46. The Elm. The elm is the well-known shade tree of New England. Its tall, graceful form is familiar to every visitor and native of that section of country, where it is found along every roadway and in every city.

Who can think of New England without its noble elms? It would indeed be a different country. The elm may be said to represent New England character,—dignified, sturdy, graceful, and refined. Being tall, with foliage well up, the general shape of the tree gives the desired shade, yet does not obstruct the view; while its stately dignity gives an air of comfort and repose to the grounds, which it seems to protect from the elements.

Its wood is valuable for certain kinds of work, being tough and strong, but it is not suitable for cabinetwork, as it is difficult to polish. It is used considerably for wheel hubs and in cooperage.

Observe the edge of the elm leaf carefully. The teeth not only curve gracefully toward the extreme tip of the leaf, but they are themselves also toothed,—a form known as double-toothed. The leaf is coarse and rough to the touch, in marked contrast to the birch family, whose leaves it slightly resembles. There are several elms famous in the history of our country. At Cambridge is the old elm under which George Washington drew his sword and took command of the American Army on July 3, 1775; there are several other “Washington Elms” in different parts of the country, while New Haven is known as the City of Elms. William Penn made his famous treaty with the Indians under the branches of a magnificent elm, which remained standing until it was over two hundred years old, when it was finally blown down. The spot has been marked by a marble column.

The tree is called the American, or white, elm, and we have several other varieties growing wild, including the well-known slippery elm, so called because the inner bark is slippery and edible.

47. The Birches. If the black birch with its sweet, aromatic bark is not known to a boy, the white, or canoe, birch is sure to be. It seems to be the fate of this beautiful tree to be disfigured by every wandering youth who has strength enough to tear off a strip of its paper-like bark.

The leaf of the black, or sugar, birch may be distinguished from the elm by its smoothness and thinness. Its base is slightly heartshaped, the edge is double-toothed, the tender bark on the twigs is sweet to the taste, and the leaves grow in pairs.

48. White Birch. The famous white, paper, or canoe birch has a leaf somewhat broader than the black variety, but without the heartshaped base. Its bark is its peculiar feature and cannot be mistaken. It comes off in layers and possesses a resinous quality which makes it waterproof, a fact fully appreciated by the Indians, who constructed their canoes of it. The wood is hard and tough.

49. Gray Birch. A smaller tree, known as the gray birch, also has white bark, but it is not as perfect as that of the canoe birch, does not peel in layers, and has triangular black spots on the trunk beneath every limb.

It loves barren, rocky places, abandoned farms, etc., and is sometimes called old field birch. It has a fine, delicate foliage, which is not duplicated in the forest. Each leaf swings from a long, slender stem, and every passing breeze gives it a trembling effect, like the aspen. The leaf form is very odd,—a broad, flat base, and then a long, graceful curve out to a fine point, the whole edge being finely double-toothed.

50. The Beech. The difference in the leaf forms of the birch and beech is very marked. Both have toothed edges, but in the beech the spaces between the teeth are so remarkably shallow that one has to search for them.

There has been a common belief for generations that the beech is proof against lightning, and recent experiments prove that beech wood offers considerably greater resistance to the electric current than oak, poplar, or willow; so our ancestors were partly right. The wood is hard, strong, and tough, and will take a high polish.

51. Hornbeam. Closely related to the beeches are two little trees which have delicate birchlike foliage and wood of great hardness,—the hornbeam, or blue beech, and the hop hornbeam, or ironwood.

The leaves of these two varieties are quite similar, that of the ironwood being somewhat the larger.

The name hop hornbeam is derived from the fruit, which resembles the hop, and the name ironwood from the great strength and hardness of the wood.

52. Buttonball. No list of trees would be complete which did not include those three forest giants, buttonball, tulip, and sweet gum. The names buttonwood, buttonball, sycamore, and plane tree, as the same tree is called in different parts of the country, all apply to that fine American tree which sheds its bark as well as its leaves, leaving a ghostly monarch of tree life, which produces an enormous crop of buttonballs so well known to country boys and girls. The leaves are in proportion to the size of the tree, often measuring a foot in length, and being frequently covered on the under side with a white down called fungus.

The wood of the sycamore, as it is incorrectly called, is valuable for cabinetwork, having a beautiful grain and taking a high polish. It is, however, difficult to work, and has a tendency to warp.

53. Sweet Gum. The sweet-gum tree also produces a crop of balls, or seed pods, but although the same size as the buttonballs, they need never be confused, as the gum balls are covered with somewhat sharp points, while the buttonballs are comparatively smooth.

The leaves of the sweet gum, or liquid amber—so called from the amber-colored gum the tree gives out—remind one of the starfish, being five-fingered and decidedly different from any leaf in the forest. The tree grows to a height of one hundred and fifty feet, and its wood is a handsome brown color with fine and intricate markings. It warps badly, but is valued for wood turning on account of its softness and even grain.

54. Tulip. The lumber furnished by the tulip tree, commonly called whitewood, is less liable to warp than gum wood, and is somewhat harder. Just why it should be called whitewood is not clear, as it is much darker than white pine and of a greenish-yellow color. The leaf of the tulip tree is very peculiar, having only four points, without any small teeth, and with an outline so odd that one often wonders if nature did not use a pair of scissors in cutting it out.

Each leaf stands out aggressively on a long stem. The glory of the tree—which gives it its name—is the mass of tulip-shaped flowers it bears in the spring. They are large and brilliant, yellowish-green in color, with dashes of red, and develop a narrow, light-brown cone, which remains on the tree all winter. The tree thrives best south of the Ohio valley, where it is frequently found from five to seven feet in diameter. The Indians formerly made their dugout canoes from its trunk, and in some sections it is still called canoe wood.

55. Basswood, or Linden. A very valuable group of trees for both shade and timber are the basswoods, or lindens. There are several varieties, the European linden thriving here as readily as our native varieties. These trees may always be distinguished by the leaves, which are heartshaped and lopsided, i.e. one side from the middle line being always larger than the other, as if two leaves of different sizes had been joined along the center.

This is a very common feature among certain classes of trees, such as the elms. Another remarkable feature is the seed, or bract, shown in the sketch (Fig. 115).

The tree is sugar-loaf in shape, gives a dense shade, and has sweet flowers so fragrant that it is sometimes called the bee tree, because the bees swarm all over it in the summer time. Its timber is valuable, being free from knots and of such an even grain that it is much sought after for some kinds of carving.

The familiar cigar-store Indian is usually carved from basswood.

Among the broad-leaved trees there are still several familiar families, all loved by some of us for some reason.

The willow is always a striking tree, not only because of its weeping or drooping appearance, but also because we usually associate it with water.

What is more common in the country than a stream hidden by the willows which crowd its bank and dip down into the clear water!

Then, too, we watch it for the first sign of spring, and friends in different states often vie with each other to discover the first pussy willow, the name given to the soft, downy buds which appear often before the snow has melted.

The willow is dear to boys, because on the green twigs in spring the bark can be separated from the wood and a whistle or simple flute manufactured.

The wood of the willow is not very valuable, being used chiefly by pulp makers, but it grows where no other trees can exist, being found nearly all over the world, and creeping nearer to the north pole than any other broad-leaved tree except the birch. It has over one hundred and fifty varieties, which vary from small shrubs up to trees a hundred feet high. Its soft and gentle beauty is sufficient excuse for its existence.

56. The Poplars. In the poplars we have a group of trees similar to the willows in some ways but very different in others. The wood is weak and of little use except for fuel and paper pulp, but there the likeness ends.

To this family belongs the quaking aspen, whose leaves are continually trembling,—in fact, the whole family is a restless one, the constant motion being due to the shape of the long stems, which are flattened.

The people of Scotland have a superstition that it was of aspen wood that our Saviour’s cross was made, and that the tree shivers in constant remembrance of that fact.

Beside the quaking aspen is the large-toothed aspen, the Lombardy poplar, and the cottonwood.

The Lombardy is the spirelike tree which seems to reach toward the clouds, and its tall, narrow form is familiar in many sections of our country, although the tree was originally imported from Europe.

Cottonwood and balm of Gilead are two well-known members of this family. Cottonwood is best known in the West, where it often constitutes the chief and only growth along the water courses, and balm of Gilead is known as one of our common city shade trees. This latter tree, often called the balsam, is really an important tree of the great northwestern country, being found plentifully in the Klondike, and often forming in that far northern country great forests thousands of square miles in extent. It is used as a shade tree because it stands the smoke and gas of the city where many other trees pine away and die.

57. Sassafras. We find many freaks in the tree world, and nature seems to have tried to see how odd she really could be; for instance, on the sassafras tree we find three distinct kinds of leaves, having one, two, and three divisions.

This tree, which in the northern states is usually quite small, grows under favorable conditions to a height of fifty feet. It is noted for the pleasant taste of its leaves, twigs, and roots, which are used considerably in flavoring medicines.

58. Mulberry. Another tree noted for the peculiar shape of its leaves is the mulberry. There are three common kinds, named, from the color of their berries, red, black, and white.

It is the white mulberry whose leaves are the food of the silkworm. The leaves of this tree are quite regular, but those of the red and black vary apparently as they please. No two leaves seem to be alike either in size or shape, and they are very soft and downy.