68 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
NATURE STUDY IN SCHOOLS . 
Evergreens 
[The following account has been adapted from an article by Anna Botsford 
Comstock in The Nature Study Review for January, 1906.] 
TABLE FOR DETERMINING OUR COMMON CONE-BEARING TREES. 
A. Leaves drop off in winter. Larch. 
A A. Leaves remain on trees all winter. 
B. Leaves in bundles enclosedin a short sheath at bottom. Pines. 
BB. Leaves opposite or in whorls. 
C. Spray flat. ' Arbor-vita? or White cedar. 
CC. Spray four sided. Red cedar. 
BBB. Leaves alternate scattered along the stem. 
C. Winter buds covered with resin, leaves flat. Fir. 
CC. Winter buds not resinous. 
D. Leaves four sided. Spruce. 
DD. Leaves flat. 
E. Whitish beneath, short, flat, blunt. Hemlock. 
EE. Leaves lighter green underneath, longer, pointed. A low shrub. 
Yew or Ground Hemlock. 
The Larch or Tamarack.—Our native species seems to thrive in the high, cold 
swamps. It has many long, tough, fibrous roots which especially fit it for such 
ground. The larch spray is beautiful, as the leaves are attached in whorls to 
little knobs along the side of a branch. 
Pines—These trees require at least two seasons for maturing their cones, differ¬ 
ing in this respect from other evergreens. There are nine very common native spe¬ 
cies in Eastern United States. They are the Labrador or gray; the Canadian or 
red; the white; the pitch or torch; the Jersey scrub; the table-mountain or hick¬ 
ory; the spruce or yellow pine of the East; the long-leaved or Georgia: and the 
loblolly or old-field. The white pine is the most graceful and beautiful of our 
pine trees; its long, fine, grayish-green needles are arranged five in a sheath; its 
cones are long and slender and are borne near the ends of the branches. The red 
pine often reaches the height of one hundred and fifty feet. The leaves are ar¬ 
ranged two in a sheath; the cones are on or near the tips of the branches. 
The Cedars—The Arbor-vitae is a common hedge tree, and its flat foliage is 
very beautiful. The twigs of the red cedar and the surrounding leaves are not 
flattened. There are two kinds of leaves, green over-lapping ones, and pointed 
needle-shaped leaves. The fruit is a berry. 
The Balsam Fir—This is the only native fir common in northern United 
States. The branches are very fragrant; the top rises in a graceful spire. It is 
distinguished from the spruces by the leaves, which are flat and thin, and very 
blunt. 
The Spruces—There are three species, the white, the black and the red. The 
cones hang down instead of standing up. 
Hemlock—There are but two species in Eastern United States. The hemlock, 
during its youth and middle age, is the most graceful of all evergreens, and in its 
old age the most picturesque. Ground hemlock is a low straggling shrub with 
foliage resembling the hemlock; but it is a yew and its fruit is a red berry. 
