THE WHITE OAK 

 The bark of the white oak clearly distinguishes it from all its relatives. 



The most common of these trees is the black birch, so 

 called on account of the stem being darker colored than 

 that of any of the other species. 



The yellowish bronze color gives the name to the 

 yellow birch while the white color of the bark gives the 

 name to another common species. This white birch is 

 especially abundant in burned-over areas, the small seeds 

 being carried to a considerable distance by the wind. The 

 European white birch is a closely related species fre- 

 quently planted about town as an ornament. The pend- 

 ent twigs of this species and the less prominent triangular 

 black spot at the base of each limb will distinguish this 

 European species from our native white birch. 



Northeastern Pennsylvania is about the northern limit 

 of the red or river birch. This is essentially a southern 

 tree but along our streams it grows in considerable 

 abundance. The freedom with which the outer bark 

 peels off in layers together with its reddish color will 

 distinguish this tree from any other. We are just at the 

 southern limit of another noted birch tree, the paper or 

 canoe birch. It is only along the northern slopes of our 

 mountains that this -tree can find a congenial home. 



Farther north it forms an important part of the forest. 

 Paper birch wood is devoted to several unique uses. 

 Almost every spool for sewing thread is made of paper 

 birch. Nearly all wooden toothpicks are made from it. 

 Formerly it was used to make shoe pegs so that while it 

 was then under everybody's foot now it is in everybody's 

 mouth. It was the bark of this species that the Indians 

 used to make their light canoes. Of the ten known 

 species of birch in North America these five are proba- 

 bly the most important. 



The oaks form another important group of trees in 

 our region. All oaks agree in bearing acorns but in 

 winter this is not always apparent for some species 

 mature the fruit in one year and it falls to the ground. 

 Others have the slightly developed acorns on the branches 

 in winter and these come to maturity in the following 

 summer. The barks of the various oaks present some 

 interesting contrasts. The light colored and slightly 



THE CHESTNUT OAK 



The deep fissures and high ridges of the bark of the chestnut oak are 



remarkable. 



roughened bark of the white oak is very different from 

 the bark of the chestnut oak with its high ridges and 

 deep fissures. 



One of our most interesting and most valuable forest 

 trees is the tulip tree. In summer we could distinguish 

 this fine tree from any other species by the form of the 

 leaves. They seem to be cut off at the apex at right 

 angles to the midrib. The large greenish yellow flowers 

 also distinguish this tree from all others. In winter the 

 tall straight trunk suggests the species and if we can 

 get a view of the winter buds we can perhaps dissect 

 them enough to identify the peculiar form of the unde- 



