Part 7

Chapter II

THE HORSECHESTNUT

Family Hippocastanaceæ

This a small family consisting of one well-known cultivated species,—the horsechestnut,—and four belonging to the Western and Southern States,—the various large and small buckeyes.

The horsechestnut is so well known and its winter characteristics so clearly marked that I have chosen it first for description, although no species of the family is found growing wild in the Northeastern States.

Æsculus hippocastanum]

A large tree with a pyramidal head. The bark of old trees splits off in small square pieces, and in young trees it is smooth. Very coarse twigs and large brown buds covered with a gummy substance. Opposite leaf-scars.

The horsechestnut has little grace or beauty of outline in winter. Its branches are stiff, the twigs are coarse, ending bluntly with large terminal buds, and the general shape too compact to be pleasing. The buds and recent shoots are particularly interesting however, as every scar is sharply defined and the buds are so large we can see the inner structure perfectly. In the accompanying illustration we see a two-year-old shoot with a large terminal bud and two lateral buds below the ring of scars left by the scales of the terminal bud of the year before. The bundle-scars are plainly seen on the leaf-scars, and above one of the leaf-scars there is a lateral bud ready to develop into a lateral branch when it opens in the spring. The circle of scars at the base of each lateral shoot was left by the scales of the lateral bud of the year before. There are one or two small undeveloped buds at the top of the leaf-scars which would carry on the growth of the branch if anything happened to injure the vigorous buds at the tips of the stems. The dots on the bark are the lenticels. By opening the bud with a knife we find beneath the sticky gummy substance and the numerous layers of scales a complete branch in miniature. The little leaves are carefully packed in downy wool to keep out the dampness and cold, and in their turn they protect the delicate pink spike of flowers. A German naturalist once counted sixty-eight flowers on one of these undeveloped spikes in the bud, and with a microscope he discovered the pollen of the stamens.

Page 16 ]

The horsechestnut came originally from Southeastern Europe and was introduced into gardens about the middle of the sixteenth century. Its wood has no commercial value. The generic name, Æsculus, comes from esca, food, the ancient name of an oak with edible acorns; it was probably given to this tree on account of its large chestnut-like fruit. Hippocastanum, from hippos, a horse, castanea, a chestnut, alludes to the fruit which is made into horse medicine in Turkey.

The Ohio buckeye (Æsculus glabra) is a shrub or low tree found west of the Alleghanies. Its terminal bud is frequently lacking, and the two upper lateral buds grow large and take its place. Its buds and stems resemble those of the horsechestnut, but the two species would never be confused.

CHAPTER III

THE MAPLES

Chapter III

THE MAPLES

Family Aceraceæ

Maples have long been famous for beauty of blossom in the early spring, and richness of foliage in the late summer and autumn; but a study of the twigs and buds after the leaves have fallen, the varying colors of buds and stems, the delicacy of twigs and branches, and grace of outline as trees demonstrates effectively the unusual beauty of the maples in winter.

The family name Acer comes from the Latin word for sharp, which was originally derived from ac, a Celtic word meaning a point. The name was given to this genus because the wood was much sought after in ancient times for the heads of pikes and lances.

Among some forty species of maple there are six native species, if the ash-leaved maple is included in this genus. Two species from Europe, the Norway and sycamore maples, are planted commonly throughout New England.

All the maples have opposite leaf-scars.

Acer saccharum]

The general shape is erect, with smooth, clean branches. In old trees the bark breaks away in long, shallow fissures with curling ridges, giving the trunk a ploughed appearance. The buds are narrow, brown, and sharp-pointed. Delicate pinkish leaves folded inside the bud. Leaf-scars small and opposite; also the twigs branch opposite each other.

Among the different characteristics of this tree in winter, two stand out conspicuously as unfailing means of identification,—the sharp-pointed brown buds and the rough furrowed trunk with smooth places between the fissures. When young it can be distinguished at a distance by its erect habit of growth and general shapeliness, the main trunk often extending up into the tree unbroken by divisions.

Acer saccharum

Page 22 ]

Page 22 ]

The sugar maple is typically American, and is especially associated in our minds with the farming and country life of New England. It is found in all the Northeastern States growing wild and extensively cultivated. Maple sugar is made from the sap of this tree in the early spring. A clear, bright day and a westerly wind succeeding a frosty night are most favorable to the flow of sap, according to Emerson. A hole is bored in the trunk of the tree, and the sap flows for about three weeks. It is collected daily in buckets, and then boiled into syrup. A sugar maple should not be tapped before it is twenty-five or thirty years old, but after that age it may be tapped annually as long as it lives. The wood of this tree is hard and smooth, and is much used for furniture and the interior finishing of houses. Occasionally a tree is found where the fibres of the wood are contorted irregularly into round points called bird’s eyes. The cause of this peculiar bird’s-eye maple is unknown, and the theory that the grain is diverted by the tapping of woodpeckers for the sweet sap is an unsatisfactory explanation, for some trees are thickly covered, while others do not have a single spot.

The Latin name, Acer saccharum—sugar maple—came from the Arabic, Soukar.