6 INTRODUCTION 



the other, have conspicudus white or coloured blos- 

 soms, often secreting honey, and otherwise adapted 

 to attract insects, by whose agency their pollen is 

 conveyed from flower to flower. 



With autumn other features present themselves 

 to our notice. The leaves assume various tints before 

 they fall, and the flowers are succeeded by the fruit; 

 The more or less crescent-shaped scars left by the 

 fallen leaves, and the ring-like traces of the bud- 

 scales often to be seen crowded together on the twigs 

 at the lowest point of each season's growth, should be 

 compared in diff'erent species of tree. 



The fruits of most of our forest trees are dry and 

 nut-like ; but it needs but little observation to dis- 

 tinguish the nut of the Hazel from that of the Beech, 

 or the fleshy and slightly spinous fruit of the Horse- 

 chestnut from the densely spinous husk surrounding 

 the nut of the totally dissimilar Spanish or Sweet- 

 chestnut. Some of- these nut-like fruits are furnished 

 with wing-like structures, as in the Elms and Maples, 

 by means of which the seed is carried beyond the 

 overshadowing of the parent tree ; but the fleshy and 

 often conspicuously coloured fruits are special adap- 

 tations to attract birds or other animals, by whose 

 agency the indigestible seed is even more effectively 

 dispersed. Among seeds we find a similar variety 

 of structures to aid dispersal — wings in Pine, para- 

 chute-like plumes of hairs in Willows and Poplars, 

 and a gay-coloured fleshy covering in the Yew and 

 the Spindle-tree. 



In the botanical synopsis that accompanies the 

 present work the trees described are arranged 



