British trees and wild flowers.

Preface

We all of us appreciate the beauty which trees give to a landscape, but we do not all pay great attention to the growti) and habits of an individual tree. We know, perhaps, that the leaf of the horse-chestnut is large, while those of the oak and the elm are small. Even in winter, when there are no leaves on the trees to guide us, most of us know the difference between a walnut and a silver birch.

This book is meant to lead its reader just a little further still—to enable him not only to identify a tree by an examination of its leaves, but also by its shape, by the way in which the branches grow, by the roughness or the smoothness of its bark, and so on.

When once we interest ourselves in studying trees our love for them will quickly grow. We iv PREFACE.

shall want to know more and more about them: how, for example, the unopened leaves are sheltered in the bud; and what is the nature of the flowers, which, in large trees, are often small and easily passed by.

Trees are, to many of us, fully as interesting as animals, and the study of them is less difficult. We catch a glimpse of some wild creature for a moment, and would like to note its shape and colour and observe its habits; but it has seen us and has fled. Even wild flowers have this disadvantage, that they often die entirely away in winter and are seen no more till spring. But trees await us in their place at every season of the year. In summer their full foliage is displayed; in autumn we can note the rich tints of their fading leaves. And even in winter and in the chilliest days of early spring the buds are there, and we can study their slow progress day by day. ‘Trunk, branches, and bark are always to be seen. A tree may be to us the most faithful and interesting friend in all nature.

TORONTO COUN TCE NES. . THE ALDER . . THE Mountain ASH . . THE APPLE . . THE ASH . THE ASPEN . . THE BEECH . . THE SILVER BIRCH . [THE CEDAR OF LEBANON . [HE CHERRY

. THE HorsSE-CHESTNUT . THE COMMON ELM . [THE HAWTHORN .

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Contents

THE HAZEL .

THE LABURNUM .

‘THE LARCH .