An additional study on

The Fragrant Trees and Shrubs of the Farm

may be made if desired, following the same plan, and using for record a table with the same column headings, adding one for height. More attention should then be paid to fragrant woods, like those of sassafras, spicebush and cedar, and to their products of gums, resins, and oils, like those of cherry, balsam and pine. Food-flavors will, of course, be less in evidence; flavors for manufactured products, more common; things for medicinal use, about as with herbs.

XXXVI. THE TREES IN SUMMER

"Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And tune his merry note

Unto the sweet bird's throat,

Come hither, come hither, come hither:"

-Shakespeare (As You Like It).

In summer we live nearest the trees. We exchange our solid roofs for their latticed crowns, and sit beneath them in the open air. They spread green canopies above us, all fringed with beautifully sculptured leaves. Broad-leaved trees with the densest crowns, like hard maples, we like best for shade: these best exclude the sun.

In summer, the characters of boughs and buds, which have served us best for winter studies of deciduous trees (see Study 9 on page 71), are somewhat obscured by the foliage; but the leaves in themselves offer ample recognition marks instead. The species of tree is usually to be told from a single leaf; for each kind, though variable in lesser details, has a form and a structure and a texture of its own. The differences are sometimes extraordinary, as in the leaf types shown in figure 97: but even when the leaves of two species look very much alike, there are apt to be minor differences of outline, of venation, of margin, of hairiness, of length of leaf-stalk, etc., by which the two may be distinguished.

In summer, the trees are busy. Each one is increasing, as much as it can, its hold upon the earth and its spread into the sunlight. To every living twig it is adding new growth. Until full stature is attained, it adds long leafy shoots at each sunlit tip; and afterwards, and underneath in the shadow, it adds enough new growth to hold a few green leaves

every year so long as the tip remains alive. Wherever there is an opening in the crown, adjacent twigs tend to crowd into it and fill it up.

In summer, the trees are flowering and fruiting. A few of them, like the tulip tree and the magnolias, have very large flowers. A few, like the maples and the linden or basswood, have smaller nectar-bearing flowers that are thronged by bees and other insects. Basswood, indeed, stands next to

FIG. 97. Leaf outlines; m, sycamore; n, red oak.

white clover in the quality of the honey it yields. Most of the larger trees have small and inconspicuous flowers, that shed their pollen lavishly and depend on the wind for its distribution. Some trees, like the soft maples, flower early, and ripen and shed their fruit before the summer is well under way; and others, like the black oaks, hasten slowly, taking two years for maturing a crop of acorns. So, at any time, we shall find some trees bare of flower and fruit, and others with one or both in various stages of development. There is nothing more interesting about the trees than this wonderful variety of habit. How interesting they are, you may

never know by merely reading about them: it can only be learned at first hand.

Study 36. Observations on the trees in summer

The program of work for this study will consist of an examination of the crowns of a dozen or more of the commoner deciduous native trees, principally as to their habits of growth and the characters of their leaves, flowers and fruit. A few flowering and fruiting boughs of each tallgrowing species should be previously pruned and brought down to earth for common use.

The record of this study may consist of one or the other or both of the following tables, according to the needs of the student. Table 1, on recognition characters of the green tree, is intended for those who have not already a good acquaintance with these characters, such as is prerequisite to the work on reproductive habits that is outlined in the second table. The tables (to contain only original observations) may be prepared with column headings as indicated below.

Name.

1. Table of Growth-Characters of Trees

Height (estimated height of a mature tree, in feet or meters).

Growth-habit (see page 73 and figure 40).

Leaves

type (simple or compound).

arrangement (opposite, alternate, whorled, etc.).
form (diagram a single leaflet, if compound).
size (length by width in inches).

surface (rough or smooth, dull or shiny, hairy or
spiny, etc.).

margin (diagram a bit of it).

maximum length (length of one season's growth

in young trees, not crowded).

minimum length (length of one season's growth of over-shadowed twigs).

Shoots number of to date (on average new shoots). last season (as indicated by old leaf

leaves
developed

scars).

growth season (early, medium, or late, or allseason).

Table of Characters of Flowers and Fruits

2.

Name.
Date.

Flowers

as to size

Fruiting height (flower and fruit borne at what distance from the ground, measured along bole and branch).

of single flower (diameter in millimeters).

of cluster (length and breadth in millimeters).

as to sex (perfect-i.e., stamens and pistils in the

same flower; monoecious-i.e, stamens and pistils in different flowers on same plant; or dioecious-i.e., stamens and pistils borne on different plants).

as to form

(of clusters(diagram; twice, if of two

sorts).

of flower (diagram in longitudinal section, showing parts).

color.