748 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



5. Do yoii know what distinguishes the slippery elm, the cork elm, the 

 winged elm, or wahoo, and the English elm from the common American or 

 white elm which you have been studying ? 



6. Write an essay on two famous American elms. 



7. What birds love to build in the elm trees? 



Spring Sttidy of the Elm 



8. Which appear first, the blossoms or the leaves? Describe the elm 

 blossom. How long before the seeds ripen ? How are the seeds attached 

 to the twig? Describe an elm seed. How are the seeds scattered ? How 

 are the young leaves folded as they come out of the bud ? 



Supplementary reading — Trees in Prose and Poetry, pp. 81-92. 



THE OAK 



Teacher's Story 



-HE symbol of rugged strength since man first 

 gazed upon its noble proportions, the oak more 

 than other trees has been entangled in human 

 myth, legend and imagination. It was regarded 

 as the special tree of Zeus by the Greeks. 

 Virgil sang of it thus : 



"Full in the midst of his own strength he stands 

 Stretching his brawny arms and leafy hands, 

 His shade protects the plains, his head the hills 



commands." 

 While in primitive England the strange worship 

 of the Druids centered around it. 

 Although the oak is a tree of grandeur when its broad branches are 



covered with leafage, yet it is only in winter when it stands stripped like an 



athlete that we realize wherein its supremacy lies. Then only can we 



appreciate the massive trunk and the strong limbs bent and gnarled with 



combating the blasts of centuries. But there are oaks and oaks, and each 



species fights time and 



tempest in his own 



peculiar armor and in 



his own way. Many of 



the oaks achieve the 



height of eighty to one 



hundred feet. The great 



branches come off the 



sturdy trunk at wide 



angles, branches that 



may be crooked or 



gnarled but are ever long 



and strong; the smaller 



branches also come off 



at wide angles, and in 



turn bear angular in- 

 dividual spray— all of Wtiite oak leaves and acorn- 



