Speaker 1: Chapter three of Ten Common Trees. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: by Kimberly Sassen. Ten Common Trees by Susan Stokes, Chapter three,
Speaker 1: The apple tree? Have you plucked the apple blossoms in
Speaker 1: the spring? In the spring and caught their subtle odors
Speaker 1: in the spring? Pink buds pouting at the light, crumpled petals,
Speaker 1: baby white, just to touch them a delight in the spring,
Speaker 1: William Martin. If you live in a large city, you
Speaker 1: may not know the apple tree. In winter it is
Speaker 1: a short, reddish tree with a flat or rounded top.
Speaker 1: Its stout, thick branches are irregular and rigid. In spring
Speaker 1: it is a white tree. Its large clusters of white
Speaker 1: and pink flowers look like short stemmed booms, with the
Speaker 1: margin of leaves below. In the fall it is a
Speaker 1: green tree. That is the season we like it best,
Speaker 1: for then it bears its apples of red and gold.
Speaker 1: The poet Bryant has written the following upon planting the
Speaker 1: apple tree. He says, what plant we in the apple tree?
Speaker 1: Buds which the breath of summer days shall lengthen into
Speaker 1: leafy spray bows, where the thrush with crimson breast shall
Speaker 1: haunt and sing and hide her nest. We plant upon
Speaker 1: the sunny lee a shadow for the noontide hour, a
Speaker 1: shelter from the summer shower. When we plant the apple tree,
Speaker 1: I will show you first its twigs. They are marked
Speaker 1: with the scars of last year's leaves. Just where they
Speaker 1: join the branch are some circular scars very close together.
Speaker 1: They mark the place of last year's bud scales Figures
Speaker 1: one and two. Last year it grew from the circular
Speaker 1: scars to the bud. If you look farther back on
Speaker 1: the stem, you will find some more scars like these.
Speaker 1: Each set marks the place of a winter bud, and
Speaker 1: you can tell the age of the branch by counting
Speaker 1: from winter bud to winter bud a year for each space.
Speaker 1: The buds are of two kinds, leaf buds and flower buds.
Speaker 1: The leaf buds are usually single, the flower buds in clusters.
Speaker 1: They are no larger than the stem. The scales cover
Speaker 1: the end of the twig. They are short scales, and
Speaker 1: around the edge of each is soft, fine wool to
Speaker 1: keep the tender inner part warm. The twigs are also downy.
Speaker 1: With the warm air, come the apple blossoms, budding, blowing
Speaker 1: in the soft may air, cups with sunshine, overflowing flakes
Speaker 1: of fragrance, drifting, snowing, showering everywhere. Let us see what
Speaker 1: these flowers can tell us. They will speak to our eyes,
Speaker 1: not our ears. Fig. Three. Here is a flower. It says,
Speaker 1: I have a round white face. I have a yellow center.
Speaker 1: Look behind and you will see that I am attached
Speaker 1: to the tree by a slender stalk where it joins
Speaker 1: the flower. It is thick and round, like a bud.
Speaker 1: The calyx will say, I am the outside part of
Speaker 1: my flower. I help to keep it warm. I have
Speaker 1: five green sepals covered with down. They are closed over
Speaker 1: the whole flower in the bud. My petals help too,
Speaker 1: says the corolla. They keep the stamens and pistols warm
Speaker 1: in the bud and tell the bees where to come
Speaker 1: for honey. They are broad and white on the inside,
Speaker 1: but red as a rose on the outside, And then
Speaker 1: the stamens. We stand in a circle. There are about
Speaker 1: thirty of us. Each of us has a slender body,
Speaker 1: and a yellow head. The head is full of pollen.
Speaker 1: What is pollen? Pollen is a yellow powder which helps
Speaker 1: to make the seed grow. Just in the center are
Speaker 1: five green arms with sticky tips. What can they tell us?
Speaker 1: We catch the pollen. We are part of the pistol.
Speaker 1: The pistol holds the seed. Where down under the flower
Speaker 1: it has five little rooms. In each are some very
Speaker 1: young seeds which will grow when they get the pollen
Speaker 1: Figures four and five. Down at the base of the
Speaker 1: stamens and style, there is some honey for the bees.
Speaker 1: The bees visit the trees for this honey, bringing in
Speaker 1: pollen from other flowers and taking some away. In this way,
Speaker 1: the flowers do not always use their own pollen. But
Speaker 1: I think the leaf tells the best story of all.
Speaker 1: This is what it says. All winter long I lived
Speaker 1: in the bud. There were a great many of us,
Speaker 1: and we were so closely packed that it was warm
Speaker 1: and cozy. One day the scales about us loosened and
Speaker 1: a whiff of fresh air reached us. It was so
Speaker 1: good we all crowded out and stretched into the light.
Speaker 1: Then I found out what I was like. I had
Speaker 1: a broad green blade, a slender stem, and at the
Speaker 1: base of that two little ears stipules. My blade was
Speaker 1: fine and crisp, for it had a great many veins
Speaker 1: to hold it out. One in the middle was the
Speaker 1: mid rib, and there were several to each side. Did
Speaker 1: you know that these veins bring me water from the ground.
Speaker 1: I use the water and make starch and sugar. Then
Speaker 1: I send some of the sugar back to the roots
Speaker 1: in return for the water they send me. They are
Speaker 1: always in the ground and never get out to look
Speaker 1: at the sun or feel the wind. If the leaves
Speaker 1: did not send them food, they would starve. We make
Speaker 1: the food in the apple too. The wind is very
Speaker 1: cold when I first come out, so the under side
Speaker 1: of my blade is covered with yellow wool that keeps
Speaker 1: the cold air from entering at my breathing holes. Leaves
Speaker 1: need air just as you do, and they take it
Speaker 1: in through tiny holes on the underside of the leaf.
Speaker 1: After the pollen falls upon the sticky stigmas, the round
Speaker 1: part below the flower begins to grow, and it grows
Speaker 1: into an apple. But you know apples so well that
Speaker 1: you will be able to tell me all about them.
Speaker 1: They have a smooth skin and are sunk at both ends.
Speaker 1: The stem is at one end and the remains of
Speaker 1: the calyx at the other. Fig. Six. There are still
Speaker 1: five rooms in the center with the seed. The walls
Speaker 1: of the rooms are tough, and the mother tree has
Speaker 1: stored away a lot of food. Between these walls and
Speaker 1: the skin, you see, the apple is intended to be
Speaker 1: a winter home for the seed. When spring comes, the
Speaker 1: apples have become soft and the seed have a nice
Speaker 1: place to begin to grow. Wild apples do not have
Speaker 1: so much food stored in the wall. The food also
Speaker 1: attracts birds so that they carry the seed away. Each
Speaker 1: seed contains a baby apple tree and has a brown
Speaker 1: and shiny coat. You do not find the tree. The
Speaker 1: hard white kernel is the young tree. How do we
Speaker 1: know by the fact that the kernel swells up and
Speaker 1: grows into a little tree. The coat cracks and the
Speaker 1: two leaves are pushed out, while the short stem is
Speaker 1: lengthened into a root. The young plant packed away in
Speaker 1: the sea is called an embryo. Shall I tell you
Speaker 1: the story of some wonderful apples, the apples of the
Speaker 1: garden of Eden. There was once a beautiful garden. It
Speaker 1: was away to the east, All sorts of fruits and
Speaker 1: flowers grew in this garden, and there lived in it
Speaker 1: a man, Adam and his wife. There was one tree
Speaker 1: of the fruit, of which they were forbidden to eat.
Speaker 1: If they did, they would surely die. It stood in
Speaker 1: the middle of the garden. There was also in the
Speaker 1: garden a beautiful but an evil serpent. It told Eve
Speaker 1: that if she ate, she would not die, but would
Speaker 1: be as the gods were, knowing good from evil. Then
Speaker 1: Eve ate of the fruit, and Adam also ate, and
Speaker 1: they knew good from evil. But the one who had
Speaker 1: placed them in the garden was angry and drove them forth.
Speaker 1: And he placed at the east of the garden of
Speaker 1: Eden cherubim and flaming sword, which turned every way to
Speaker 1: keep the way of the Tree of life up. In
Speaker 1: Norway and Iceland, Theirs told the story of Iduna and
Speaker 1: her golden apples. Duna was a beautiful goddess who had
Speaker 1: charge of some wonderful apples, apples that made all who
Speaker 1: ate of them young and happy. The gods ate of
Speaker 1: these apples and remained young, and the earth was always green.
Speaker 1: But there was one, the evil god Loki, who thought
Speaker 1: he would like to see the world grow cold and old.
Speaker 1: He persuaded Iduna to go with him to see some
Speaker 1: wonderful apples that grew outside the city gate. There she
Speaker 1: was stolen way by a giant from Jodenheim. Then the
Speaker 1: world grew cold and the gods grew gray. They mourned
Speaker 1: for Iduna. If you do not bring her back, we
Speaker 1: will kill you, said they to Loki. So he went
Speaker 1: to the home of the giant and rescued her. When
Speaker 1: Adunah came back, winter was driven away. The gods ate
Speaker 1: once more of the golden apples and grew young. The
Speaker 1: earth was fair, and the flowers bloomed again. When the
Speaker 1: children of Greece lay in the shade, resting from their games,
Speaker 1: they were told the story of the golden apples of Hesperites. Hercules,
Speaker 1: the strong son of Jupiter, was commanded to bring them
Speaker 1: to his cousin, whom he served. The apples had been
Speaker 1: given to Hera, the Queen of Heaven, at the time
Speaker 1: of her marriage to Zeus. They were guarded by the
Speaker 1: daughters of Atlas, he who bore the weight of the
Speaker 1: heavens on his shoulders. Hercules sought them far and wide.
Speaker 1: At last he came to Atlas in a Africa. He
Speaker 1: thought that Atlas must know where they were. If anyone
Speaker 1: did so, he sent him to seek the apples, and
Speaker 1: took upon his own shoulders the burden. This was one
Speaker 1: of the seven labors of Hercules. You observe that the
Speaker 1: apple is a fleshy fruit with the seed in horny cavities.
Speaker 1: Such a fruit is called a poem. There are other
Speaker 1: fleshy fruits which have a single bony stone in the center,
Speaker 1: like the peach and cherry. They are then called droops.
Speaker 1: The nearest relatives of the apple bare poems. Many of
Speaker 1: the others bear droops. In this way we can divide
Speaker 1: them into two groups. Those which bear poems are the pear,
Speaker 1: quince and crab apple. The wild crab apple tree is
Speaker 1: small and has beautiful pink blossoms. The fruit is small
Speaker 1: and sour. It is sunken at both ends and is
Speaker 1: about an inch in diameter. The pear tree differs from
Speaker 1: the apple tree in not being flat topped, and in
Speaker 1: being taller than broad. The flowers are white with purple
Speaker 1: anthers and are without scent. The pears are sunken at
Speaker 1: one end only, and the stem end is smaller. The
Speaker 1: trees are often thorny. The quint's tree has broader leaves.
Speaker 1: The flowers are not in clusters, but solitary and of
Speaker 1: a white or rose color. The large yellow fruit is
Speaker 1: hard and sour and is sunken at the flower end
Speaker 1: Figure eight. There are many seeds in each cavity, and
Speaker 1: these become covered with jelly when soaked in water. The
Speaker 1: tree has a crooked stem with rambling branches. The trees
Speaker 1: which bear droops are the peach, plum and cherry. Peach
Speaker 1: trees are thought to have been derived from almond trees
Speaker 1: and to have been changed by cultivation. They bloom early,
Speaker 1: ere ever the first bee, hummoth or woodland wild flower blows.
Speaker 1: They have large pink flowers, long narrow leaves, a downy fruit,
Speaker 1: and a ring stone. The plum trees usually have smaller flowers,
Speaker 1: and the fruit has a bloom that is a thin
Speaker 1: wax coat which can be rubbed off. The stone is flattened.
Speaker 1: The trees are often thorny. The pistol is single, with
Speaker 1: a single room in the lower part. This is also
Speaker 1: the case with the cherry and plum Fig. Nine. Cherry
Speaker 1: trees have smooth fruits without bloom and with a roundish stone.
Speaker 1: The cherries are born in umbuls or in racemes, that is,
Speaker 1: on an elongated axis. For cherry blossoms, Japan surpasses all
Speaker 1: other places. The cherry trees are cultivated for the flowers,
Speaker 1: and when the trees are in bloom, people go long
Speaker 1: distances to see the finest groves. It is called the
Speaker 1: Festival of the cherry blossoms. Both the apple and the
Speaker 1: cherry have many cousins, one which you know well. The
Speaker 1: wild rose, has given its name to the whole family.
Speaker 1: Look at this figure and see if you can tell
Speaker 1: why the apple belongs to the rose family. Fig. Ten.
Speaker 1: It is because it has broad petals and many stamens,
Speaker 1: all of which are born in a circle upon the
Speaker 1: green outer cup or calyx. Do you know of any
Speaker 1: family to which we owe more than to the rose family?
Speaker 1: References the wild apples, the row peach blossoms, Bayard Taylor
Speaker 1: apple blossoms, Lucy larcom planting of the apple tree, Bryant,
Speaker 1: the little red apple tree, Riley apple blossoms, Alice E. Allen,
Speaker 1: Primary Education, May eighteen ninety nine. Three trees, Charles crandall
Speaker 1: Primary Education, April eighteen ninety eight, end of chapter three,