Trees You Want to Know
By
DONALD CULROSS PEATTIE
Illustrations of the eastern trees from the classic “Sylva of North America” by Francois Andre Michaux; illustrations of western trees by Ethel Bonney Taylor.
COPYRIGHT 1934
WHITMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
RACINE, WISCONSIN
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
PREFACE
Every American wants to have at leasta speaking acquaintance with the treesthat make up our great national heritage,the unequalled forests of North America.The camper, the tramper, the woodsman,the gardener, the motorist, and the inquisitiveschool girl and boy, all wish toknow the names, the uses, and theranges of our native trees. There aremore than 400 tree species in NorthAmerica, north of Mexico, and in sosmall a book it is impossible to includeall. Species from every section of thecountry have been selected so that thislittle book is as serviceable near SanFrancisco as near New York, in Alaskaas in Georgia, and throughout Canada.
The names of trees are confusing tolearn only because lumbermen, farmers,foresters, guides, and botanists all havedifferent names for the same tree. Again,one name, like Bull Pine or Scrub Oak,may be applied to a dozen kinds of trees,in different regions. It has been thoughtbest in most cases to use only one name,chosen from the least provincial and mostliterate sources. The Latin names arethose now used at the great ArnoldArboretum, except in a few cases thatmight confuse the beginner.
Measurements and other characterizationsof trees in the text apply to maturegrowths of the season or to trees at theheight of their life cycle, not to earlyspring condition, nor to the appearanceof saplings or ancient, decrepit trees.Particularly the shape as described appliesto trees growing in the open. Undercrowded forest conditions all trees tendto have spindling outlines. At the limitsof their ranges many trees become mereshrubs. They develop most luxuriouslynear their centers of distribution.
CALIFORNIA NUTMEG
(Torreya californica)
Shape with a pyramidal head, becoming round topped in age, 15-90 ft. tall. Barksmoothish, thin, dark gray-brown, fissured into narrow ridges. Branchesspreading, slightly pendulous. Needles flat, scattered along the twigs, the undersidesmarked with two whitish lines. Fruit olive-like or plum-like, green becomingpurple-streaked, consisting in a fleshy aril in an open pit of which isburied the nutmeg-like seed. Range: n. Coast Ranges and central Sierra Nevadaof Calif. Of tree size only near the coast, this curious tree is unlike any other inAmerica except FLORIDA YEW (Torreya floridana) a little tree, rare in nw.Fla. with dark purple flesh on the fruit. PACIFIC YEW (Taxus brevifolia) hasshort, slender, yellowish-green needles and a scarlet fleshy coat around the seed.Alaska to Mont., and Sierra Nevada.