Handbook of the Trees of New England Part 33

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Terminal leaf-buds narrowly conical, acute; flower-buds spherical or vertically flattened, grayish. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-5 inches long, two-thirds as wide, dark green above, whitish beneath, turning to reds, purples, and yellows in the autumn, ovate to oval, nearly smooth, with minute appressed p.u.b.escence on both surfaces; apex pointed; base acutish; veins distinctly indented above, ribs curving upward and parallel; leafstalk short-grooved.

=Inflorescence.=--May to June. Appearing with the unfolding leaves in close cl.u.s.ters at the ends of the branches, each cl.u.s.ter subtended by a very conspicuous 4-leafed involucre (often mistaken for the corolla and const.i.tuting all the beauty of the blossom), the leaves of which are white or pinkish, 1-1/2 inches long, obovate, curiously notched at the rounded end. The real flowers are insignificant, suggesting the tubular disk flowers of the Compositae; calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, surmounting it by 4 small teeth; petals greenish-yellow, oblong, reflexed; stamens 4; pistil with capitate style.

=Fruit.=--Ovoid, scarlet drupes, about 1/2 inch long, united in cl.u.s.ters, persistent till late autumn or till eaten by the birds.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in southern and southern-central New England, but liable farther north to be killed outright or as far down as the surface of the snow; not only one of the most attractive small trees on account of its flowers, habit, and foliage, but one of the most useful for shady places or under tall trees. The species, a red-flowering and also a weeping variety are obtainable in leading nurseries. Collected plants can be made to succeed. It is a plant of rather slow growth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXXIX.--Cornus florida.]

1. Leaf-buds.

2. Flower-buds.

3. Flowering branch.

4. Flower.

5. Fruiting branch.

=Cornus alternifolia, L. f.=

DOGWOOD. GREEN OSIER.

=Habitat and Range.=--Hillsides, open woods and copses, borders of streams and swamps.

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick along the valley of the St. Lawrence river to the western sh.o.r.es of Lake Superior.

Common throughout New England.

South to Georgia and Alabama; west to Minnesota.

=Habit.=--A shrub or small tree, 6-20 feet high, trunk diameter 3-6 inches; head usually widest near the top, flat; branches nearly horizontal with lateral spray, the lively green, dense foliage lying in broad planes.

=Bark.=--Trunk and larger branches greenish, warty, streaked with gray; season's shoots bright yellowish-green or purplish, oblong-dotted.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, acute. Leaves simple, alternate or sometimes opposite, cl.u.s.tered at the ends of the branchlets, 2-4 inches long, dark green on the upper side, paler beneath, with minute appressed p.u.b.escence on both sides, ovate to oval, almost entire; apex long-pointed; base acutish or rounded; veins indented above, ribs curving upward and parallel; petiole long, slender, and grooved.

=Inflorescence.=--June. From shoots of the season, in irregular open cymes; calyx coherent with ovary, surmounting it by 4 minute teeth; corolla white or pale yellow, with the 4 oblong petals at length reflexed: stamens 4, exserted; style short, with capitate stigma.

=Fruit.=--October. Globular, blue or blue black, on slender, reddish stems.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England, adapting itself to a great variety of situations, but preferring a soil that is constantly moist. Nursery or good collected plants are easily transplanted. A disease, similar in its effect to the pear blight, so often disfigures it that it is not desirable for use in important plantations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE Lx.x.x.--Cornus alternifolia.]

1. Winter buds.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Flower with one petal and two stamens removed, side view.

4. Flower, view from above.

5. Fruiting branch.

=Nyssa sylvatica, Marsh.=

TUPELO. SOUR GUM. PEPPERIDGE.

=Habitat and Range.=--In rich, moist soil, in swamps and on the borders of rivers and ponds.

Ontario.

Maine,--Waterville on the Kennebec, the most northern station yet reported (Dr. Ezekiel Holmes); New Hampshire,--most common in the Merrimac valley, seldom seen north of the White mountains; Vermont,--occasional; Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut,--rather common.

South to Florida; west to Michigan, Missouri, and Texas.

=Habit.=--Tree 20-50 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 1-2 feet, rising in the forest to the height of 60-80 feet; attaining greater dimensions farther south; lower branches horizontal or declining, often touching the ground at their tips, the upper horizontal or slightly rising, angular, repeatedly subdividing; branchlets very numerous, short and stiff, making a flat spray; head extremely variable, unique in picturesqueness of outline; usually broad-spreading, flat-topped or somewhat rounded; often reduced in Nantucket and upon the southern sh.o.r.e of Cape Cod to a shrub or small tree of 10-15 feet in height, forming low, dense, tangled thickets. Foliage very abundant, dark l.u.s.trous green, turning early in the fall to a brilliant crimson.

=Bark.=--Trunk of young trees grayish-white, with irregular and shallow striations, in old trees darker, breaking up into somewhat hexagonal or lozenge-shaped scales; branches smooth and brown; season's shoots reddish-green, with a few minute dots.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds ovoid, 1/8-1/4 inch long, obtuse. Leaves simple, irregularly alternate, often apparently whorled when cl.u.s.tered at the ends of the shoots, 2-5 inches long, one-half as wide; at first bright green beneath, dullish-green above, becoming dark glossy green above, paler beneath, obovate or oblanceolate to oval; entire, few or obscurely toothed, or wavy-margined above the center; apex more or less abruptly acute; base acutish; firm, smooth, finely sub-veined; stem short, flat, grooved, minutely ciliate, at least when young; stipules none.

=Inflorescence.=--May or early June. Appearing with the leaves in axillary cl.u.s.ters of small greenish flowers, sterile and fertile usually on separate trees, sometimes on the same tree,--sterile flowers in simple or compound cl.u.s.ters; calyx minutely 5-parted, petals 5, small or wanting; stamens 5-12, inserted on the outside of a disk; pistil none: fertile flowers larger, solitary, or several sessile in a bracted cl.u.s.ter; petals 5, small or wanting; calyx minutely 5-toothed.

=Fruit.=--Drupes 1-several, ovoid, blue black, about 1/2 inch long, sour: stone striated lengthwise.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; adapts itself readily to most situations but prefers deep soil near water. Seldom offered in nurseries and difficult to transplant unless frequently root-pruned or moved; collected plants do not thrive well; seedlings are raised with little difficulty. Few trees are of greater ornamental value.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE Lx.x.xI.--Nyssa sylvatica.]

1. Winter buds.

2. Branch with sterile flowers.

3-4. Sterile flowers.

5. Branch with fertile flowers.

6. Fertile flower.

7. Fruiting branch.

EBENACEae. EBONY FAMILY.

=Diospyros Virginiana, L.=

PERSIMMON.

=Habitat and Range.=--Rhode Island,--occasional but doubtfully native; Connecticut,--at Lighthouse Point, New Haven, near the East Haven boundary line, there is a grove consisting of about one hundred twenty-five small trees not more than a hundred feet from the water's edge, in sandy soil just above the beach gra.s.s, exposed to the buffeting of fierce winds and the incursions of salt water, which comes up around them during the heavy winter storms. These trees are not in thriving condition; several are dead or dying, and no new plants are springing up to take their places. A cross-section of the trunk of a dead tree, as large as any of those living, shows about fifty annual rings. There is no reason to suppose that the survivors are older. This station is said to have been known as early as 1846, at which date the ground where they stand was gra.s.sy and fertile. These trees, if standing at that time, must a.s.suredly have been in their infancy. The encroachment of the sea and subsequent change of conditions account well enough for the present decrepitude, but their general similarity in size and apparent age point rather to introduction than native growth.

South to Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana; west to Iowa, Kansas, and Texas.

=Habit.=--One of the Rhode Island trees measured 3 feet 11 inches girth at the base, and gradually tapered to a height of more than 40 feet (L.

W. Russell). The trees at New Haven are 15-20 feet in height, with a trunk diameter of 6-10 inches, trunk and limbs much twisted by the winds. Their branches, beginning to put out at a height of 6-8 feet, lie in almost horizontal planes, forming a roundish, open head.