Part 38

--LEGUMINOSÆ.--]

=The Black Mulberry= (Morus nigra).

It may surprise some of our readers to learn that the Mulberry-tree is not a native, though it is a familiar object in old gardens and parks. It is generally stated that the first Mulberry-trees were introduced in 1548 and planted at Syon House, Isleworth (then the Convent of St. Bridget of Zion), but the Duke of Northumberland is credited with saying early in the present century that he could then trace them back quite three hundred years. Several of this batch are still living, and one--probably the finest old Mulberry in England--is a hale and vigorous ornament to Mr. George Manville Fenn’s lawn at Syon Lodge. Mr. Leo Grindon is of opinion that the tree was originally introduced by the Romans, for he finds that the Saxons had a name for it, which would probably not have been the case had it not been growing in their midst.

In this country the Black Mulberry does not reach a greater height than about thirty feet, its branches spreading out near the ground and attaining considerable thickness. The leaves are large and rough, heart-shaped, and very plentiful, so that the tree affords good shade. The flowers are small and inconspicuous, of a greenish-white colour, the sexes separate, though sometimes on the same tree. The male or staminate flowers consist of a four-leaved perianth, enclosing four stamens, a large number of the blossoms being combined in a catkinlike spike, depending from the axils of the leaves. The female spike is shorter, and the individual flower consists of a four-parted perianth, enclosing the ovary and its two branched stigma. After fertilization the perianth becomes plump and succulent, and all on the one spike become so pressed together by their great increase in size that they form a multiple fruit, having a slight resemblance to the fruit of the Bramble (the produce of one flower), but really differing from it greatly. Mulberries are ripe in August or September.

Fraxinus excelsior.

--OLEACEÆ.--]

The leaves do not unfold from the bud until the cold weather is well over, usually in May. It is said that its Latin name Morus is derived from mora, delay, in consequence of this caution on the part of the tree. The leaves generally used in the silk-culture for feeding the “worms” are those of the White Mulberry (Morus alba).

=The Small-leaved Elm= (Ulmus campestris).

The Elm is one of our commonest trees, yet a great amount of uncertainty appears to prevail in the popular mind in identifying the Common or Small-leaved from our second British species, the variously-named Scotch Elm, Wych Elm, Witch Hazel, or Mountain Elm (Ulmus montana). There is something more than a suspicion that campestris is not strictly indigenous, but it settled in the country so many hundreds of years ago (brought hither, some say, by returning Crusaders) that it would appear ungenerous at this date to question its claims to be called British, especially as it is more widely diffused than montana. The Elms are both tall trees, but campestris usually attains a slightly greater height than montana, though the latter has a much stouter trunk. Their flowers appear before the leaves, and, although they are individually minute and inconspicuous, they are united in bundles, and the colour of the perianth and stamens renders them conspicuous. The perianth is bell-shaped, cleft into five or more lobes, reddish; the purple anthers are equal in number with the divisions of the perianth, to which their filaments are attached. The two styles are awl-shaped, their inner surfaces stigmatic. The flower-cluster is succeeded by a bunch of one-seeded samaras, winged all round. In montana the seed is placed in the centre of the samaras; in campestris it is distinctly above the centre. The leaves of montana are as large again as those of campestris, broader at the base, more inclined to be unequally heart-shaped. There are, however, many varieties of each, which make the identification of the species often very difficult.

Morus nigra.

--ARCTOCARPEÆ.--]

The flowers appear in March and April, those of campestris a little earlier than the others. The name is the Latin word for the tree but probably derived from the Hebrew ul, to be strong or vigorous.

=The Beech= (Fagus sylvatica).

A Beech-tree growing on a chalky hill is one of the most beautiful of forest trees. It is, moreover, a tree that has left its marks upon our topography and literature, for many place-names (such as Buckingham, Buckland, Bookham) record the fact that in early times Beeches grew plentifully in the neighbourhood, and book is a survival of the period when the Runic poems were written upon slabs of Buk.

Without being at all glossy, like portions of the Birch and Cherry, the bark of the Beech is smooth, and remarkably even. If allowed to grow naturally, without the pollarding which has produced such picturesque monsters as those at Burnham, the Beech-trunk grows clean and straight to a great height, sending off slender, more or less downward-bending, branches with shiny red skins. The twigs bear long, slender, fine-pointed brown buds that are closely mimicked by the snail Clausilia laminata, that loves to haunt the mossy angles between its large spreading roots, and to climb at even up its trunk, which from its smoothness and grey colour is far more suggestive of the gothic column than is the ruddy pine-stem. In spring these buds expand and drop off as the rising sap swells the rolled-up leaves within, which emerge bright silky things, plaited, and edged with the most delicate fringe of gossamer, that gleams in the April sunshine. Then the Beech is indeed a thing of beauty, fair and majestic. The Birch has well been styled by Coleridge “The Lady of the Woods,” but the Beech is surely entitled to take higher rank as the Queen of the Forest, especially in the spring, when covered with this bright and tender foliage, amidst which the flowers are lost.

Ulmus campestris.

--URTICACEÆ.--]

As summer comes the silken fringe of the leaves is cast off as they become firmer in texture, thicker, and more opaque of tint; yet smooth, and with a character peculiarly their own. With the advent of autumn the leaves become crisp, and turn to red-gold, or crimson, or warm ruddy brown. Then, when the afternoon sunbeams fall upon the Beech-wood, it seems all on fire, and the autumnal glories of every other tree are eclipsed.

In April or May the Beech flowers. The blossoms are of two kinds, male and female, produced on stalks from the axils. The male flowers are combined in threes or fours within an involucre, forming a silky tassel as it hangs downwards with its yellow anthers waving. The individual flower has a bell-shaped, five or six-lobed perianth, with a varying number of stamens. Nearer the growing end of the twig rise the female flowers on shorter stalks. They are usually two or four together, in a silky-haired, four-parted involucre, known as a cupule. Individually these female flowers possess a perianth whose mouth is minutely toothed, within which is a three-sided, three-celled ovary surmounted by three slender spreading styles and stigmas. As the three-cornered fruits grow and ripen the cupule becomes hard and its outer scales spiny; the four valves part and turn back to disclose and set free the smooth brown nuts or “mast,” beloved of swine. In France an oil is expressed from the mast, and the latter is also used as a food for poultry, like its namesake, the Buckwheat (see page 118). It is from these edible qualities that the genus gets its name, derived from the Greek, phago--to eat.

Fagus sylvatica.

--CUPULIFERÆ.--]

There are many varieties of the Common Beech to be met in plantations, such as the Copper Beech, the Purple Beech, the Variegated Beech, the Cut-leaved Beech, the Crested Beech, the Weeping Beech, the White Beech, etc.

=Sweet Chestnut= (Castanea vulgaris).

On light sandy soils, where little else but fir and heath will grow, one may meet with considerable plantations of the Sweet or Spanish Chestnut. For centuries, and until quite recently, it was considered to be a native; but it is never found here forming natural forests, and only in the South in favourable situations does it ripen its fruit--usually small. Great plausibility was given to the supposition that Castanea was a native by the oft-repeated statement that its timber was to be seen in the roof of Westminster Abbey and in other old buildings. An examination of this timber years ago by Dr. Lindley--the eminent botanist--proved it to be oak, which it closely resembles. Again it was claimed as British on account of the great antiquity of certain living trees, such as “the great Chestnut of Tortworth,” a name it bore in the reign of Stephen, when it must have been an ancient tree. It is now generally understood that the Chestnut was brought hither by the Romans, and that it got a more permanent footing on our land than its importers. It is grown chiefly for the sake of its young wood as hop-poles, fence-posts, and hoops. Unlike the oak, its timber deteriorates with age.

a. Male flowers. b. Female flowers in cupule. c. Ovary and stigmas removed from cupule. d. Section of ovary, showing the three cells. e. Ripe cupule open, showing nuts.]

It is distinctly an acquisition to our woods and plantations, its long, toothed, shining leaves being fine both in shape and colour. Its male flowers are produced in long, yellow catkins, consisting of a great number of six-parted perianths; from these depend from ten to fifteen stamens, which discharge great quantities of pollen. The female flowers are borne in threes within an involucre (cupule), and each has its perianth adhering to the ovary; there are from five to eight cells in the ovary, and a similar number of stigmas, but, as a rule, only one cell matures one of its two ovules.

The name is said to be derived from Castanum, the name of a town in Thessaly whence the Romans first obtained the fruit.

=The Oak= (Quercus robur).