Speaker 1: Chapter two of Ten Common Trees. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: by John van stan Savannah, Georgia. Ten Common Trees by
Speaker 1: Susan Stokes, Chapter two, The American Elm. Did you ever
Speaker 1: think what a fine old teacher Winter is? You would
Speaker 1: like to be in his school? I know, for he
Speaker 1: teaches such interesting things. There are clouds learning to snow,
Speaker 1: brooks building roofs, partridges coloring their feathers, and blue birds
Speaker 1: being sent south. There are oaks and elms learning how
Speaker 1: not to be cold, and pines thickening their needles. How
Speaker 1: does he do it? He began with our elm, when
Speaker 1: it was only a straight, slim wand growing in the
Speaker 1: rich soil of a meadow. He came around in the
Speaker 1: early fall. The elm still had its pretty green leaves.
Speaker 1: He said, listen to me, I shall be coming soon.
Speaker 1: You should cover the ends of yours. It will soon
Speaker 1: be too cold for them. The little elm heard and
Speaker 1: stretched the scales around the bud so that they covered
Speaker 1: it all over, where too came together it put another
Speaker 1: over the place. You can see what they looked like,
Speaker 1: and the figures on page seventeen. Winter came again, with
Speaker 1: a colder snap than before. This time, he said, you
Speaker 1: should drop your leaves. It will be warmer without them.
Speaker 1: And again the little elm heard, and it dropped its
Speaker 1: leaves and found it warmer without. When winter finally came
Speaker 1: to stay, he could not get in, for the doors
Speaker 1: were safely barred. So he said, well done. That is
Speaker 1: the way they ought to be. There were others that
Speaker 1: did not so well, and with them he was severe.
Speaker 1: He nipped the ends of their twigs so that they
Speaker 1: did not grow again. That is the way trees are
Speaker 1: made hardy. Only the strongest can live. It is really
Speaker 1: strange that a slender twig scarcely larger than a straw,
Speaker 1: can keep alive in weather that will freeze a foot
Speaker 1: of ice on the pond. There are very many that
Speaker 1: do not. A large number do not survive the first year.
Speaker 1: All winter long, the little elm was just as still
Speaker 1: as could be. It rested and waited until the days
Speaker 1: grew longer and the nights were not very cold. Then
Speaker 1: the sap began the flow the twigs back of the
Speaker 1: buds filled up. The warm sun shone and the elm
Speaker 1: loosened the scales a little. Then the leaves came out.
Speaker 1: They were of a pale gray color, folded and plaited,
Speaker 1: and covered with down. The veins ran from the mid
Speaker 1: rib to the margin very evenly. These leaves grew longer
Speaker 1: and wider. They had a pointed tip and a saw
Speaker 1: toothed edge. The leaf stem or pettiole, was quite short,
Speaker 1: and one half of the oval blade was smaller than
Speaker 1: the other. They were about three inches long. The twigs
Speaker 1: and buds were bare and smooth, and the early leaf
Speaker 1: down was soon shed. The leaves spread out on either
Speaker 1: side of the stem like a feather. In this way
Speaker 1: the little elm showed that it was a white or
Speaker 1: American elm. Later its branches spread out like a great vase,
Speaker 1: and that is also a feature of the American elm.
Speaker 1: All summer long, it kept on growing. It pushed out
Speaker 1: its tip and added leaves, first one on one side
Speaker 1: of the stem and then one on the other. It
Speaker 1: started some twigs from the angles of last year's leaves,
Speaker 1: and looked much more like a tree than it had
Speaker 1: the year before. When the winter came the elm had
Speaker 1: a stout heart and a warm bark. It made winter
Speaker 1: buds through which the frost could not pierce. Then, too,
Speaker 1: it was in a sheltered place, and the wind did
Speaker 1: not sweep through its branches. In this way it grew.
Speaker 1: In the spring, it stretched its twigs into long branches.
Speaker 1: The rain washed it, the winds fanned it, and the
Speaker 1: earth fed it, and it became a tall, slender tree
Speaker 1: with graceful spreading arms. When the elm was several years
Speaker 1: old it flowered for the first time. It was in April,
Speaker 1: when spring cometh over the hills, her garments with morning sweet,
Speaker 1: the breath of a thousand rills, making music before her feet.
Speaker 1: This year, when the buds opened, it was not leaves
Speaker 1: that came out, but purplish tufts of tiny bells. Some
Speaker 1: of the bells had several clappers apiece. Some of them
Speaker 1: had none, but had instead two hairy arms purple in color.
Speaker 1: Some of them had both. These were the flowers of
Speaker 1: the elm. The purplish cup or bell was the cloak
Speaker 1: or calyx. The clappers the anthers filled with golden pollen dust.
Speaker 1: The hairy arms were the stigmas held up to catch
Speaker 1: the pollen born by the wind from another tree. People
Speaker 1: who have studied plants and trees for many years have
Speaker 1: found that the seed which grows when the flower uses
Speaker 1: its own pollen are weaker than the seed which grow
Speaker 1: when the pollen comes from another plant of the same
Speaker 1: kind and not from the flower's own anthers. They think
Speaker 1: that is the reason the elm flowers before the leaves
Speaker 1: come out. Can you see that the leaves would keep
Speaker 1: the wind from carrying in the other pollen. After the
Speaker 1: stigmas have caught the pollen, the fruit begins to grow.
Speaker 1: The fruit is the seed with whatever cloak may be
Speaker 1: wrapped about them in the elm. This cloak is flat
Speaker 1: and round and green. It looks like a green leaf,
Speaker 1: with a notch in the outer end and the fringe
Speaker 1: of hairs around the edge. The tiny cup of the
Speaker 1: flower is just below it, and the slender pedicil is
Speaker 1: about an inch long. In the center is a thickened part.
Speaker 1: Within this is the seed, and in the seed is
Speaker 1: the baby elm. Now can you tell me why it
Speaker 1: should have a wing a sail? It is that the
Speaker 1: wind may carry it away and plant it outside the
Speaker 1: shade of the mother tree. The white elms are among
Speaker 1: the most beautiful of the forest trees. They are often
Speaker 1: planted along streets, and their long branches meeting overhead form arches.
Speaker 1: There are several such streets in Newhaven, which is called
Speaker 1: the City of Elms. There are also many historic elms.
Speaker 1: The Washington Elm at Cambridge and the Old Elm at Pittsfield, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: are two of these. There is another near Philadelphia known
Speaker 1: as Penn's Treaty elm. Why do you think did it
Speaker 1: receive that name? A long time ago, before the Druids
Speaker 1: chose to worship only the oak, people would plant birth
Speaker 1: trees when the child was born, and the tree became
Speaker 1: a sort of household god. It was thought that bad
Speaker 1: luck would come to the child if anything happened to
Speaker 1: the tree. The elm was one of the favorite trees
Speaker 1: planted in this way. It was also planted in front
Speaker 1: of the churches. Almost all of the old churches in
Speaker 1: France have an elm, so planted the people thought that
Speaker 1: they brought good luck. There are other elm trees which
Speaker 1: are somewhat like the white elm. You may know them
Speaker 1: by their alternate leaves, one side of which is smaller
Speaker 1: than the other, and by the veins, which stand out
Speaker 1: like branching ridges. They have also a round, flat, winged fruit.
Speaker 1: One of these is the bread elm or slippery elm,
Speaker 1: which grows in rich soil on river banks or hillsides,
Speaker 1: but is also planted in cities. It looks as if
Speaker 1: it had once lived in a colder place, for its
Speaker 1: bud scales are lined with rusty wool, Its flowers and
Speaker 1: seeds are wooly, and even its twigs are downy. The
Speaker 1: leaves are from four to eight inches long. The inner
Speaker 1: bark is sticky when wet, giving it the name slippery elm.
Speaker 1: Some have a very thick, corky bark. The cork elm
Speaker 1: is of this kind. Its branches are not smooth and round,
Speaker 1: but swell out in a strange, irregular shapes. The winged
Speaker 1: elm has the cork arranged as a wing on either
Speaker 1: side of the stem. Its leaves are much shorter than
Speaker 1: those of the other elms. You will also find a
Speaker 1: great many Scotch and English elms. Neither of these are
Speaker 1: tall and erect like the American elm. The Scotch elm
Speaker 1: has spreading or drooping branches. The fruit has a shallow notch.
Speaker 1: It is not a native, though frequently planted. The English
Speaker 1: elm is hardly so flat topped as the last, but
Speaker 1: it branches more abruptly than the American elm. Its leaves
Speaker 1: are much smaller and of a darker color. If you
Speaker 1: look closely at an elm, you will find that it
Speaker 1: has insect guests. Some of them may be fat little
Speaker 1: grubs with white bodies, black dots and a black stripe.
Speaker 1: These are later transformed into white and green leaf beetles.
Speaker 1: The kanker worms are of several colors, but each has
Speaker 1: a yellowish stripe on the side and two white bands
Speaker 1: on the head. They often eat the tree quite bare.
Speaker 1: There are also some very large green caterpillars with saw
Speaker 1: like teeth down the back and white lines on the side.
Speaker 1: These become hawk bads later in the fall. Elms are
Speaker 1: subject to the attacks of webworms. The birds are a
Speaker 1: protection against the insects, and are on this account friends
Speaker 1: of the trees. The Baltimore oriole is especially fond of
Speaker 1: the elm, and its hanging nest is more often seen
Speaker 1: in that tree than in others. End of Chapter two
Speaker 1: recording by John van stan Savannah Georgia,