The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1915-01-01
Christmas Greens

EVERYBODY knows the Christ
mas trees. holly. mistletoe and
Christmas greens on our mar
kets, but where these cheering
plants come from and how they grow
Is not so well known.
Christmas trees are furnished princi
pally by two families of trees-the
spruces and the frs. The spruces are
the more bushy looking trees. with
numerous small cones near the top.
All through northern New England.
northern Michigan. Wisconsin and Min
nesota the spruces form vast forests
The black spruce grows In swamps,
where few other trees can live, while
the white spruce completes with the
noble pines for higher and better soil.
Every year millions of young spruces
are cut in the northern forests and
shipped to the cities and prairie states
in carload lots. 10 the woodsmen can
find a stand of young frs they take
them also. The frs look more refined
and less bushy. and their green leaves
often stand away from the slender
branches like the teeth of comb,
While the use of Christmas trees has
come to us from Germany, the custom
of decorating our houses with holly and
mistletoe originated in England.
Holly.
ne Aff1nFiaQ holly 1S
in the woods of New England and the
Allegheny mountains. In the north 1t
is a small evergreen shrub. but In the
south it sometimes grows to be tree
fifty feet high. With its glossy green
leaves and bright scarlet berries the
holly is an object of beauty in its ma
tive woods as well as in our fashion
able fats and churches. The hand OF
man has never cultivated this beautl-
full shrub, at least not on a CONNER
cial scale, but the wild birds are at
tracted by its bright berries. They eat
the scanty pulp and scatter the seeds
far and wide. While some species OF
holly grow as far south as Texas and
westward into Missouri and Arkansas,
the great forests of Michigan. Wiscon-
sin and Minnesota contain not a sin
gle species of these beautiful shrubs,
MistIetoe.
A queer kind of plant is the mistle-
toe. If one saw it for the first time he
might mistake it for the common
witch's broom which is familiar to ev-
ery northern woodsman. In reality
the mistletoe is parasite which grows
and lives on other trees, such as ma.
ple, poplar and tupeio. Its white fruit
is eaten by birds. and the small seeds
are accidentally dropped on the branch
es of trees. The seeds adhere to the
bark, and II they happen to have been
planted on the right kind of host they
terminate and send kind of sucker
like growth into the bark and WOOD
of their host. and new mistletoe
plant begins its life and grows at the
expense of Its host, from which 1t de-
rives nearly all it's nourishment. Our
Christmas mistletoe is restricted to the
middle and southern states, growing
from New Jersey to Missouri and
south as far as Florida and Texas, bul
is not found in the northern states
Several species Of mistletoe. however
do occur in our western forests.
All, Christmas Greens.
The most humble plant OF this happy
season Is the small plant known as
Christmas greens or ground pines. II
is close relative Of the ferns and
MOSES and. like these, occupies the
shady hooks and places of the forest
floor, where it trails and twines among
the roots of the stately pines. 1t never
produces any flowers or true seeds
Its small heads. which look like tiny
ears of grain. are filed with yellow
dust. This dust Is carried away by
the wind or shaken out and carried
Off by the gentle touch Of squirrels
rabbits and other woodland folk. From
this fine dust the new plants grow.
Few of US who enjoy the cheer Of
these Christmas plants do ever meet
them in their native haunts in winter
we can only study them where they
grow when we take our summer out
ing to the northern woods and to the
mountains