HOW TO KNOW THE TREES 

 GROWING IN BRITAIN 



With Notes, descriptive and photographic, for their Identification 

 in all Seasons of the Year 



By HENRY IRVING 



THE PLUM AND CHERRY GROUP 



wide-flung 



THIS group, and that of the Apples 

 and Pears which fohows, are classed 

 together by botanists as belonging 

 to the order of the Rose. The trees of 

 this order give to our spring-time its 

 character of luxuriant blossoming. What 

 we should miss without their 

 masses of white and cream 

 and rose, on hedgerow and 

 by the wayside, over the 

 broad common-land or by 

 the woodland border, not to 

 speak of the acres of bloom 

 concentrated in orchards of 

 Plum and Cherry, Apple and 

 Pear, it were hard to say. 

 The bount}^ of the autumn, 

 too, is largely of their be- 

 stowal, in weighted branches 

 of ranged or clustered fruits, 

 in purple and orange, gold 

 and rub}'. 



Some characteristics 

 sessed in common by 

 trees may here be 

 tioned. Their flowers, separate or clus- 

 tered, are complete, having both stamens 

 and pistils. Bees, moths, and other in- 

 sects are the agents for carrying the 

 pollen ; these flowers are therefore made 

 conspicuous by white or tinted petals, 

 and they are rendered especially attrac- 

 tive by their scent, and by their store of 

 nectar. Their seed is produced in the 

 form of a kernel enclosed in a hard, stony 

 shell, or as a " pip " possessing a firm 

 coat and enchambered in a parchment- 

 like walled cell, the stone or pip being 

 embedded in a mass of edible pulp. The 

 fruit, so constituted, is rendered con- 



pos- 

 these 

 men- 



spicuous, when ripe, by vivid colouring, 

 and is particularly alluring to birds and 

 animals, which are in the main the agents 

 for its distribution. 



A useful point of distinction between 

 the two groups indicated above is found 

 in the fact that, with the Plums and 



BLACKTHORN LEAVES. 



Cherries, the fruit is formed within the 

 cup of the flower, above the green calyx, 

 which falls with the petals ; whereas the 

 fruit of the Apple and Pear, and the 

 trees associated with them, is formed at 

 the top of the stalk, beneath the calyx. 

 Here the calyx does not fall, but remains 

 attached, in "the form of a dried rosette, 

 at the top of the fruit. 



THE BLACKTHORN OR SLOE 



This may rank as a small tree. Init is 

 usually a bush, and not mi frequently 

 merely a constituent part of the hedge- 

 row. It is most noticeable in early 



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