Speaker 1: Chapter five 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
Speaker 1: five the birch tree. At first it was only a
Speaker 1: tiny tree with two little leaves lifted up to the light.
Speaker 1: They were very little leaves, but they sifted the sunlight,
Speaker 1: made food for the roots, and gave back to the
Speaker 1: clouds the water the roots had found in the soil.
Speaker 1: Of course, the sunlight helped them, and so when the
Speaker 1: breeze passed by, they would sing in rustling voices, Oh, Sun, Sun,
Speaker 1: beautiful sun. When the sun sank behind the hills in
Speaker 1: the west and the stars came out, the little tree
Speaker 1: went to sleep, and an owl in the great tree
Speaker 1: near by kept watch, saying whoo oohoo. One morning the
Speaker 1: sky was gray and the rain fell in torrents. Oh
Speaker 1: what can the matter be? What is all this? Said
Speaker 1: the little tree. This this is rain. We need it,
Speaker 1: said the big tree, and his leaves slip slipped against
Speaker 1: each other. Then the sun came out and the leaves
Speaker 1: worked so busily that the little tree grew apace. After
Speaker 1: a while it grew so cold that the young tree shivered.
Speaker 1: Why is it so cold, it asked of the tall tree.
Speaker 1: Winter is coming. Drop your leaves, said the great tree.
Speaker 1: Then there came a gust of wind which carried away
Speaker 1: the young trees leaves. Oh my leaves, my pretty leaves,
Speaker 1: Where are they going? It cried. But soon it found
Speaker 1: it was warmer without the leaves, and so it did
Speaker 1: not regret them. Fortunately, it was not very cold there
Speaker 1: at the willow's feet. When spring came again, it put
Speaker 1: out some more leaf. The bark upon the stem grew
Speaker 1: smooth and shiny, and was marked with short horizontal lines,
Speaker 1: without any knots or uneven places. Near the tip, it
Speaker 1: was downy, as is the way with birches. One day
Speaker 1: a tall young Indian passed by. He was straight as
Speaker 1: an arrow, and tall like the pine tree. He crossed
Speaker 1: over to a big tree, saying, give me of your
Speaker 1: bark o birch tree, of your yellow bark o birch
Speaker 1: tree growing by the rushing river, tall and stately in
Speaker 1: the valley. I A light canoe will build me build
Speaker 1: a swift chiemund for sailing, that shall float upon the
Speaker 1: river like a yellow leaf in autumn, like a yellow
Speaker 1: water lily. Then the tree made answer, take my cloak,
Speaker 1: o Hiawatha. Then Hiawatha stripped the tree of its smooth,
Speaker 1: tough bark, and in the valley by the river, made
Speaker 1: his birch canoe and launched it. Then he came again.
Speaker 1: This time from his pouch, he took his colors, took
Speaker 1: his paints of different colors. On the smooth bark of
Speaker 1: a birch tree painted many shapes and figures. Of course,
Speaker 1: our young tree could not know their meaning, but it
Speaker 1: would have liked to have him put upon its bark
Speaker 1: some songs of war and songs of hunting. Across the
Speaker 1: river from the little tree there stood a great birch tree.
Speaker 1: In the spring, its branches were tipped with long, drooping tails.
Speaker 1: In the winter there were brown cones upon its bare boughs.
Speaker 1: The young birch wished to have some of these strange fruits,
Speaker 1: so it asked the old tree what it should do.
Speaker 1: You must begin in the fall, said the old tree,
Speaker 1: make some long conelike winter buds. In the spring they
Speaker 1: will open and become these drooping yellow tails. The young
Speaker 1: tree listened, and in the fall it made some great
Speaker 1: long buds Figure one, and covered them over with thick
Speaker 1: scales bracts. Under each heavy scale there were several thin scales.
Speaker 1: In each of these were two small balls full of
Speaker 1: yellow powder. They were fastened in place by a filament
Speaker 1: which forked Figure two. During April sunny days, the tail
Speaker 1: like buds grew long and feathery, and the yellow pollen
Speaker 1: floated away, But still there were no black cones. Again,
Speaker 1: the young tree asked, what shall I do that I
Speaker 1: may have cones. The old tree replied, oh, you can
Speaker 1: make these in the spring. Instead of making so many
Speaker 1: large leaves, Take some of your buds and do with
Speaker 1: them as I tell you. So, the young birch took
Speaker 1: some young twigs, such as it had been making into
Speaker 1: leaves on a stem not more than an inch long
Speaker 1: Figure three B. It crowded almost one hundred tiny, three
Speaker 1: lobed bracts Figure four A. In front of each one
Speaker 1: were three three little bodies, nearly round and quite flat,
Speaker 1: for they were crowded. These were the pistols. Each had
Speaker 1: two curved arms at the top. They caught the yellow
Speaker 1: pollen dust which the wind carried about figure four. Be
Speaker 1: it made them grow not very large, but as large
Speaker 1: as the bract back of them. Figure four c. What
Speaker 1: shall I do now, asked the young tree? Wait until winter?
Speaker 1: Then shake them out, and the wind will carry them
Speaker 1: away and plant them. What four? Have you forgotten that
Speaker 1: you were once a tiny seed, and that the wind
Speaker 1: dropped you among the willows? There you fell from one
Speaker 1: of my cones. Was not the little tree? Glad to
Speaker 1: know this, Glad to have been a part of that
Speaker 1: great and beautiful tree. Her cones grew larger and thicker.
Speaker 1: Figure five. The little seeds were strong and healthy, and
Speaker 1: when they were ripe, the wind scattered them far and wide.
Speaker 1: Would you like to be a birch tree and learn
Speaker 1: to make soft catkins and winged seed? How may you
Speaker 1: tell the birches apart? You must look at the bark,
Speaker 1: the leaves, and the droop of the branches. They are
Speaker 1: alike in their flowers and fruit. Have you seen a
Speaker 1: tree with white bark in long hanging branches, a tree
Speaker 1: with branches so slender that they scarcely cast a shadow.
Speaker 1: This airy tree, with its flicker of green and white,
Speaker 1: is a gray or white birch Fig. Six. Its bark
Speaker 1: has the horizontal markings peculiar to the birches. There are
Speaker 1: dark spots below the leaf scars, and the leaf is notched.
Speaker 1: The notches are not so deep, however, as those of
Speaker 1: its relative, the European white birch Fig. Seven. The yellow
Speaker 1: birch is easily recognized by the yellow hue of the bark,
Speaker 1: but it was not from the bark of the yellow
Speaker 1: birch that canoes were made. The paper or canoe birch
Speaker 1: has bark that easily separates in layers, and it was
Speaker 1: from this that the Indians made their canoes. The white
Speaker 1: color of the trunk is more conspicuous than that of
Speaker 1: the gray birch, but it lacks the brown patches, and
Speaker 1: the branches do not droop. The white birch is not
Speaker 1: a tall tree. The paper birch frequently becomes tall, and
Speaker 1: its bark is unbroken for some distance upon the trunk.
Speaker 1: The leaf is shown in Figure eight. The western birch
Speaker 1: from which the drawings were taken is a small tree.
Speaker 1: Its twigs are very glandular, that is, they are rough
Speaker 1: and sticky. This character it shares with some of the
Speaker 1: Eastern forms. The young stems are often downy. The alders
Speaker 1: are closely related to the birches. The leaves and cones
Speaker 1: look much alike. The difference is in the stamens. The
Speaker 1: little stalk holding the anther is forked in the birches,
Speaker 1: but is distinct to the base in the alders. References
Speaker 1: Song of Hiawatha Longfellow, Hiawatha's sailing picture Writing the Birch
Speaker 1: Tree Lowell, an Indian summer Reverie Lowell, end of chapter
Speaker 1: five