TREES 



Provide yourself with a medium pencil and a pan of water colors. 

 Select some typical tree for study and be seated one hundred feet or more 

 distant from it, so you will not be confused by too-great detail. On the 

 page opposite attempt a pencil sketch of the tree, making the sketch, say, 

 six inches high. This may be done without previous training in drawing, 

 for the purpose of the sketch is to make you observe the tree carefully, 

 noting its proportion, general shape, method of branching, massing of 

 foliage, light, and shade. The resulting sketch may be very crude, but if 

 it is a faithful attempt to record what is actually seen it will accomplish 

 the purpose. Try a second sketch if the first does not satisfy you. Attempt 

 a water-color sketch of the tree. Use a fairly large brush, mix up plenty of 

 color, and apply it quickly in an attempt to show the same things portrayed 

 in the pencil sketch and also the color effects. 



Twigs. Obtain a twig of horse chestnut or of lilac. Draw a sketch of 

 the twig to show the position of the buds, the leaf scars, and the lenticels 

 of the bark. Draw carefully the leaf scar of the horse chestnut, the ailan- 

 thus, and the catalpa. You will see in each leaf scar a number of conspicu- 

 ous dots. What are these ? Is the arrangement of them typical for each 

 sort of tree. 



Leaves. -Secure leaves of the elm or basswood, of the horse chestnut, 

 and of the ailanthus or ash. Make a sketch of these leaves and label the 

 first a simple leaf. The horse chestnut and the ailanthus or ash are samples 

 of compound leaves, the former palmately compound, the latter pinnately 

 compound. What other trees in your neighborhood have simple leaves 

 and what ones have compound ? Do you find any other palmately com- 

 pound leaves? 



Bud arrangement. Secure twigs of maple, elm, poplar, sumac, ash, 

 basswood, and willow, selecting in each case a good, straight twig. Which 

 of these have opposite buds and which have alternate? Do the twigs 

 have the same arrangement as the buds ? Why ? Where are the buds with 

 reference to the leaf scars ? Do the buds come out at any spot on the twig 

 or are they confined to certain points ? Select a straight twig of basswood. 

 Notice that you can readily find a bud that is immediately over another 

 one farther down the stem and that between these two there is another 

 bud on the opposite side of the stem. If you were to hold a string on the 



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