118 TREES 



for the defeat of the "black elves" who constantly tried 

 to make their cows go dry, and unless prevented got into 

 the churns — and then the butter would never come! 



The farther north a tree can grow, the more likely it is 

 to have close relatives in the Old World. One mountain 

 ash of Japan is hardly distinguishable from our western 

 species, and some authorities believe that our two native 

 species are but varieties of the rowan tree of Europe. 



THE RHODODENDRON 



The heath family, of about sixty -seven genera^ distrib- 

 uted over the temperate and tropical countries of the 

 earth, has twenty-one genera in the United States, seven 

 of which have tree representatives. Azaleas, the multi- 

 tude of the heathers, the huckleberries, the madronas, 

 call to mind flower shows we have seen — under glass, in 

 gardens, in parks, and among mountain fastnesses bright- 

 ened by the loveliness of the mountain laurel, azalea, and 

 rhododendroUo In this wonderful family the leaves are 

 simple and mostly evergreen. Rarely are the fruits 

 of any importance. It is the flowers in masses that give 

 the chief distinction to a family with over a thousand 

 species, which have been the subjects of study and culti- 

 vation through centuries. The type of the family is the 

 Scotch heather, immortalized in song and story. In 

 London the Christmas season is marked by the sale of 

 half a million httle potted plants of heather! Each is 

 about a foot in height and bears a thousand tiny bells, 

 rosy, with white lips. This is the poor man's Christmas 

 flower. It costs a shilling and lasts a month or more. 



