Category: Science - Biology

Trees: A Woodland Notebook Containing Observations on Certain British and Exotic Trees

Sit here by me, where the most beaten track Runs through the forest--hundreds of huge oaks, Gnarled, older than the thrones of Europe. Look, What breadth, height, strength--torrents of eddying bark! Some hollow-hearted from exceeding age (That never be thy lot nor mine!)--and...

Chapters

8. Part 8

The rose has long disputed with the lily her claim to rank as Queen of Beauty, nor is the rivalry likely to be decided in favour of either so long as human tastes differ. Howbei...

11. Part 11

In many southern parts of the British Isles _Ailanthus glandulosa_ has attained forest stature; but it seems to require more sunshine than it can receive in the average Scottish...

12. Part 12

Now if these noble firs, instead of being scattered among trees of inferior height, were planted in close forest, so as to be drawn up with clean boles to a single leader, they...

2. Part 2

The native oaks of the English lake district and of the shores of Loch Lomond are all of the durmast variety; when opportunity occurs of obtaining seed from these it should not...

14. Part 14

Geologically the yew is of immense antiquity in this island; indeed, it grew in what is now the island of Britain before that was severed from the Continent, as is proved by its...

3. Part 3

There are seventeen species of beech native of South America and Australasia. These have now been classified as a distinct genus, _Nothofagus_, that is, southern beech. Two of t...

5. Part 5

The life period of the sycamore is a long one, probably three times that of the beech and equal to that of the oak. At Truns, in the Swiss Oberland, a great sycamore, already in...

7. Part 7

The peculiar value of this willow consists in its producing the only wood suitable for first-class cricket bats. Golf has threatened, but has not yet undermined, the supremacy o...

13. Part 13

The late Sir Joseph Hooker visited the cedar grove on Mount Lebanon in 1864, and found about 400 old trees producing plenty of seed, by which the forest would soon regenerate it...

9. Part 9

Hitherto British foresters have treated the wild cherry with unmerited neglect. Nobody thinks of planting geans, except here and there for ornament; nor is there any regular mar...

4. Part 4

Manna of various sorts is collected from many different kinds of plant; that which supported the Israelites in the desert is supposed to have been an exudation from the tamarisk...

10. Part 10

Pliny repeats, without comment, the statement by Pythagoras that the flowers of holly turn water into ice, and, further, that if a man throws a staff of holly at a beast, and mi...

6. Part 6

The true meaning of the prefix "horse," by which this tree is distinguished from the true or Spanish chestnut, has been the subject of much discussion. Apparently it was not app...

1. Part 1

Sit here by me, where the most beaten track Runs through the forest--hundreds of huge oaks, Gnarled, older than the thrones of Europe. Look, What breadth, height, strength--torr...

15. Part 15

The Redwood was first introduced to Great Britain about 1847, and has proved fairly hardy if protected from frost in the seedling stage. It is, however, impatient of wind exposu...