32 The Vegetation of the 



Trunks, branchless to a great height, are not rarely found of cotton 

 wood and sycamore, and then the crown has a table form, although the 

 first growth is pyramid-shaped. The cofEeenut 'tree, the ash, the pecan, 

 the sassafras and the wild cherry have a slender trunk. A wide spread- 

 ing dome-shaped crown have the box elder, the elm, the basswood, the 

 sugar maple and the honey locust, which is conspicuous by its slender 

 horizontal branches. Few branches only have the walnut, butternut, 

 hickories and the cofEeenut. Very irregular and knotted-branched is the 

 white oak; densely-branched the elm, hackberries and the shingle oak. 



The form of the leaves is manifold: 13 species have lobed leaves; all 

 the oak (except the shingle oak and the chestnut oak, which is only 

 toothed), the maples, sycamore, etc. The leaves of a number are deeply 

 divided or palmate as the buckeye, and not less than 22 species, of which 

 16 large trees have pinnately divided leaves: the ash, hickories, walnut, 

 butternut, cofEeenut and honey locust. The last often very large trees 

 with long branches and double pinnate leaves and small leaflets, represent 

 strength joined with elegance. 



The forest is adorned by various tints, changing with the seasons. In 

 March, wherever the elm is predominant, it appears reddish brown, for the 

 white elm (and the soft maple) is the first in bloom. Then follow the 

 male trees of cotton wood with dark-red catkins. In April, the plum and 

 serviceberry with white, the red bud with peach red, and the sugar maple 

 with yellow blossoms. All these develop the flower before leafing. The 

 first young green in April show the buckeyes, and soon afterwards the 

 upright yellow bunches of flowers open in the last days of April or the 

 first week in May. About the 10th of May the forest is green all over; 

 only the sycamore extends the whitish branches leaflets, for that is the 

 last of all the trees that does develop the leaves. 



Most of the other trees and shrubs are in bloom during the rest of 

 May. The latest are in middle June the cofEeenut, and at the end of June 

 or in the first days of July the basswood, and, finally, the witch hazel 

 opening the flowers only in November, when the leaves are withered and 

 fallen and the fruits of the last year elastically disperse their seeds. Some 

 of the conspicuously blooming shrubs and climbers adorn the woods and 

 copses in July: the elder, the climbing rose, the Virgins bower and the 

 trumpet creeper. 



In the fall the forest is shaded of manifold tints by changing the 

 green of the leaves into deep red (Rhus glabra and Ampelopsis) light red 

 (Quercus rubra and coicinea) orange, (sugar maple) yellow, (Prunus sero- 

 tina and Amelanchier) and brown of every shade (Platanus and many 

 others). The hickories are the first that shed the leaves; often already 

 at the end of August. In the latter part of October most of the trees are 

 leafless. Only the white oak and the shingle oak keep partly the dry 

 leaves all winter. 



