The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-11
THE VOICE OF THE TREES IN SUMMER Each Kind of Tree Has Its Own
 Song THE ALTO OF THE ELM The Music of the Sycamore Has the Patter of Chidrens Feet and
 the Laugh of lnno-
 cent Voices.
THE ALTO OF THE ELM
W. L. Webb in Kansas City Star.

W. L. Webb in Kansas City Star.
 The leaves are full grown in July and thereafter leaf-growth ceases in most trees. The forest foliage having its full growth. also has then it's full voice.
 The Hsping of the early spring winds through the slken young leaves was not more pleasing or more noticeable than are | the fuller harmonies from the leaf-laden boughS of midsummer.
 Each kind of tree has Its own song made by the wind. The attentive ear may distinguish one kind from another by the rustic of it's leaves In July the leaves are still young and plastic and they greet with rich melody the woodland visitor who pauses and listens beneath the soughing boughs.
 | The voice of the elm Is an alto, never loud nor boisterous. The graceful branches swing and sway gently long after the dis turbinS breeze has passed to distant trees
 The cottonwood salutes you with never ending little sharps and trebles" more constant than any ever heard in Tenny- sons brook. The leaves of this tree are pendant from long slender stems which encourage motion. The leaves are num- erous, broad, scalloped and so adjusted as to play upon each other with the slightest commotion in the air. The wing of a | bird may set them in motion. The tree is very tall and every vagrant current of air brings a quiver to it's sensitive and re- | sponsive foliage. In a gale the cotton wood is like a harp of a thousand strings. It's varied intonations commngle and in- stead of the sharps and trebes you hear a Wdterfall-not the thunderous Niagara but the sweeter voice of NIlnnehaha
 Those who love tree sounds should hear the cottonwood in high wind. Hear all the trees then You may hear the tranquil music of the birds when the wind dies down, but the grander music of the forest comes only when the mind rises and throws its weight upon the trees and plays With them as with a mighty instrument The White oak has a deep, sullen bass tone. The spray and the leaves respond at the first coming of the wind with gentle ripple as of shallow water or of breakers running shoreward. But the moving mass of foliage Is heavy enough to call Into ac- ton the large. stiff branches and then comes the muffled roar which subsidies in- stantly upon the departure of the disturb ing cause. A strong wind losses the leaves Of the white oak into great confusion and the upturned leaves show the same white ness seen in the upturned silver maple s leaves. A white oak forest is a white for est in strong wind But the white oak HdS a twin brother, the burr oak, whose leaves, when fouted by the wind are al- most as white as the magnolia blossom The twins may be distinguished by the more intense whiteness of the undersde of the burr oak leaves. | ne chinqua Din oak shows also very white leaf in a gale. The leaf of the laurel oak is green through and through like the leaf of the walnut.
 If you were in the woods at night and came to tree whose foliage gave forth the sound of the batter of child ren's feet you would know that you stod beneath a sycamore and as the wind rose higher you would hear in its boughs the coarse and fine sounds in- termingle. the rumble of thunder and the gentle splash of rain It Is a busy song and A sweet one, sweet even in its harshest notes. The sycamore has an ample but not dense foliage. evenly and uniformly distributed all through the tree from the white, inner framework to the extreme nerimeter Nature meant for the sycamore to be no silent member of the musical brith- erhood of trees. The tiny sycamore fruit balls geat gay tattoo on the broad palm like foliage each leaf of which Is drawn oycN three ribs and made taut for q drumhead. The drum beat is subdued one as the leaves are covered with a soft coat of satin The leaves are deeply palmated and are disposed in bunshes. The sycamore goes on producing new leaves all sum mer. the sofest, queerest baby leaves to be seen in the woods.
 The song of the silver maple is a