Woodland Gleanings: Being an Account of British Forest-Trees

Part 1

WOODLAND GLEANINGS.

"Attractive is the Woodland scene, Diversified with trees of every growth-- Alike yet various....

* * * * *

No tree in all the grove but has its charms."

WOODLAND GLEANINGS:

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF

BRITISH FOREST-TREES,

INDIGENOUS AND INTRODUCED.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED, WITH SIXTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON: ADAM SCOTT, CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE.

1853.

GLASGOW: W. G. BLACKIE AND CO., PRINTERS, VILLAFIELD.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

To those who live in the country, or repair to it from our cities and towns for recreation or recruitment of health, we trust this will be an acceptable book, especially if they are unacquainted with Forest-trees. Our aim has been to produce a volume that will convey general and particular information respecting the timber-trees chiefly cultivated in the United Kingdom, to induce further inquiry respecting them, and to impart a new interest to the Woodland. To effect this we have briefly given their history and description, together with their botanical characters, remarks from our best authors on their habits and ornamental properties, on the usual mode of their cultivation, and on the value or utility of their timber. We have also introduced accounts of such remarkable trees as we considered of sufficient note to interest the general reader.

It has been objected that a few species, not recognised as Forest-trees, have been included in this work; such as the Hawthorn, Holly, Mountain-Ash, and Wild Cherry. But as these have been likewise admitted into a subsequent work of greater pretensions, the reason there given by its author will be here equally sufficient:--"That though aware of the secondary rank of these trees in point of dimensions, when compared with the greater denizens of the Forest, he felt that the prominent station they occupy in the ornamental and picturesque departments of our native Sylvia, was sufficient to compensate for this defect, and to entitle them to the situation in which they have been placed."

That the thirty-two species particularly described may be the more readily identified, and their botanical characters more easily understood, there has been given a well executed wood-cut representation of the usual growth and representation of each tree, and another of the leaves, flowers, and fruit.

July 1, 1853.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE 1. Alder 41 2. Leaves and Catkins 43 3. Ash 47 4. Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit 51 5. Beech 55 6. Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit 59 7. Birch 63 8. Leaves and Catkins 65 9. Cedar of Lebanon 69 10. Foliage, Cone, &c. 73 11. Chestnut 77 12. Leaves, Catkins, &c. 79 13. Elm 82 14. Leaves and Flowers 85 15. Hawthorn 92 16. Leaves, Blossom, and Fruit 95 17. Hazel 98 18. Leaves, Catkins, and Nuts 100 19. Holly 103 20. Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit 105 21. Hornbeam 109 22. Leaves, Catkins, and Fruit 111 23. Horse-Chestnut 114 24. Leaves, Flowers, &c. 117 25. Larch 122 26. Foliage, Catkins, &c. 125 27. Lime, or Linden 132 28. Leaves and Flowers 135 29. Maple 139 30. Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds 141 31. Mountain-Ash 145 32. Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit 147 33. Mulberry 152 34. Leaves and Fruits 155 35. Oak 158 36. Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit 161 37. Oriental Plane 189 38. Leaves, and Globes of Flowers 191 39. Occidental Plane 196 40. Leaves and Flowers 199 41. Poplar 201 42. (White) Leaves, Flowers, and Catkins 203 43. Scotch Fir or Pine 207 44. Foliage, Catkins, Cones, &c. 209 45. Silver Fir 217 46. Foliage and Cones 219 47. Spruce Fir 222 48. Foliage and Cones 225 49. Sycamore 227 50. Leaves, Flowers, and Samaræ 229 51. Walnut 233 52. Leaves, Catkins, and Nuts 235 53. Weymouth Pine 239 54. Foliage, Cones, &c. 241 55. Whitebeam 243 56. Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit 245 57. Wild Black Cherry 247 58. Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit 249 59. Wild Service 253 60. Leaves and Flowers 255 61. Willow 257 62. (Crack) Leaves and Catkins of S. fragilis 263 63. Yew 269 64. Foliage, Leaves, and Fruit 271

INTRODUCTION.

The forest teems With forms of majesty and beauty; some, As the light poplar, wave with every sigh Of zephyr, and some scarcely bend their heads For very mightiness, when wintry storms Are maddening the sea! Carrington.

Delightful Edlington! how we love to saunter up and down the broad and verdant pathway that traverses thy wild domain. There, amid the deep imbosomed thickets, we feel that we are in "the haunts of meditation"--we feel that these are, indeed,

The scenes where ancient bards th' inspiring breath Ecstatic felt;

And wish that the kind muses that them inspired would cast their united mantles over us, and aid us to sing the beauties of the woodland. But no friendly spirit deigns to tune our lyre; we are condemned to dull prose, and are permitted only here and there to call in some bard of old to aid our feeble efforts. Woodland! yea, the very name seems to revive recollections of delightful solitude--of calm and holy feelings, when the world has been, for the time, completely banished from its throne--the throne of the human heart, which, alas! it too commonly occupies. O, how agreeable and pleasant is the woodland, when the trees are half clad with their green attire! How refreshing is the appearance of the tender leaf-bud, emerging from its sheath, just visible upon the dingy gray branches, those of one tree being generally a little in advance of others! We have never yet met with that insensate being whose heart is not elated at the sight. And to look, at this time, upon the vast assemblage of giant trees, whose skeleton, character, and figure may now be plainly traced. The dense foliage does not obscure them now, but they are beheld in all their majesty. "If the contrast of gray and mossy branches," says Howitt, "and of the delicate richness of young leaves gushing out of them in a thousand places be inexpressibly delightful to behold, that of one tree with another is not the less so. One is nearly full clothed; another is mottled with gray and green, struggling, as it were, which should have the predominance, and another is still perfectly naked. The pines look dim dusky amid the lively hues of spring. The abeles are covered with their clusters of alliescent and powdery leaves and withering catkins; and beneath them the pale spathes of the arum, fully expanded and displaying their crimson clubs, presenting a sylvan and unique air."

In Sweden, the budding and leafing of the birch-tree is considered as a directory for sowing barley; and as there is something extremely sublime and harmonious in the idea, we flatter ourselves an account of it here will be acceptable.

Mr. Harold Barck, in his ingenious dissertation upon the foliation of trees, informs us, that Linnæus had, in the most earnest manner, exhorted his countrymen to observe, with all care and diligence, at what time each tree expanded its buds and unfolded its leaves; imagining, and not without reason, that his country would, some time or other, reap some new and perhaps unexpected benefit from observations of this kind made in different places.

As one of the apparent advantages, he advises the prudent husbandman to watch, with the greatest care, the proper time for sowing; because this, with the Divine assistance, produces plenty of provision, and lays the foundation of the public welfare of the state, and of the private happiness of the people. The ignorant farmer, tenacious of the ways and customs of his ancestors, fixes his sowing season generally to a month, and sometimes to a particular week, without considering whether the earth be in a proper state to receive the seed; from whence it frequently happens, that what the sower sowed with sweat, the reaper reaps with sorrow. The wise economist should therefore endeavour to fix upon certain signs, whereby to judge of the proper time for sowing. We see trees open their buds and expand their leaves, from whence we conclude that spring approaches, and experience supports us in the conclusion; but nobody has as yet been able to show us what trees Providence has intended should be our calendar, so that we might know on what day the countryman ought to sow his grain. No one can deny but that the same power which brings forth the leaves of trees, will also make the grain vegetate; nor can any one assert that a premature sowing will always, and in every place, accelerate a ripe harvest. Perhaps, therefore, we cannot promise ourselves a happy success by any means so likely, as by taking our rule for sowing from the leafing of trees. We must for that end observe in what order every tree puts forth its leaves according to its species, the heat of the atmosphere, and the quality of the soil. Afterwards, by comparing together the observations of the several years, it will not be difficult to determine from the foliation of the trees, if not certainly, at least probably, the time when annual plants ought to be sown. It will be necessary, likewise, to remark what sowings made in different parts of the spring produce the best crops, in order that, by comparing these with the leafing of trees, it may appear which is the most proper time for sowing.

Continue reading Woodland Gleanings: Being an Account of British Forest-Trees free in the Wunder reader →