American Gardening 



Zbc American ©arOen— popular ©arCening 



yol. XIII 



DECEMBER, 1892 



No. 12 



TREES IN WLNTER. 



AN OUTLINE STUDY O. 



MAY Study trees in winter with 

 quite as much pleasure and profit 

 as in summer. You will never 

 guess exactly how a tree is put to- 

 gether for strength and beauty so 

 long as the foliage covers it. What 

 does nature aim at ? What is the 

 first idea of a tree ? To meet 

 winds and resist storms, to get well 

 up into the air with fruit or nut- 

 bearing power, or to exhibit beauty and grace of outline 

 and motion? Possibly all of these in combination; but 

 anyone of them is a task to try the forces in the air and 

 in the soil. 



A fine Magnolia acuminata just before my window 

 has a shaft as nearly perpendicular as a carpenter could 

 set it. But nature did that work by an upward push, all 

 by cells and inch after inch. You could not see this 

 marvel of tree-building well in summer. The taper of the 

 trunk is perfect, and the set of all the limbs is almost ex- 

 actly at an angle of forty-five degrees. This arrange- 

 ment gives every limb and leaf on the tree a chance to 

 get its share of sunshine. The formality is broken by 

 the distribution of the limbs, and of the twigs upon them. 

 The latter are easily and gently thrown out of the fixed 

 angle ; while the former are sent out without rigid rules. 

 P'ormality is deserted whenever it can be done without 

 enfeebling the tree. The magnolia is an ideal tree of 

 the rather rigid sort. 



Near this magnolia is a cut-leaved weeping birch, now 

 forty feet high or more. Its arrangement is a striking 

 contrast to that of the magnolia. The first idea here is 

 not strength, but grace ; yet the birch is an enduring 

 tree. Every point about it is supremely informal. See 

 the wind, after sweeping through the magnolia without 

 causing a tremor, now swing and sway every tendril of 

 From tip to root the birch is 

 lace among fabrics ; yet 



THEIR TRUNKS AND TWIGS. 



I do not know that we have a stronger tree, less liable to 

 break, on the lawn. I am curious to know why these 

 birches almost always lean at a very equal slant, a trifle 

 to the north. You will see without my noting it that 

 while the trunk of the tree is very white, and shows its 

 brilliancy to fine effect in winter, it now has a tinge of 

 color that you will not find in summer. The twigs are all 

 slightly reddish — more so than when the leaves are on. 

 But this is not characteristic of this birch alone. It is 

 true of all trees that the young wood grows slightly or 

 strongly warm-hned in winter. An extreme case is the 

 red-barked dogwood, which just now is a deep rich 



this laciniated structure, 

 pliant, and is among trees 



A Norway Maple. 



scarlet. When its leaves put forth, this color will 

 change to a dull green. So you see there is little real 

 rest in nature ; even tree-bark undergoes changes of 

 color, as the seasons change. 



