Boy Scouts Handbook Part 34

A small tree on dry and poor soil, rarely 50 feet high. Wood soft, close-grained, not strong, splits in drying, useless for weather or ground work. A cubic foot weighs 36 pounds. Leaves 2 to 3 inches long.

It has a black triangular scar at each armpit. The canoe birch is without these black marks. New Brunswick to Ontario to Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Black Birch, Sweet Birch, or Mahogany Birch (_Betula lenta_)

The largest of the birches; a great tree, in Northern forests up to 80 feet high. The bark is scarcely birchy, rather like that of {130} cherry, very dark, and aromatic. Leaves 2-1/2 to 6 inches long.

Newfoundland to Western Ontario and south to Tennessee.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ashen-leaved birch]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Black birch]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Beech]

Beech (_f.a.gus Americana_)

In all North America there is but one species of beech. It is a n.o.ble forest tree, 70 to 80 and occasionally 120 feet high, readily distinguished by its smooth, ashy-gray bark. Leaves 3 to 4 inches long. It shares with hickory and sugar maple the honor of being a perfect firewood. Nova Scotia to Wisconsin, south to Florida and Texas.

Chestnut (_Castanea dentata_)

A n.o.ble tree, 60 to 80 or even 100 feet high. The most delicious of nuts. Leaves 6 to 8 inches long. Maine to Michigan and south to Tennessee.

Red Oak (_Quercus rubra_)

A fine forest tree, 70 to 80 or even 140 feet high. Hard, strong, coa.r.s.e-grained, heavy. It checks, warps, and does not stand for weather or ground work. The acorn takes two {131} seasons to ripen.

Leaves 4 to 8 inches long. Nova Scotia to Minnesota, south to Texas and Florida.

White Oak (_Quercus alba_)

A grand forest tree, over 100 up to 150 feet high. Wood pale, strong, tough, fine-grained, durable and heavy, valuable timber. Called white from pale color of bark and wood. Leaves 5 to 9 inches long. Acorns ripen in one season. Maine to Minnesota, Florida and Texas.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chestnut]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Red oak]

[Ill.u.s.tration: White oak]

White Elm or Swamp Elm (_Ulmus Americana_)

A tall, splendid forest tree, commonly 100, occasionally 120 feet high. Wood reddish-brown, hard, strong, tough, very hard to split, coa.r.s.e, heavy. Soon rots near the ground. Leaves 2 to 5 inches long.

Flowers in early spring before leafing. Abundant, Newfoundland and Manitoba to Texas.

Sycamore, Plane Tree, b.u.t.tonball or b.u.t.tonwood (_Plata.n.u.s occidentalis_)

One of the largest of our trees; up to 140 feet high; commonly hollow.

Little use for weather work. Famous for shedding {132} its bark as well as its leaves; leaves 4 to 9 inches long. Canada to Gulf.

Black or Yellow Locust, Silver Chain (_Robinia pseudacacia_)

A tall forest tree up to 80 feet high; leaves 8 to 14 inches long; leaflets 9 to 19, 1 to 2 inches long, pods 2 to 4 inches long, 4 to 7 seeded. This is the common locust so often seen about old lawns.

[Ill.u.s.tration: White elm]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sycamore]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Black locust]

Red, Scarlet, Water, or Swamp Maple (_Acer rubrum_)

A fine, tall tree, often over 100 feet high. Noted for its flaming crimson foliage in fall, as well as its red leaf stalks, flowers, and fruit, earlier. Leaves 2 to 6 inches long. Like all the maples it produces sugar, though in this case not much. Western North America.

The sugar maple is a larger, finer tree.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Red maple]

[Ill.u.s.tration: White ash]

White Ash (_Fraxinus Americana_)

A fine tree on moist soil. Seventy to 80 or even 130 feet high. Yellow in autumn; noted for being last to leaf and first {133} to shed in the forest. Called white for the silvery under sides of the leaves; these are 8 to 12 inches long, each leaflet 3 to 6 inches long. Nova Scotia to Texas.

For a full unbotanical account of one hundred and twenty of our finest trees with their uses as wood, their properties, and the curious and interesting things about them see:

"The Forester's Manual: or Forest Trees That Every Scout Should Know."

By Ernest Thompson Seton.

NATIVE WILD ANIMALS