7o6 



TREES IN WINTER. 



The Kentucky coffee-tree is a unique affair, well worth 

 studying. It has a very marked individuality. The el- 

 bows of the limbs are as angular and strong as the 

 crotches themselves. You will see better in this than 

 in any other tree how the limbs turn about at sharp or 

 right angles to fill up all open spaces where they may 

 get the light, but they never in- 

 fringe upon each other's rights 

 The coffee-tree is both symmetrical 

 and unsymmetrical. In winter the 

 female or fruit-bearing tree is hung 

 with great fat leguminous pods full 

 of large, handsome beans. These, 

 when roasted, are sometimes used 

 for coffee, and that is how the tree 

 gets its name. Many of the trees 

 are males, bearing no fruit. 



My own summer favorite among 

 all shade-trees is the Norway maple. 

 It is the most rapid-growing of all 

 maples and of almost all trees. Its 

 limbs sweep downward close to the 

 ground, like those of our English 

 elm. The juice is gummy and not 

 fit for sugar. The color in fall is 



show with remarkable effect. I have taken my boys out 

 on still nights, when snow brought out the limbs in fine 

 relief, and said : ' ' Now tell me which trees are handsom- 

 est in winter ;" and invariably they have singled out the 

 big-armed butternuts. Generally near butternut trees in 

 winter you will see or hear red squirrels. Those which 



Kentucky Coffee-tree 

 ash < 



always pure canary-yellow. I wish it were as mter- 

 esting for a winter study ; but while it is a fine tree, in 

 its naked outline you will discover no remarkable beauty 

 or oddity. 



I study the butternut with great pleasure. In summer 

 or winter it is a grand tree. After a light snow its limbs 



Old Apple Tree. 



I have in mind stand about a little old-fash- 

 ioned red cottage, and the squirrels have 

 found a hole into the attic, where I doubt 

 not they have laid up a rich store of but- 

 ternuts. 



There are a few trees that are bare of 

 leaves nearly half the year. They serve the 

 good purpose of warding off monotony. The 

 butternut is one of them, with the ash and 

 some of the oaks to keep it company. They 

 do not put on their spring dresses until 

 three weeks after the lilacs and elms, and 

 in fall always seem in a hurry to doff their 

 drapery. 



An apple tree is a prince of the best tree- 

 blood. Any one who can have an apple 

 tree in his yard and yet cuts it away to 

 set out such a fancy affair as a weeping 

 cut-leaved birch is foolish. I cannot describe 

 any one apple tree as a type of its kind, because there is 

 great individuality in apple trees ; yet the tenants of an 

 orchard all have a general likeness. Right in line of my 

 window I see first a Fall Pippin, with its limbs spreading 

 over and touching the ground. What a wise provision, 



