Boy Scouts Handbook Part 31

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[Ill.u.s.tration: _Pinkster Flower_--It shows its pink flowers in rocky woods and thickets during spring.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _White Pine_--Common evergreen tree of the Northeastern states. Needle-like leaves in bundles of five.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _b.u.t.terfly Weed_--The bright, orange colored flowers are conspicuous in dry meadows from June to September.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Poison Ivy_--Can be distinguished from the harmless woodbine by its three-lobed leaves.]

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The agencies which serve to spread plants about over the earth's surface are very varied and interesting. Nature has provided seeds with many appendages which a.s.sist in their dispersal. Some seeds have wings, and some parachutes to take advantage of the wind. Some seeds are provided with hooks and stickers by which they become attached to the fur of animals and are in this way enabled to steal a free ride.

Other seeds are provided with edible coverings which attract birds, but the seeds themselves are hard and not digestible; the fruit is eaten and the seeds rejected and so plants are scattered. Besides these methods of perpetuation and dispersal, some plants are perpetuated as well as dispersed by vegetative reproduction, i. e., by cuttings as in the case of willows; by runners as in the case of the strawberry; and by stolons as with the black raspberry. (For further information on this point see Bailey's "Lessons with Plants.")

Some plant characteristics, however, of greatest interest to the scout may be enumerated. Plants not only mark zones, but they indicate soils with certain characteristics, and the crop wise say that the soil on which chestnut abounds is suitable for buckwheat or peaches. Plants also indicate the influence of local conditions such as lakes, ponds, or even variations in contour. A knowledge of the local flora of a region will at once tell one whether he is upon a northern or a southern hillside by the plants of the area. The creek bottom will {121} abound with species not to be found on the hillsides, but species common to both plain and mountain will mark the progress of the season up the slope.

In the north temperate zone the moss if any will be found growing upon the north side of the tree trunk. Each hundred feet of elevation in a given lat.i.tude makes from one to two days difference in time of blooming of plants. The character of the vegetation of a region is an index to its climate. Certain plants are adapted to frigid regions, others to temperate, and still others to tropical areas. Some plants are adapted to humid sections, while others are admirably adjusted to desert conditions. A knowledge of these differences in plants will be of the greatest value to the scout, and if this is supplemented by information about the value and uses of the various plant products many hardships can be avoided. Many plants produce valuable juices, gums, and resins, while others yield us valuable timber for building and cabinet uses.

While it is impossible to even suggest the great variety of plants found within the confines of the United States, the following books on botany will be found helpful in each of the different sections for which they are designed.

Bibliography

For the botany of the Northeastern United States use:

"New Manual of Botany," 7th ed. Asa Gray.

"Ill.u.s.trated Flora of the United States and Canada." N. L. Britton and Hon. Addison Brown.

For the botany of the Southern United States use:

"Flora of the Southern United States." A. W. Chapman.

"Southern Wild Flowers and Trees." Alice Lounsberry.

For the Botany of the Rocky Mountain region use:

"New Manual of Botany of the Central Rocky Mountains." John M.

Coulter; Revised by Aven Nelson.

"Rocky Mountain Wild Flower Studies." Burton O. Longyear.

"The Trees of California." Willis Linn Jepson.

For general information regarding the shrubby plants of the United States use:

"Our Shrubs of the United States." Austin C. Apgar.

"Our Northern Shrubs." Harriet Louise Keeler.

For the wild flowers outside of those already mentioned for the Southern United States and the Rocky Mountain region use:

"Our Garden Flowers." Harriet Louise Keeler.

"How to Know the Wild Flowers." Frances Theodora Parsons.

"Field Book of American Wild Flowers." F. Schuyler Mathews.

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For the ferns and gra.s.ses it will be found worth while to consult:

"How to Know the Ferns." Frances Theodora Parsons.

"The Fern Collector's Guide." Willard Nelson Clute.

"New England Ferns and Their Common Allies." Helen Eastman.

"The Gra.s.ses, Sedges, and Rushes of the North United States." Edward k.n.o.bel.

For the study of the monarchs of our forests the following books will all be found exceedingly useful:

"Manual of the Trees of North America." Charles Sprague Sargent.

"Trees of the Northern United States." Austin C. Apgar.

"Handbook of the Trees of the Northern United States and Canada."

Romeyn Beck Hough.

"North American Trees." N. L. Britton.

"Familiar Trees and Their Leaves." 1911. F. Schuyler Mathews.

Besides these, several states have issued through their state experiment stations bulletins dealing with the local plant inhabitants. In some instances these publications cover forest trees, gra.s.ses, and shrubs, either native or introduced. Several of the educational inst.i.tutions, as well as the experiment stations, now regularly issue nature study leaflets or bulletins which treat of popular subjects of interest in connection with outdoor things. It would be well to write the state experiment station in your state for literature of this nature.

MUSHROOMS, FUNGI, OR TOADSTOOLS

_By Ernest Thompson Seton, Chief Scout Revised by Dr. C. C. Curtis_