Evening star., 1904-03-17
TREES. IN WIN TER
DO BOYS AND GIRLS KNOW THEM
WITHOUT LEAvEsp
Lesson in Dendrology-story Told by
the Book-The Beech, Birch,
Oak and Hickory.
From the New York Tribune.

From the New York Tribune.
E'en winter bleak has charms for me.
Burns.
How many of the little men and women
can recognize the trees in winter? Perhaps
they think, like the majority of grown up
people, that they are all alike when they
have lost their summer dress. but the
leaves do not make the tree any more
than clothes make the man, and the leafiess
trees are even less like one another than
when they are covered with foliage. flow
ers or fruit. They show their real char
acter in winter. and IL we really want to
know them we must study them at that
time. A few of them will be found like
good many men and women, to have only
their clothes to recommend them; but
most of them have peculiar beauties which
can only be seen or are best observed in
winter.
The beech, with it's lovely white bark and
fine spray of delicate branches, is much
admired for its winter beauty, and the
white birch, which poets celebrate the
LADY of the forest" has a new charm
when her "silver bark"-one of the love-
liest things in nature-and ''long disheveled
hair" Sir Walter Scott calls her droop
ing branches. are unhfdden by her summer
veil of leaves. The strength and sternness
of the oak best realized when her
gnarled old arms and iron form are bare
and the elm shows her remarkable combi-
| nation of strength and stateliness,, with
81 aceful delicacy. to best advantage when
she is bereft of leaves.
The elm may easily be recognized in win
ter by her Vaselike FORM and the oak is
usually marked by her peculiar habit of
clingng to her dead foliage. Hickories may
be known by the fnky blackness of their
branches as they are outlined against the
sky, and the buttonwood may be recognized
as far as she can be seen by her curious
/ speckled appearance, caused by the habit
OF casting her bark in large. irregular
patches.
Sleep of the Trees.
The bark is the wornout clothing of the
tree which she casts of when it gets too
| small, and it differs from other old clothes
in being more beautiful when it is old than
1t has ever been before. For this the tree
lover may be devoutly thankful to Mother
! Nature, for the bark is one of the greatest
beauties of the trees, particularly in winter
when the eye is not distracted from it's
lovely colors by the brighter tints of the
| foliage.
I Winter is the sleeping time of the trees.
/ and all the sympathy which poets have
! lavished on their leaf1ess and birdless state
| is quite misplaced. The trees in winter are
| perfectly comfortable and happy Tbey
/ have put on their slumber robes wrapped
| all their buds in waterproof coats and blan-
| kets, filled their storehouses with food.
ready to feed the baby leaves and flowers
when the first breath of spring is felt, and
| since the first frost in the fall they have
been having nice, quiet snooze. The roots
partly wrapped in the slumber robe are
| asleep, like the rest of the tree, and. though
| the wood is full of little ice crystals. which
! can be seen sparkling like diamonds on a
| broken twig or branch the living part of
the tree, 5ellyltke substance called proto-
| plasm, is uninjured by the cold. Nature in
some mysterious way which cannot be fully
| understood protects II.
The slumber robe is the same dress worn
by the tree during the summer but for the
| winter sleep it is made perfectly alright
! and water-tight. During the summer 1t is
pierced with tiny openings, through which
the tree breathes, but in the fall these
| openings are all carefully sealed up
Baby Leaves and Flowers.
The cradles of the baby leaves and flowers
! are wonderful things and any little man
| or woman who would like to examine them
| can easily do SO. The horse chestnut is the
| best tree to begin with, because it makes
| of the other trees. These will be found at
| the ends of the twigs. and are from an inch
| to an inch and half in length. The out
| side covering is waterproof, and beneath 1t
| is an armor of scales. Inside the scales a
mass of soft, downy wool is packed around
| complete branch Of little leaves, while in
| the center of all is a complete stalk of flow
| ers German naturalist counted sixty
eight flowers one of these undeVeloped
spikes, and with microscope he was able
/ 10 see the pollen on the stamens
All trees do not take so much trouble as
this. and some take more. The buds of the
/ Norway maple have three sets of scales.
/ Beneath the outer ones is q pair covered
with soft brown hair as thick as sealskin