134 . Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
after year, or, in technical language, they are 
‘‘ open.” 
In the country north of the Carolinas all native 
leaf-bearing trees are dicotyledons. In April, 
May, and June constructive tissue is present and 
active in them all. New wood is _ generated 
rapidly, and the vesels and cells which are formed 
are comparatively large. Later in the year, when 
life stirs less lustily in the vegetable creation, 
smaller vessels and cells will be formed. So the 
difference between ‘‘spring’’ and ‘‘summer’’ wood 
is often readily discernable even to the unaided 
eye, and always evident by aid of the pocket-lens. 
We may see it on the upper surface of any 
casual stump. The spring wood often looks as if 
it had been used as a pincushion, because we see 
in it so many circular ends of now empty vessels 
and tubes. The summer wood is much more com- 
pact in its texture, and sometimes darker in color. 
So rings run around and around the stump, and by 
counting them we can tell the age of the tree—not 
accurately, but approximately. For it is quite 
possible that, if the season be moist, and the 
autumn late, more than one growth-ring will be 
formed in one year. If our stump were standing 
in Florida woods its rings would tell us little. 
