Speaker 1: Chapter four of Ten Common Trees. This is a LibriVox recording.
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
Speaker 1: by Kimberly Sawsen. Ten Common Trees by Susan Stokes, Chapter four.
Speaker 1: The horse chestnut under the greenwood tree, who loves to
Speaker 1: lie with me and tuned his merry. Note unto the
Speaker 1: sweet bird's throat, The horse chestnut is not an American tree.
Speaker 1: Shall I tell you how it comes to be here?
Speaker 1: Long ago? You know, America belonged to the Indians. They
Speaker 1: built their wigwams, wore war paint and feathers, and wandered
Speaker 1: wherever they liked. There were native plants and animals as
Speaker 1: well as native Indians, and they too, spread everywhere over
Speaker 1: hill and vale. The beaver built in many brooks, and
Speaker 1: the wild grass perfumed the air. But when the Englishmen
Speaker 1: and the Frenchmen came over, they brought with them grains
Speaker 1: and fruits and domestic animals. So the Indian pink and
Speaker 1: the wild flower were plowed under that the white man
Speaker 1: might have a wheat field. The murmuring pines and the
Speaker 1: hemlocks made way for apple and vine, and the tame
Speaker 1: duck swam in the wild ducks pools. Now only those
Speaker 1: trees are native, which were growing here before the white
Speaker 1: men came. All the others are introduced. The horse chestnut
Speaker 1: is one of these. It is thought it came to
Speaker 1: Europe from Asia. There its nuts had been used as
Speaker 1: food for horses, as they still are in Turkey. On
Speaker 1: this account, and because they look like the sweet brown chestnuts,
Speaker 1: they are called horse chestnuts. In southern Europe they are
Speaker 1: fed to sheep, cattle and poultry, while in Ireland they
Speaker 1: are used in the bleaching of linen. So you see,
Speaker 1: the horse chestnut may be a very useful tree, although
Speaker 1: in America it is more often planted simply as an ornament.
Speaker 1: The horse chestnut, like all the trees we have so
Speaker 1: far studied, drops its leaves in the fall and spends
Speaker 1: the winter in its trunk. When the cold wind howls
Speaker 1: outside and says, ho, ho, are you there? Let me in,
Speaker 1: the tree says no, No, don't you dare You can't
Speaker 1: come in, And he can't, for how could he make
Speaker 1: his way through the rough, dark bark. The gateways are
Speaker 1: through the winter buds. But the tree thought of that.
Speaker 1: When he made the buds. He said to himself, I'll
Speaker 1: get all my leaves ready to come out at once
Speaker 1: in the springtime Figure one. But how shall I keep
Speaker 1: them from taking cold during the winter? So he thought
Speaker 1: and thought, and then he wrapped them all together in
Speaker 1: a thick coat of cotton, and over the outside put
Speaker 1: oh so many scales. The inner ones were green, and
Speaker 1: the outer ones brown and shiny. Said the tree to himself,
Speaker 1: I'll boat them with resins, so neither the snow nor
Speaker 1: the rain can get in. And he coated them over
Speaker 1: with shiny brown and laughed to think how cozy they'd be.
Speaker 1: Then he dropped the leaflets one by one, and last
Speaker 1: of all the stem to which they had clung on
Speaker 1: the brown branch. Where they fell were deep scars, shaped
Speaker 1: like a horseshoe, and with a row of dots around
Speaker 1: the edge, like the nails of the shoe. Figure two.
Speaker 1: He went to sleep now as snug as a bug
Speaker 1: in a rug, and waked only when the wind shook
Speaker 1: his head and threatened to tear him to pieces. When
Speaker 1: spring drew near, the warm south wind came softly and
Speaker 1: whispered in his ear, Wake up, wake up, The robins
Speaker 1: are here. So the horse Chestnut loosened his buds Figure three,
Speaker 1: and spread them out more and more, till only the
Speaker 1: last green cotton cover lid was left. Then he cracked that.
Speaker 1: And what do you think He pushed through the crack
Speaker 1: a cluster of tiny wooly hands, just as woolly as
Speaker 1: they could be, softer and a baby's be it three
Speaker 1: days old. Did he call them hands? Oh no, he said,
Speaker 1: these are my leaves. I made them last summer, after
Speaker 1: my flowers fell. But they had five or seven fingers.
Speaker 1: They were flat and were folded over and platted together
Speaker 1: like a fan. When they spread out, you found that
Speaker 1: they were broader near the tip than at the base Fig. Four,
Speaker 1: and were very wooly underneath. They came out very quickly,
Speaker 1: all at once, and turned the tree quite green in
Speaker 1: a single day. When these grew larger, he didn't make
Speaker 1: even another one, but began at once to make ready
Speaker 1: for the next winter, making a new winter bud. It
Speaker 1: must be that is the reason it's so large, growing
Speaker 1: all summer long. There was something else in the bud,
Speaker 1: just in the center, a great number of tiny green balls.
Speaker 1: They grew and grew, and at last we knew they
Speaker 1: must to be flower buds. But they were so long
Speaker 1: coming out, they were not ready till June, the month
Speaker 1: when every clod feels a stir of might, an instinct
Speaker 1: within it that reaches in towers and groping blindly above
Speaker 1: it for light, climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.
Speaker 1: Out they came. Each separate branch was crowned with a
Speaker 1: great spire of buds, a giant nosegay. Some people even
Speaker 1: called it a hyacinth tree because its blossoms were so
Speaker 1: close and so fragrant page forty one. This great cone
Speaker 1: of flowers is called a thyrsus. The in flowers bloom first,
Speaker 1: said the tree, and then the side buds push their
Speaker 1: way out beyond them and take their turn in the sunlight.
Speaker 1: Of course, both my flowers and leaves must get the sunshine.
Speaker 1: Have you seen how my leaves peep out between each other,
Speaker 1: so that none are in the shade. But oh, the flowers,
Speaker 1: they were gorgeous. Each flower had a bright white party
Speaker 1: dress of its own. On the outside. There was first
Speaker 1: a little green cup, just a little spring jacket, you know,
Speaker 1: to be worn in the springtime. Inside of this was
Speaker 1: a dainty white dress dotted with yellow and purple. It
Speaker 1: had five deep scallops on the edge. Even Solomon, in
Speaker 1: all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.
Speaker 1: Of course, everything that went by saw the beautiful white
Speaker 1: dresses and wondered what they were for. But the tree knew,
Speaker 1: for he had his invitations all ready for a great party.
Speaker 1: He sent out a sweet odor on the breeze, and
Speaker 1: every bee and bumblebee that passed knew that the tree
Speaker 1: was saying, come to see me, Come to see me.
Speaker 1: I have something for you. Come to see me here.
Speaker 1: I am over here the tree with the white flowers,
Speaker 1: And every one of them that received an invitation went
Speaker 1: at once. Each flew to a flower and put his
Speaker 1: tongue straight into a honeypot. Fig. Five. How did he
Speaker 1: find it? On each one of those white petals, tiny
Speaker 1: lines and dots pointed to it, and so the bee
Speaker 1: found it. They are called insect guides. Do you see
Speaker 1: those stamens of mine? Said the tree. They have pockets
Speaker 1: full of gold in their heads. When the bees stood
Speaker 1: upon them, it jarred them a little, And when they
Speaker 1: flew away they were just loaded with pollen dust, but
Speaker 1: the bee did not mind. He flew straight to another
Speaker 1: flower for more honey. As he lighted, there was a
Speaker 1: little green bud standing out from a circle of stamens
Speaker 1: which held their heads low. Fig. Six. It was the
Speaker 1: head of a pistol, and of course the bee bumped
Speaker 1: right into it. On he went after the honey, but
Speaker 1: the pistol was left crowned with a gold dust he carried.
Speaker 1: Then I looked closer and found that wherever the pistol
Speaker 1: held its head high, the stamens drooped theirs. And when
Speaker 1: the pistol had been crowned for several days, then the
Speaker 1: stamens lifted up their heads, opened their pockets, and scattered
Speaker 1: the dust for some other flower. What's this, said I,
Speaker 1: Some of your flowers have no pistols. Oh dear, no,
Speaker 1: said the tree. If I had as many pistols as
Speaker 1: I have flowers, I should be overloaded with burrs in
Speaker 1: the fall. I waited to see what this could mean,
Speaker 1: and until the petals faded and fell Figure eight. And
Speaker 1: the tree was full and green, a very dark green,
Speaker 1: with the broad leaf faces spread out to the sun.
Speaker 1: When I looked, I found that the wooly pistol had
Speaker 1: been growing larger and larger, and was covered over with
Speaker 1: short prickles. Later I saw it fall to the ground
Speaker 1: a prickly burr it was, be sure. Some cattle sniffed it,
Speaker 1: but not one was brave enough to try opening it.
Speaker 1: That's what the prickles are for, said the tree, And
Speaker 1: he really thought the ugly hooks were a pretty fine
Speaker 1: coat to make for his seed. As it lay on
Speaker 1: the ground, the hard shell grew dry, and then it
Speaker 1: popped open in three places, three doors, to let out
Speaker 1: the shiny brown seed with its great eye. It looks
Speaker 1: so like the yellow eyed chestnuts that I was tempted
Speaker 1: to eat it, but I didn't, for I knew it
Speaker 1: was very bitter. Fig. Nine. Although the horse chestnut is
Speaker 1: not a native of America, it has some native cousins,
Speaker 1: which are called buckeyes. The Ohio buckeye is well known.
Speaker 1: It has a very disagreeable odor. The leaves are opposite
Speaker 1: and palmate. There are from five to seven leaflets which
Speaker 1: are broad as near the middle, and its burr is prickly.
Speaker 1: The greenish flowers are not so handsome as those of
Speaker 1: the horse chestnut. The yellow buckeye or sweet buckeye is
Speaker 1: so called because it does not have the disagreeable odor
Speaker 1: common to the others. It grows from thirty to ninety
Speaker 1: feet high. The leaf pleets are broadest near the middle,
Speaker 1: and the long, narrow flowers are yellow with a deep
Speaker 1: green cup at the base. The burr is rough but
Speaker 1: not prickly. Figures ten, A, B, C, and D references
Speaker 1: something in a pastoral line. Lowell the horse chestnut Harper's Magazine,
Speaker 1: Volume seventy four, Fertilization of Flowers, Miller, end of chapter
Speaker 1: four