The beginner is often in doubt as to whether a twig with several leaves is a compound leaf or a number of simple leaves. This is a very easy thing to decide. At the end of the leaf stem, where the leaf joins the twig or branch, is always a little bud. When the leaf drops off in the fall the bud remains, and in the spring begins to swell and finally develops into a leaf. This bud then is the promise of next year’s leaf, and it is always found at the base of the leaf stem, as shown at A. There is no such bud at the base of the leaflet on the compound leaf, as shown at B. If then we find no bud at B, we must look farther down until we discover it at C. This furnishes the test and we know that our specimen is a compound leaf.

This class of leaf is very common, as our horse-chestnuts, buckeyes, hickories, and walnuts all have compound leaves.

The horse-chestnut is not a native American tree, but was imported from Europe, where it is a great favorite. The leaflets number five or seven, always an odd number, and they radiate from one central point, the odd one in the center usually being the largest.

It is very interesting to watch these leaves as they come out of the sticky buds in the spring. They unfold and grow very rapidly and soon the tree brings forth large pyramidal clusters of beautiful flowers.

The large, neat brown nuts which come later in the season do not seem to be very useful, yet they are so solid and shiny that every boy delights to gather them.

An American tree closely resembling the horse-chestnut is the buckeye. The leaflets on the buckeye leaf number five, sometimes seven, and radiate like the horse-chestnut from a common center.

This tree is well known through the Ohio valley, where it is very common, Ohio being called the Buckeye State. The nuts are not edible, but the wood is very tough and strong and is used extensively in making farm implements.

Compare the leaf of the buckeye and the hickory shown in Fig. 99. Both leaves are compound, and each has five leaflets, but they are quite different, because the hickory leaflets are arranged on opposite sides of the leaf-stalk instead of radiating from one point.

There are several varieties of hickory, including the shagbark, or shellbark, the pignut, and pecan.

The name shagbark hickory is taken from the peculiar appearance of the bark, which hangs in loose pieces nearly a foot long and gives the tree a very shaggy effect. Shellbark is another common name for this tree.

The nut which this tree bears is hard and thick, but the kernel is very sweet, and is considered by some superior to all other hickory nuts.

The pignut hickory is so called because the nuts in some parts of the country are used to feed the pigs. It is also called broom hickory. The nuts are small and become bitter after having lain awhile. The wood, however, like all the hickories, is valuable, being hard and tough. There is a difference between strength and toughness. Oak is strong, but not tough. Hickory is both hard and tough. A tough wood is one which will stand bending without breaking. A wood which will bend easily but is not strong cannot be called tough. It must be both strong and elastic, and hickory has both of these qualities.

41. The Pecan. We usually think of the pecan nut as different from the hickory, yet they belong to the same family. The pecan hickory is a southern tree which delights in the warm climate south of the Ohio River, and in Texas is found as a grand forest giant one hundred and fifty feet high, producing an enormous crop of the sweetest and most delicately flavored nuts. The leaf has nine leaflets and occasionally as many as fifteen.

42. The Black Walnut and Butternut. Perhaps no two trees are so difficult for the city boy or girl to distinguish as the butternut and black walnut. Both have compound leaves, the number of leaflets varying from nine to seventeen for the butternut and from fifteen to twenty-three for the black walnut. A leaf having fifteen leaflets, then, might belong to either tree if there were no other way to distinguish them. The teeth on the black-walnut leaflet are larger and sharper than on the butternut, and the fuzzy stem is lacking. The green nuts, too, are different, the black walnuts being just about the size and shape of green lemons, the butternuts longer and thinner; but the unmistakable feature is the odor. Having once smelled the crushed leaves of a butternut and a black walnut, a person will thereafter need no other test.

The use of black-walnut lumber for making furniture was at one time very common. The great supply of this valuable wood has been exhausted and other woods have become fashionable. It is still used for gunstocks, for which purpose nothing seems better suited.

Butternut is a light-colored wood, but takes a good polish and is occasionally used in cabinet work.

43. The Locusts. The locust family is a large one; its members all bear compound leaves, and their fruit is in the form of beans instead of nuts.

The common yellow or black locust is famous for its hard, durable wood, its delicate light green leaves, and its white flowers.

The tree is not very beautiful when the leaves are off, but its wood is so valuable that its beauty is not considered. The wood is yellow and becomes very hard after it has dried.

The honey locust is another common member of this family.

44. The Honey Locust. Its leaves are much finer and somewhat resemble ferns. It may always be known by the dangerous sharp-pointed thorns which grow all over the tree. These thorns are unusually large, sometimes being found in great bunches and as long as six inches. Its fruit is a long, thin, brownish pod, which is sweet and contains little light brown beans. The wood is strong and durable.

45. The Ash. Every boy who has owned a rowboat knows that oars are made of wood from the ash. This is because the oar must be elastic as well as strong, and the timber of the ash tree supplies these two qualities. The ash is one of our tallest and noblest forest trees. It is rather slim in build, with beautiful clean shiny green foliage. The members of this group seem to be fond of colors, and we have the white ash, red ash, green ash, blue ash, and black ash.

There are slight differences in the leaves and seeds, but, as in other trees, when we have once seen an ash seed we can always thereafter distinguish an ash tree. Fig. 102 shows the seed of the red ash. It is a winged seed, with the seed part inclosed by the wing.

The compound leaf of the white ash has from five to seven leaflets and the black ash has from seven to eleven. The wood is hard, tough, and elastic, has a handsome grain, and is used for many purposes besides making oars, such as furniture, carriages, and those farm implements which require strength. The Indian could find no better wood for his bow, and even Cupid is said to have first made his arrows of ash.