. Our native trees and how to identify them; a popular study of their habits and their peculiarities. Trees. BEECH FAMILY. A Staminate an^ a Pistillate Flower of the Beech ; en- larged. becoming brown on young trees often cling to the branches all win- ter. When the leaves first appear in the spring they are heavily charged with acid juice. Petioles short, slightly grooved, hairy. Stipules caducous. Flowers.—April, when leaves are one- third grown. Staminate borne in globose heads an inch in diameter on slender hairy peduncles, the staminate flowers are yel- lowish green and consist of a bell-
. Our native trees and how to identify them; a popular study of their habits and their peculiarities. Trees. BEECH FAMILY. A Staminate an^ a Pistillate Flower of the Beech ; en- larged. becoming brown on young trees often cling to the branches all win- ter. When the leaves first appear in the spring they are heavily charged with acid juice. Petioles short, slightly grooved, hairy. Stipules caducous. Flowers.—April, when leaves are one- third grown. Staminate borne in globose heads an inch in diameter on slender hairy peduncles, the staminate flowers are yel- lowish green and consist of a bell-shaped four to seven-lobed calyx, corolla wanting, stamens eight to ten, inserted on the calyx ; filaments white, slender, exserted ; anthers green, oblong, introrse, two-celled; cells opening longitudinally; ovary wanting. Pistillate flowers are borne in two-flowered clusters from the axils of the upper leaves surrounded by numerous awl-shaped bractlets. They consist of an urn-shaped calyx, tube three-angled, adnate to, ovary ; limb four to five-lobed, corolla wanting, stamens wanting ; ovary Inferior, three-celled, styles three, slender, exserted ; ovules two in each cell. The Inner bracts In time become the fruiting invol- ucre. When full grown this is dark green covered with prickles ; In autumn it becomes light brown, the prickles strongly recurved ; it is opened by the first severe frosts and remains on the branch after the nuts have fallen. Fruit.—Nut, triangular, pale chestnut brown, three-fourths of an inch long. Seed is sweet. It is believed that a beech must be fully forty years old before it fruits. We sometimes think that the birds are the first heralds of the spring, but it is not so. Vegetation sleeps like a dog, with one eye open, and no sooner has the sun turned from his southern course than nature in all her myriad buds watches for his coming. There are signs of spring to the wise before a blue wing has beat toward the north or a robin 380. Please note tha
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1912
