Garden Scaping

The Elm most frequently seen is the Small-leaved Elm (Ulmus campestris), which is therefore entitled to its alternative name of Common Elm. Constantly grown as a hedgerow tree, it meets us at every turn, though it is much less plentiful in Scotland than in other parts of the United Kingdom. It is in all respects very similar to the Wych Elm, but its leaves are smaller-usually from two to three inches long, the twigs often covered with a corky bark, and the seed, instead of being in the centre of the samara, is much nearer to the notched end. The leaves are proportionately narrower than those of montana; and it will be found that the hairs which cover the midrib below possess in minor degree the irritating qualities of the Nettle’s stings. This is a fact not generally known, but I became painfully aware of it a few years ago when clearing away the suckers of an Elm that were encroaching too much upon my garden border. Examination of these hairs shows that they are constructed much on the same plan as those of the NettIe-a member of the same Natural Order, by the way. The fact that these leaves are browsed by cattle and deer may explain this development of the hairs, which, whilst they may serve to keep off sheep, have not yet reached a degree of acridity sufficient to protect them from the larger beasts. Both flowers and samaras are about a third smaller than those of montana ” but seed is very seldom produced in this country, and the tree seeks to reproduce itself by throwing up abundant suckers round the base of the bole, and even from root-branches at a considerable distance from the trunk. These, of course, if allowed to grow, would soon surround the tree with copse.

Campestris often attains a greater height with its straighter trunk than montana, but its girth is not so great, seldom being more than twenty feet. Its dark wood is harder and finer grained than that produced by the native tree. Its favor as a hedgerow tree is probably due to the fact that it gives shade which is not obnoxious to the growth of grass.

Both species are subject to a great amount of variation, and in nurserymen’s catalogues these forms have appropriate names, but they are not regarded as of sufficient permanence to merit scientific distinction. In point of age-Elms are known to exceed five hundred years.

Among the insects that feed upon the Elm’s foliage, the most noteworthy is the caterpillar of the fine Large Tortoiseshell Butterfly (Vanessa polychloros). I have already mentioned the relationship subsisting between Elms and Nettles, and it is a point worth noting that nearly all our native species of Vanessa feed in the larval state upon the leaves of the Nettle. In London parks and squares the Elms are much infested by the caterpillars of the Vapourer-moth, whose wingless females may be seen like short-legged spiders on the bark, whilst the male flutters in an apparently aimless way an wings of rich brown with central white spots.

In October the leaves, which have for some time assumed a very dull dark-green tint, suddenly turn to orange, then fade to pale yellow, and fall in showers.

The name Elm was derived from the Latin Ulmus, and appears to indicate an instrument of punishment - probably from its rods having been used to belabour slaves. Prior remarks that the word is “nearly identical in all the Germanic and Scandinavian dialects, but does not find its root in any of them. It plays through all the vowels … but stands isolated as a foreign word which they have adopted."This “playing through the vowels" may be thus illustrated - Alm, Ǽlm, and Elm (Anglo-Saxon and English); Ilme, Olm, and Ulme, in various German dialects.

Of the two species of Elms commonly grown in these islands this alone is a native, though the Common or Small-leaved Elm (Ulmus campestris) was introduced from the Continent by the Romans, so that it has had time to get itself widely distributed over our country. Other names for the Wych Elm are Mountain Elm, Scots Elm, and Witch Hazel-the last-named being now more generally applied to an American plant, the Hamamelis. The philologists appear to be uncertain as to the origin and meaning of Wych, but it seems most probably a form of Witch. Just as a Hazel-rod is used by water-finders, who declare that its movements indicate the presence of hidden springs, so a wand of Ulmus montana may have furnished the Witch-finder with a Witch Hazel for the detection of witches!

The names montana, campestris, and Mountain Elm must not be allowed to mislead us as to the habits of the two species, for though the Wych Elm is known to reach an altitude of 3300 feet in the Alps, here it ascends only to 1300 feet (Yorks.), whilst Ulmus campestris, which might be understood to be less a hill-climber, grows at an elevation of 1500 feet in Derbyshire. As a matter of fact, both species are much fonder of valleys than of mountains.

The Wych Elm forms a trunk of large size, from 80 to 120 feet or more in height, with a girth of 50 feet, and covered with rough bark that is often corky. Its long slender branches spread widely with a downward tendency, the downy forking twigs bearing their leaves in a straight row along each side. The leaves are somewhat oval in general form, but the two sides of the midrib are unequal in size and shape. Their edges are doubly or trebly toothed, and the surfaces are rough and harsh to the touch. The hairs that cover the strong ribs on the under surface serve for the protection of the breathing pores from dust. On leaves of the pendulous form of this tree, grown in the London parks and gardens, these hairs will be found to be quite black with the soot particles gathered from the air. Trees need carbon, but in this gross form they are too often suffocated by it.

In March or April the brownish flowers are produced in bunches from the sides of the branches. They are a quarter of an inch long, bell-shaped, their edges cut into lobes, and finely fringed. The ovary, with its two awl-shaped styles, is surrounded by four or five stamens with purple anthers. They appear in March or April, before the leaf-buds have opened and are dependent on the wind for the transfer of pollen. The fruit is an oblong samara, about an inch long. This consists of a single seed in the centre, invested by a thin .envelope, which is extended all round as alight membranous win~, which gives it buoyancy and enables it to float through the air to a little distance. These seeds are not produced until about the thirtieth year of the tree’s life, and though they are ripened almost annually thereafter, good crops are biennial or triennial only. It has often been stated that the Wych Elm does not send up suckers, but it does, though not invariably; it does so chiefly as the result of root-pruning or some other check to the extension of the root-system.

The Lime Native Woodland Trees - Tilia Platyphyllos

In its floral arrangements the Lime differs from the trees previously mentioned in that it has distinct sepals and petals, an abundance of honey, and strong, sweet fragrance as of Honeysuckle. Unlike them, it does not trust to so rough and ready an agent of fertilization as the wind, so that it waits until its boughs are well clothed with leaves before putting forth its yellowish-white blossoms. These are in clusters (cymes) of six or seven, the stalks of all arising from one very long and stouter stalk, which is attached for half its length to a thin and narrow bract. Individually regarded, the flowers will be found to consist of five sepals, five petals, an oval ovary with a style ending in a five-toothed stigma, and surrounded by a large number of stamens. The stamens discharge their pollen before the stigma of that flower is fitted to receive it, so that cross-fertilization is ensured by the visits of the innumerable bees that visit the flowers for the abundant nectar they contain, and which the bees convert into a first-rate honey.

The flowers are succeeded by globose little fruits, each about a quarter of an inch across, yellow, and covered with pale down. In a good season these will be found to contain one or two seeds, but too often in ‘this country the summers are too cool to ripen them. The Lime does not begin to bear until about its thirty-fifth year. It flowers every year thereafter, but the question of its seed-crop depends entirely upon the weather.

For the purposes to which large timber is usually put, the light white wood of the Lime is not highly esteemed, not being considered of sufficient durability; yet it serves for many smaller uses, where its lightness and fine grain are strong recommendations. It must not be forgotten that the wonderful carvings of Grinling Gibbons were executed in this wood. It is largely used by the makers of musical instruments; and, as everyone knows, it is from the inner bark of the Lime that those useful bast mats, which are imported from Russia in such large numbers, are made. Probably owing to its lightness, again, the wood was used in old times for making bucklers. The question of its value as timber is probably never taken into account when it is planted in this country, where its ornamental appearance as an avenue or shade-tree is its great recommendation. It is one of the long-lived trees, its full life-period being certainly five centuries. Those in St. James’s Park are popularly supposed to have been planted, at the suggestion of John Evelyn, somewhere about the year 1660. There is a fine Lime avenue in Bushey Park, probably planted by Dutch William.

Deer and cattle are fond of the foliage and young shoots if they can get at them. Numerous insects exhibit a like partiality; of these the caterpillar of the large and handsome Lime Hawk-moth (Smerinthus tilia:) is the most characteristic.

The differences between the three species may be briefly noted:

• Small-Leaved Lime (Tilia parvifolia) - Does not attain the large proportions of the others. Leaves about two inches across, smooth; on the lower surface the axils of the nerves are glaucous and downy, with hairy patches between nerves. Fruit thin-shelled and brittle, downy, and very faintly ribbed. The upper leaves show a tendency to lobing.
• Large-Leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos) - Bark rougher. Twigs hairy. Leaves larger (four inches) and rougher, downy beneath, axils of the nerves woolly. Fruit of more oval shape, woody and strongly ribbed when ripe.
• Common Lime (Tilia vulgaris) - Intermediate between the others. Leaves larger than those of T. parvifolia, smaller than those of T. platyphyllos; downy in axils beneath. Twigs smooth. Fruit woody, but without ribs.

The name Lime was originally Linde, a form which, with the addition of .n, is in use to-day. Chaucer and other English writers spell it Line and Lyne, and the transition from this form to that commonly used to-day has been effected by changing the n to m. Originally it meant pliant, and had reference to the useful bast from which cordage and other useful things were made.

Those persons who obtain their ideas of trees mainly from the specimens they can see in suburban roads and gardens are in danger of getting quite a false impression of the Lime. It is a long suffering, good-tempered tree, and like human individuals of similar temperament, is subjected to shameful treatment. The suburban gardener who has a row of Limes to trim uses the saw, and amputates every arm close up to the shoulder, so that when the season of budding and burgeoning arrives the row of Limes will look like an upward extension in green of the brick wall. Such are the atrocities upon which Suburbia has to base its ideas of one of the most imposing of trees.

The Large-leaved Lime, growing in park-land or meadow, with its roots deep in good light loam, and its head eighty or ninety feet above, is quite another matter. Such a tree is a thing of beauty, and one can stand long at its base looking up among the wide-spreading limbs so well clothed with leaves of fine texture and tint. The girth of such a specimen at four feet from the ground would be about fifteen feet. Larger individuals have been recorded, up to twenty-seven feet.

There are three kinds of Lime in general cultivation in this country, but the differences between them are not great. They are the Large-leaved (Tilia platyphyllos), the Small-leaved (T. parvifolia), and the Intermediate or Common Lime (T. vulgaris). The last-named is generally admitted to be an introduced kind, and it is the one ‘most commonly planted. Respecting the claims of the other two to rank as natives, there has been some difference of opinion among authorities. The Small-leaved Lime, which does not occur in woods north of Cumberland, was regarded by Borrer as a true indigene, but H. C. Watson considered its claims as open to doubt, though he has no such doubt of the Large-leaved Lime, which is only growing really wild in the woods of Herefordshire, Radnorshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire.

All our Limes have similar straight tall stems, clad in smooth bark, and with a similar habit of growth. They are trees that demand genial climatic conditions for their proper development, and in consequence they do not put forth their leaves until May. The period of their leafy glory is comparatively short, for they are among the trees that lose their leaves earliest in autumn, after having been for a few days transmuted into gold. The leaf of the Lime is heart-shaped, with one of the basal lobes larger than the other, and the edges cut into saw-like teeth. There are slight differences in those of the three species, which will be indicated below.

It is rarely that the Hazel is allowed in this country to develop into a tree; as a rule it is a shrub, forming undergrowth in wood or copse, or part of a hedge. As it is cut down with the copse or hedge, it cannot form a standard of any size. But that the Hazel left alone will develop into a small tree is shown by an example in Eastwell Park, Kent, whose height a few years ago was thirty feet, with a circumference of three feet round the bole. As soon as the nuts are formed the bush is easily identified by all, so that a description of its character is hardly necessary. The large, roundish, heart-shaped leaves are arranged alternately in two rows along the straight downy shoots. Their margins are doubly toothed, and when in the bud they are plaited, the folds being parallel to the midrib. Soon after the buds open, many of the leaves assume a purplish tint for a while; in autumn they turn brown, and finally pale to yellow.

Before the leaves appear the Hazel is rendered conspicuous by the male catkins, which are familiar to country children under the name of Lamb’s-tails. These may be seen in an undeveloped condition in the autumn, when the nuts are being sought. A cluster of two or three hard, little, grey-green cylinders is all that may then be seen of them; but throughout the winter they lengthen, their scales loosen, and in February they are a couple of inches long, pliant, and yellow with the abundant pollen which blows out of them as they swing. The female flowers are by no means conspicuous, and have to be looked for. They will be found in the form of swollen buds on the upper parts of the shoots and branches, from which issue some fine crimson threads. These are the styles and stigmas. and on dissection of the budlike head, each pair of styles will be seen to spring from a two-celled ovary nestling between the bracts or scales of which the head is composed. It is only rarely that the seed-egg in each cell develops; as a rule one shrivels, and the other develops into the sweet” kernel” of the Hazel-nut. The shell is the ovary that has. become woody and hard; the ragged-edged leathery” shuck” is the enlarged bracts that surrounded the minute flower.

The Hazel likes a good soil, and will not really flourish without it, though it will grow almost anywhere, except where the moisture is stagnant. Its wood is said to be best when grown on a chalky subsoil. Of course, as timber, the Hazel does not count, but its tough and pliant rods arid staves are valuable for many small uses, such as the making of hoops for casks, walking-sticks, and. –divining-rods! The bark is smooth and brown.

The Barcelona nut, imported so largely in winter, is only a variety of the Hazel; as also the Cob and the Filbert, so largely cultivated in Kent. The name is the Anglo-Saxon hasl, or hasel, and signifies a baton of authority, from the use of its rods in driving cattle and slaves.

The two kinds of catkins are similar and cylindrical, but whilst the male is pendulous from the beginning, the female is erect until after the formation of the fruit, when it gradually assumes the hanging position. The bracts of the male are oval, ‘with sharp tips, each containing an uncertain number of stamens. In the female the bracts fall early, but their place is taken by three-lobed bracteoles, which enlarge after flowering, and become an inch or an inch and a half long. A single flower occupies each bracteole, consisting of a two-celled ovary and two styles. Only one cell develops, so that the hard green fruit contains but one seed. The appearance of these fruits in autumn as they hang in a spray from the underside of the branches is quite distinct from those of any other of our native trees.

The Hornbeam’s title to be considered indigenous has had some doubts thrown upon it because there are some records of specimens having been introduced during the fifteenth century, but that is not sufficient ground upon which to deny nationality. We have known persons to bring home from distant parts as treasures wild plants and ferns that were growing within a mile of their own homes. It appears to be a real native of the southern and midland counties of England, and of Wales. A line drawn across the map from North Wales to Norfolk roughly marks the limit; north of that line the Hornbeam appears to have been planted, as also in Ireland.

The Hornbeam is frequently passed by as a Beech, to which it has a very close superficial likeness, but a comparison ofleaves, flowers, or bole would at once make the differences obvious. It is usually found in similar situations to the Beech, though it does not ascend so far up the hills as that species. On dry, poor soils it does not attain its full proportions and may only be classed as a small tree; but when growing on low ground, in rich loam for good clay, it reaches a height of seventy feet, with a girth of ten feet. If two measurements of the bole’s diameter be taken at right angles to each other, they will be found to differ greatly. A section of the trunk will not show a circular outline, but rather an ellipse, the bole appearing to ha ve been flattened on two sides. It is coated with a smooth grey bark, usually spotted with white.

The leaves are less symmetrical than those of Beech, and are broader towards the base. They are of rougher texture, hairy on the underside, and their edges are doubly toothed. In autumn they turn yellow, then to ruddy gold, but a few days later they have settled into the rusty hue they retain throughout the winter, till the expansion of the new buds throws them off in spring.

The wood is exceedingly tough, and not to be worked up with ease, but it is considered to make admirable fuel. Evelyn says, ” It burns like a candle.” There are those who say that the name Hornbeam has reference to the tough or hornlike character of its beams; others declare that in the days when bullocks were yoked to the plough the yoke was made of this wood, as being fitted by its toughness to stand the strain, and as it was attached to the horns, it became the horn-beam. A third theory is that the name was derived from Oruus, the Manna-ash, with which early botanists confused it. but with all respect to the authority of Dr. Prior, who favours it, we prefer to stand on the first suggestion, with old John Gerarde, who says (”Herball,” 1633): ” In time it waxeth so hard that the toughnesse and hardnesse of it may be rather compared to horn than unto wood, and therefore itwas called Hornbeam or hardbeam.” The carpenter is not pleased who has hornbeam to work up, for his tools lose their edge far too quickly for his labour to be profitable. Evelyn tells us that it was called by some the Horse-beech, from the resemblance of the leaves.

One way to maximize the yield of your garden is to gather seeds from the crops you grew this year to use in your garden next year. This is not only fun, but can save you a little money and a lot of time in searching for the varieties that you want next spring. Unfortunately, not every seed that comes from your garden is going to be appropriate for growing.

Some of the plants in your garden are there just to produce seeds. Sunflowers, for example, aside from looking nice, are meant to be seed factories. Whether you eat the seeds yourself or use them in your birdfeeders, it is a simple thing to set some aside to grow in the spring. Before you do, however, check the variety that you chose. If it is a hybrid, then chances are the seeds are worthless for next year, so don’t bother saving them.

The term hybrid means that a plant variety is derived from a cross between two different parent varieties. Hybrids often combine the best traits of the two parent breeds, and sometimes produce results much better than either of the original varieties. Unfortunately, most hybrids don’t breed true. That is, they don’t retain these beneficial traits in subsequent generations. Hybrid sunflowers, for example, might combine such features as disease resistance with larger seed heads. A few hybrid sunflower varieties are the American Giant Hybrid, Cyclops Hybrid, and the Sunzilla.

Sunflowers are not the only common vegetables that are hybrids. Virtually all the vegetables grown in our gardens have both hybrid and open pollinated (non-hybrid) varieties available. If you want to save seeds at the end of the growing season, make sure to use open-pollinated varieties. Unfortunately, many open-pollinated varieties lack the benefits of hybrids. This may make them less prolific, less hardy, or more susceptible to diseases or insect pests. Weigh these considerations carefully when making your choice.

If you plan to eat the seeds, of course, it doesn’t matter if the plant is a hybrid variety. Hybrid varieties of pumpkin seeds, beans, peas, and grain seeds for example are just as good to eat and sometimes better than non-hybrid versions. Some hybrids, like certain cucumbers or watermelons, are even designed for their lack of seeds.

Once, you’ve assured yourself that the seeds you want to save for the spring are not hybrids. There are a few simple steps you should take to help maximize your germination rate in the spring. First, separate the seeds from the rest of the vegetable or plant. Rinse them off to make sure there is no mold or fungus. Spread them out on a clean surface in a warm place to let them dry out. Putting them on a sunny window sill works great. Seeds should be stored in a cool dry place for the winter. Do not let them get moist or mold may form on the seeds and ruin them. Some seeds also require cold-stratification in order to germinate. This means they need to be exposed to cold temperatures while dormant to let them know the winter is over. Perennials like many gardens herbs are most likely to require cold-stratification treatment. Storing your seeds in sealed containers in the refrigerator will usually provide enough cold to prepare them to germinate. Refrigerator temperatures won’t hurt other seeds, so there’s no harm in storing them all there until you’re ready to plant them in the spring.

As the summer draws to a close, it’s time to start thinking about next year’s garden. While the successes and failures of this year’s garden still fresh in your mind, now is the right time to decide what you’ll be growing next year. Which varieties of tomatoes gave you the best yield or the best flavor? Did your cucumbers meet your expectations or should you try a different variety next year? If you don’t take stock of this year’s garden now, chances are that it’ll be impossible to remember all the details when you’re ready to start planting in the spring.

Write it Down

It’s a good idea to pick up a basic Daily Planner booklet to keep track of important garden information. These little booklets are usually laid out in calendar format with spaces provided for notes, meetings and other time-related information. These are absolutely ideal for gardening notes. You should record the date of the first and last frost, when you started seeds indoors, when you planted outdoors, first harvest dates for different varieties of produce, and so on. Even one year of notes will give you a great guide for when to plant next year.

Harvest Records

Similarly, you should jot down harvest notes about everything you planted. Note those vegetables that you want to plant again the following year, and those that aren’t worth the trouble. If you’ve had problems with powdery mildew for example, it might be a good idea to skip trying to grow squash for the next year or two. Over a period of several years, harvest records will help you choose the most prolific and successful varieties for your garden. Different varieties will work better for different gardens because of variables in climate, soil composition, your fertilizer choices, local insect pests, and so forth. Each gardener needs to find his or her own formula for success and good record keeping is essential.

Using Recipe Ingredient Lists to Plan Your Garden

Another great idea to help you plan next year’s garden is to take a look at your favorite recipes. Go through your most used recipes and make a list of all the herbs and vegetables that you need. Can you grow all of them next year? If you garden, then you already know that fresh home-grown herbs and produce add much more flavor than store-bought produce. Herb gardens can even be laid out by recipe – a salsa garden is a great example.

Try Something New

Every year, I like to try a new vegetable in my garden. I plant something I have never planted before, and sometimes something I’ve never even eaten before. This way, I’ve discovered such prolific and delicious additions as bok-choi, chocolate mint, Thai chili peppers, and many others. All of these are great additions to the garden and to the kitchen. You can start with a small area for the experimental crop if you’re really not sure how it’s going to work out. The many new vegetables and herbs I’ve discovered in this way are the main reason why I try to expand my garden space every year.

The science of growing vegetables without soil has proven that it can increase the growth rate of many edible plants and help us to grow more of our own food instead of purchasing it from distant commercial farms. Most people don’t realize, however, that building a cheap and effective hydroponic unit is not that difficult. In fact, with a few common items, you can build your own hydroponic unit and enjoy fresh, home-grown lettuce or other vegetables, all winter long.

The first thing you need to do is to gather your materials. You may have many of them already. Others can often be purchased inexpensively in yard sales. The materials you will need are:

• A 10 gallon aquarium tank
• A small aquarium air pump
• Aquarium airline tubing
• An aquarium air stone or bubble-wand
• A piece of sturdy plastic or thin plywood that you can cut holes in and use to cover the aquarium tank
• Small plastic disposable cups (5 oz size works best)
• Rock wool or other porous material to support the plant roots
• Hydroponic nutrient solution

The latter two items can be purchased at many local nurseries or from online sources.

The first step is to lay the plastic or plywood cover over the aquarium. Mark locations for each plant on the cover. Fit as many as you can while leaving room for the plants to grow. Each plant should be about 4 inches from its closest neighbor. Measure the diameter of the disposable cups that you are using at a point about one half inch below the top of the cup. Next drill or cut holes of this same diameter in each of the locations you have marked for plants on the aquarium cover. Be sure to use safety goggles and observe appropriate safety practices for the tools that you are using.

Once you have holes cut, place one of the disposable cups in the hole. The cup should fit in the hole but should not fall through. With the cup in place, cut out the bottoms of enough cups to fill all the holes in your aquarium cover. Fill each cup with rock wool. The rock wool should extend an inch or more below the bottom edge of each cup. Placing the rock wool cups in the cover, mark the height of both the bottom edge of the rock wool and the bottom edge of the cup on the side of the aquarium.

Fill the aquarium with a mixture of water and hydroponic nutrients to level that is halfway between the two marks you just made. Follow the directions on the nutrient package for the correct mixture. Place the airstone or bubble wand in the bottom of the aquarium and turn on the air pump. You should see a continuous flow of small bubbles rising through the water. Highly oxygenated water is important to keep your hydroponically grown plants alive and healthy.

Place your seeds in the top of the rock wool cups. Press them gently into the rock wool. Place the cover on the aquarium so that the rock wool extends into the water. For best results, cover the glass sides of the aquarium with cardboard or other opaque material. This will keep light out of the aquarium water and help reduce the growth of algae in the tank. Once the seeds sprout, you’ll need to add grow lights above the aquarium. Keep the water level between the two marks you made on the side the aquarium so that the rock wool stays wet, but there is still an air space between the top of the water and the bottom edge of the cups. Roots need air.

That’s it; your plants should grow faster and fuller than they would if you planted them in soil. Many different vegetables will grow in this kind of set-up, but leafy greens like lettuce work particularly well. You can also try tomatoes, bean, herbs, and many others. Experiment to find what works best for you.

Many summer garden vegetables can be grown indoors during the winter. Salad greens are a great choice for indoor gardening. Ordinarily, salad greens that we’d find in the supermarket during the winter are grown far away, in the Southwest United States or even in Mexico. Growing your own, provides a fresher alternative and is even better for the environment.

By the time they get to our supermarket shelves, winter produce has lost much of its crispness and flavor. By growing your own salad greens indoors, you’re salads will be just minutes old by the time they reach the dinner table. Whether you use them in a salad or in a sandwich, you and your family will notice the difference. During this past year, there have also been several cases of commercially grown salad greens and baby spinach being contaminated with salmonella or E. coli. Your indoor garden can eliminate this risk as well.

By growing our own food we are also helping to preserve the environment by reducing the need for transportation of distantly grown produce. By reducing the need to truck vegetables across the country, we reduce the amount of truck exhaust released into the atmosphere and the amount of foreign oil we need to import to make the fuel for these trucks.

Now that we know the benefits of growing our own vegetables indoors, what equipment do we need? First, we need to provide some artificial light. The best solutions are metal halide or high pressure sodium lighting systems. These provide an intense light with a spectrum that mimics the spectrum plants would find outdoors. However, they tend to be very expensive and can run hundreds or even thousands of dollars. A cheaper, but still effective alternative is fluorescent lighting. Instead of the ordinary bulbs, use fluorescent grow lights, such as the Sylvania Gro-lux, the Hydrofarm Agrosun, or the Verilux Tru-Bloom bulbs. These bulbs will fit a standard 48”, 40 watt fluorescent fixture like those found in any home improvement store. The bulbs run about $15 to $20 each. Depending upon the fixture, you’ll need either 2 or 4 bulbs.

Next you need a planting medium. Standard potting soil works just fine. Instead of conventional plant pots, however, I suggest using long window box planters. This will help you maximize the planting space and fit more plants directly under the lighting fixture. Mount the lights about 18 inches above the surface of the planter. Light intensity fades quickly with distance, and the indoor plants will need as much light as they can get. Make sure you place trays under the planters to catch any excess water that drains through the planters when you water them. You’ll want to make sure the planters have drainage holes in the bottom to prevent an accumulation of water in the bottom of the planter.

Plant your seeds very densely. I like to use a mesclun salad mix since it offers a variety of flavors and colors. Water the planters whenever the soil feels dry to the touch. Don’t over water. As the leaves become big enough for use, snip them off cleanly with a pair of garden shears. Don’t let any get too big or too close to the lights. If you see the plants starting to form buds, snip them off as soon as you see them. Once the plants bolt or go to seed, they can develop a bitter flavor.

Even though your gardening season has ended with the first frosts and hard freeze of the year, there are still a number of things you can do to get a head start on the spring. Soil preparation, clean-up, planning, and even some planting should be done in the fall to make sure your garden is even better next year than it was this year.

One of the first fall garden tasks is clean up. Many of your plants were killed by the first frost and by now have been reduced to piles of brown stringy leaves. This is especially true of bulb plants. Things like lilies, hostas and irises should all be cleaned out and prepared for spring. Gently rake the dead above ground portions of these plants from their beds. Be careful not to pull up the bulbs. If the leaves won’t let go of the root portions, use garden shear to make a clean cut at ground level. If you want to transfer some of these bulbs to new locations, now is the time for that as well. Carefully dig up the portion of the bulbs you want to move. Check for disease or insects that might damage the bulbs, and then simply transplant them to the new spot where you’d like them to come up next spring.

Some bulbs are not winter hardy and should be dug up and stored in a cool dry place. Many tulips fit into this category. For these bulbs, you’ll want to dig them up, rinse them off, and store them either in the open air or buried in clean dry sand. Place them in a basement or any cool, dark and dry storage area. In the spring, when the ground thaws, and danger of a hard freeze is over, you can replant them outdoors.

Now is also a great time to prepare your garden bed soil for next year. If you compost, you can take your finished compost material and spread it on your garden. Add any fertilizers or other soil treatments at this time as well. Use a shovel to turn the new material under and mix it in to the garden bed. If your gardens are larger, you can use a tiller. For most vegetable gardens you can even till under the old plants. Exceptions are woody plants like corn stalks, sunflowers, and the like. These should be pulled and discarded. Another exception is any plants that experience any signs of disease during the year. If your squash leaves showed the characteristic white patches of powdery mildew for example, they should be manually removed and discarded far from your garden beds.

Finally, don’t forget to take stock of this year’s garden. What do you want to repeat next year and what mistakes did you make that you want to avoid next year? Make notes and refer to them in the spring as you get ready to start all over again.

Hydroponics is the science of growing plants, especially edible plants without soil. The roots are allowed to grow directly into nutrient-rich water. Many avid gardeners have heard about hydroponics, but have been afraid of the complexity and equipment required. Now a company called AeroGarden offers a small, easy to use hydroponics stations that you can buy for under $200. It comes complete with everything you to start your indoor hydroponic garden need including seeds and nutrient pellets.

Setting up the AeroGarden Hydroponics Station

Upon receiving my AeroGarden, I was very eager to get started. I removed the pieces carefully from the box, and set about assembling it. There are only a few parts to put together, and although there is a simple instruction manual which really should be used, I found it easy to put the entire kit together without reading the instruction in less than 3 minutes. The kit includes an attractive base with a water reservoir, an aeration pump, dual fluorescent plant lights, an electronic LED reminder that not only reminds you when to add water and nutrients, but also turns the grow lights on and off automatically to get the most production out of your plants.

Planting In the AeroGarden

The AeroGarden Kit comes with small plastic trays that you insert into the holes in the top of the water reservoir. These trays contain a growing medium to support your plants and they are pre-planted with seeds. The first seed kit that comes with the AeroGarden is an herb garden. It contains mint, chives, oregano, basil, thyme, and dill. All you do is drop the pellets labeled “starting nutrients” into the water through the small access door and then slide each of the seed trays into the six holes in the water reservoir’s cover. Small clear plastic covers help keep the seeds warm and provide a humid atmosphere for the tiny young plants once they germinate.

Growing and Harvesting Your Plants

The AeroGarden comes with a beautifully detailed growing guide with a separate section for each plant contained in the initial kit. This booklet tells you how to plant, care for and harvest each plant to maximize your yield and keep the plant thriving. Even expert gardeners will learn a thing or two, or at least refresh some long-forgotten information, by reading this guide throroughly. Once the plants get close to the clear plastic covers, the covers are removed. In just one month, my plants have grown 8” tall. Every couple of weeks or so one of the LED lights will come on and tell me it’s time to add 2 more nutrient pellets to the water reservoir. The kit comes with enough pellets to last for the lifetime of the plants (about five months).

Other Available Seed Kits

You can also buy additional seed kits for the AeroGarden. In addition to the Herb garden Kit, they offer an amazing variety of garden plants that can be grown indoors hydroponically using the aerogarden kit. Among the offerings are cherry tomatoes, chili pepper, green beans, salad greens, snow peas, an wide variety of herbs. There’s even combination kits like the salsa garden kit which provides all the fresh ingredients you need to make your own garden fresh salsa.

It is strange how so striking and graceful a tree could have been so persistently ignored by the old school of landscape painters, when one remembers with what good effect modern artists have utilized it. In this connection we need not apologize for quoting at length a description of the tree from the artist’s point of view, because it also gives attention to those points one would like the rambler to notice. Mr. P. G. Hamerton in his Sylvan Year, says - “The stem… of the Silver Birch is one of the masterpieces of Nature. Everything has been done to heighten its unrivalled brilliance. The horizontal peeling of the bark, making dark rings at irregular distances, the brown spots, the dark color of the small twigs, the rough texture near the ground, and the exquisite silky smoothness of the tight white bands above, offer exactly that variety of contrast which makes us feel a rare quality like that smooth whiteness as strongly as we are capable of feeling it. And amongst the common effects. In all northern countries, one of the most brilliant is the opposition of birch trunks in sunshine .against the deep blue or purple of a mountain distance in shadow. At all seasons of the year the beauty of the birch is attractive and peculiarly its own. The young beech may remind you of it occasionally under strong effects of light, and is also very graceful, but we have no tree that rivals the birch in its own qualities of color and form, still less in that air and bearing which are so much more difficult to describe. In winter you see the full delicacy of the sprays that the lightest foliage hides, and in early spring this tree clothes itself, next after the willow, with tiny triangular leaves, inexpressibly light in the mass, so that from a distance they have the effect of a green mist rather than anything more material. When the tree is isolated sufficiently to come against the sky, you may see one of the prettiest sights in Nature-the pure deep azure of heaven, with the silvery white and fresh green of the birch in opposition. And yet it is not a crude green, for there is a good deal of warm red in it, which gives one of those precious tertiaries that all true colorists value.”

Linnaeus named our common Birch Betula alba; but more than a century ago Ehrhart pointed out that there were two well-defined forms of the tree, which he proposed to separate as distinct species under the names of B. verrucosa and B. pubescens. Hooker regards the first of these as the typical form, for which he properly retains the Linnaean name. It is distinguished by having the base of the bole covered with coarse, rough, and blackish bark, the smooth leaves looking as though their base had been cut off, and the twigs warty. The B. pubescens of Ehrhart appears to be a variety of Fries’ B. glutinosa, which Hooker treats as a sub-species of B. alba. The bark at its base is smooth and white, its downy leaves have a triangular base, and its twigs are free from warts. It sometimes assumes a bush-like form.

The Dwarf Birch (Betula nana) is a distinct species, which occurs locally in the mountainous parts of Northumberland and Scotland. I t is not a tree, but a bush, only two or three feet in height. Its firm-textured, round leaves have scalloped margins and short footstalks.

The foliage of the Birch in autumn turns to a yellow hue. At this period-and, indeed, for a month earlier-there may be seen beneath the Birch-trees one of the most striking of our toadstools, the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscarius), so-called from its use as the lethal ingredient in the making of fly-papers. From a bulbous base a creamy yellow stem arises, decked about half its height with an ample hanging frill. The upper side of the spreading “cap” is painted with crimson, over which are scattered flecks of white or cream kid-the remains of an outer envelope that was ruptured by the expansion of the cap, and of which the frill represents the lower portion. This species is really poisonous, and the Kamschatkans are said to make their vodka superlatively intoxicating by the addition of this fungus to it. On the trunk of the Birch may sometimes be found a large fungus named Polyporus betulinus, whose root-like portion penetrates the bark and sucks up the sap.

Birch-bark is used for tanning certain kinds of leather, and the peculiar odor of Russian leather is said to be due to the use of Birch in its preparation. The Birch. agrees with the Beech in two respects-it is of little value for timber, but as a nurse to young timber-trees it is of considerable importance. Its name is from the Anglo-Saxon beorc, birce, and signifies the Bark-tree.

“The Lady of the Woods,” as Coleridge christened the Birch, is at once the most graceful, the hardiest, and the most ubiquitous of our forest trees. It grows throughout the length and breadth of our islands, and seems happy alike on a London common, in a suburban garden, or far up in the Scottish highlands (2500 feet). It penetrates farther north than any other tree, and its presence is a great boon to the natives of Lapland. It will grow where it is subjected to great heat, as well as where it must endure extreme cold, with its slender roots exploring the beds of peat, the rich humus of the old wood, or the raw soil of the mountain-side, where it has to cling to rocks and a few mosses. Given plenty of light, and it seems to care for little else. Though a mere shrub in the far north, with us the Birch has a trunk sometimes as tall as eighty, but more frequently fifty feet, and a girth of from two to three feet. In its first decade it increases in height at the rate of a foot and a half or two feet in a year; but, of course, there is little breadth to be built up at the same time. It reaches maturity in half a century, and before the other half is reached the Birch will have passed away.

The bark of the Birch is more enduring than its timber, which may be partly due to its habit of casting off the outer layer in shreds, like fine tissue-paper, from time to time. The greater part of the bark is silvery white, which adds to the apparent slenderness of the tree, and makes it conspicuous from a long distance; for the attenuated and drooping branches, dressed in small and loosely hung leaves, sway so constantly that the trunk is scarcely hidden. The glossy, leathery leaves vary in shape from a triangular form to a pointed oval, their edges doubly toothed, and their foots talks long and slender.

About April the hanging catkins of the Birch, which were in evidence in the previous autumn, have matured and become dark crimson; the scales separate and expose the two stamens of each flower, which has a single sepal. The female flowers are in a short, more erect spike, which consists of overlapping scales (brads), each containing two or three flowers. The flowers have neither petals nor sepals, each consisting merely of an ovary with two slender styles. After fertilization the female spike has developed into a little oblong cone. The minute nuts have a pair of delicate wings to each, and as they are set free from the cones they flutter on the breeze like a swarm of small flies. The moss that usually covers the ground beneath the Birch will be found in October to be thickly speckled with these fruits, which are something more than seeds, as they are commonly termed; they are really analogous to the acorn -a nut within a thin shell. The tree sometimes begins to produce seed when only fifteen years old; but, as a rule, it is ten years older before it bears, and thereafter it has a crop every year.

In early summer, whilst the leaves are still pellucid, the shade of a big Beech is particularly inviting. Later the leaves become opaque, and their glossy surfaces throw back the heat rays. Then the play of light upon the great mass of foliage is very fine; but when autumn has turned their deep green to orange and warm ruddy brown, and they catch the red rays of the westering sun, the tree appears to be turned into a blazing fire.

The Beech flowers in April or May. The blossoms are rather more conspicuous than is the case with the Oak, for the male flowers are gathered together in a hanging purplish-brown rounded tassel with yellow anthers. The female flowers, to the number of two, three, or four, are clustered in a “cupule” of overlapping scales, like those of the Oak. But in the Beech the ” cupule” becomes a bristly closed box, which afterwards opens by one end splitting into four triangular silk-hair-lined valves, which turn back and reveal the three-sided, sharp-edged” mast” This mast was formerly a very valuable product of the Beechwoods, when herds of swine were turned in them to feed upon the fallen Beech-nuts.

Agricultural methods have changed; but though our hogs are now confined in styes, and fed on a diet that more rapidly fattens, Beech-mast is still a good food eagerly taken by such woodland denizens as badgers, deer, squirrels, and dormice.

The vitality of the Beech is so high that quite frequently the bole divides at its upper part into several trunks, which rise straight up, and each attains the dimensions of a complete tree. Often such a tree stands on a sandy bank, and seems in imminent danger of toppling over, but its uprightness secures it against strain, and the roots that it sent down the steep side of the bank have thickened into strong props. Many such trees may be found along the hollow lanes in the Greensand district of Surrey, and we have more than once sheltered from a storm under their roots.

We have already mentioned the value of the Beech as a nurse for other trees, and its frequent use for that purpose, but it should also be stated that it is a powerful competitor with other trees, and if these are left to fight their own battles unaided, the Beech will be the conqueror. Evelyn saw this more than two centuries ago, and pointed out that where mixed woods of Oak and Beech were left to themselves, they ultimately became pure Beech-woods. The Beech appears to gain this advantage through rooting in the surface soil, and, exhausting it of food elements, suffers none to penetrate to the lower strata, where the Oak has its roots.

A number of insects feed upon the Beech, but they are mostly more beautiful or more singular than destructive. The Copper Beech, which is so effectively used for ornament in parks, is merely a sub-variety of the Common Beech, and all the examples in cultivation are believed to be “sports” from the purple variety, which itself was a natural sport discovered in a German wood little more than a hundred years ago.

The modern word Beech is derived from the Anglo-Saxon boe, beee, beoee, which had very similar equivalents in all branches of the German and Scandinavian family, and from the fact that the literature of these people was inscribed on tablets of Beech, our word book has the same origin.

We speak of the Oak as the “Monarch of the Woods,” and to the Beech the title “Mother of Forests” has been given. To the timber-merchant the Beech has little importance, but the grower of timber freely acknowledges his heavy indebtedness to this nursing mother, for, in the words of Professor Gayer, the Bavarian forestry expert, “without Beech there can no more be properly tended forests of broad-leaved genera, as along with it would have to be given up many other valuable timber-trees, whose production is only possible with the aid of Beech.” Quite apart from utilitarian considerations, we should be very sorry to lose the Beech, with its towering, massive shaft clad in smooth grey bark, its spreading roots above the soil, and the dense shade of its fine foliage. Fortunately for the lover of natural beauty, it is this luxuriant growth of leaves and the shade it gives that are the redeeming virtues of the Beech in the eye of the forester. Its drip destroys most of the soil exhausting weeds, its shade protects the soil from over evaporation, and the heavy crop of leaves enriches it by their decomposition. On these points the forestry experts of to-day join hands with John Evelyn, who, nearly 240 years ago, thus referred to it- “The shade unpropitious to corn and grass, but sweet, and of .all the rest, most refreshing to the weary shepherd-lentus in umbra, echoing Amaryllis with his oaten pipe.” And, again, after giving us a long catalogue of the varied uses to which Beechwood may be put, he adds-” Yet for all this, you would not wonder to hear me deplore the so frequent use of this wood, if you did consider that the industry of France furnishes that country for all domestic utensils with excellent Walnut, a material infinitely preferable to the best Beech, which is indeed good only for shade and for the fire.” In the days of open hearths and chimney corners the Beech was extensively used for fuel, and it is still reputed to make good charcoal ; but to-day the chairmaker and the turner are the chief users of its wood.

The Beech well grown attains a height of about 100 feet, and a girth of about 20 feet. There is a Beech in Norbury Park, Surrey, said to be 160 feet in height. Its branches horizontally spreading give it a head of enormous proportions. Hooker gives the diameter of the Knowle Beech as 352 feet, which means a circumference of about as many yards. It will grow in most upland places where the Oak thrives, though it does not need so deep a soil, and has a preference for those containing lime. Fresh mineral soils, rich in humus, are the best for it. In poor soils its growth is slow and its life is longer. It begins to bear mostly at about eighteen years of age, and thereafter gives good crops at intervals of three or five years.

In spring, just before the buds expand, the twigs of the Beech have a very distinct appearance. They are long and slender, placed alternately along the twig, and the brown envelopes retain their shape long after they have been cast off. It is interesting to note how well these are mimicked by a glossy spindle-shaped snail (Clausilia laminata) that has a decided fondness for the Beech. As the snails crawl up the bole or over the moss at its base, it is not easy at a glance to say which are snails and which bud-envelopes. This is one of the protective resemblances adopted by many animals to give them a chance of eluding their natural enemies-in this case the thrush and other birds.

In the bud the leaf is folded fan-wise, and the folds run parallel with the nerves. They expand into an oval, smooth-faced leaf, with slightly scooped edges, and a most delicate fringe of short gossamer, which falls off later. These leaves Evelyn recommended as a stuffing for beds, declaring that if “gathered about the fall, and somewhat before they are much frost-bitten, [they] afford the best and easiest mattresses in the world to lay under our quilts instead of straw… In Switzerland I have sometimes lain on them to my great refreshment.” That last clause seems to imply that the authorities at home would not allow the introduction of new-fangled bed-stuffings, but remained true to straw. These leaves are rich in potash, and as they readily decay, they produce an admirable humus. In sheltered places the leaves, turned to a light ruddy-brown color, are retained on the lower branches until cast off by the expansion of the new buds.

Perhaps the most interesting of the Oak’s pensioners to the woodland rambler will be the varied forms of gall on different parts of the tree. There is the so-called Oak-apple, of uneven surface and spongy to the touch, which certain people still wear on May 29th, in honour of Charles II. ; the well-rounded hard Bullet-gall of Cynips kollari, the Artichoke-gall of Cynips gemmce, ‘the Spangle-galls of Neuroterus lensticulari, so plentiful on the back of the leaf, and the Root-gall of Biorhiza aptera. All these galls are abnormal growths, due to the irritation set up by the Gall-wasps named, when they pierced the young tissues in order to lay their eggs in them. Where any of these galls are perforated it may be known that the Gall-wasp whose grub fed within has flown, but where there is no such perforation the grub is stilI within, feeding upon the flesh of the gall, or in the chrysalis stage, awaiting translation to the winged condition.

Several Oaks of foreign origin are also grown in our parks and open spaces; among them the Holm Oak (Quercus ilex) whose evergreen leathery leaves have toothed or plain edges, and occasionally the lower ones develop marginal spines, whence its name of Holm or Holly Oak. It is notable for retaining its lower branches, so that its appearance, as Loudon remarks, “even when fully grown, is that of an immense bush, rather than that of a timber tree.” It is a native of Southern Europe and North Africa, and appears to have been introduced about the middle of the sixteenth century. It usually attains a height of from twenty to thirty feet, but occasionally specimens are seen up to sixty feet. It has a much thinner, more even bark than that of our native Oak, and of a black colour. The long brown acorns do not ripen until the second year.

The Turkey Oak (Quercus cerris) is a much larger tree, attaining to similar heights to our British Oak, but easily distinguishable by its more pyramidal outline, and its attenuated leaves. The lance-shaped lobes of these are unequal, sharp, and angular; and the footless acorn-cups are covered with bristly or mossy-looking scales. The acorns, which are small and exceedingly bitter, rarely ripen till their second autumn. The whole tree-trunk, branches, and twigs-is of straighter growth than Quercus robur. It is a native of Southern Europe and the Levant, and was introduced about one hundred and sixty years ago.
The spring rambler in the woods may come upon a party of woodmen stripping young Oaks of their bark, or felling them, whilst cylinders of separated bark rest across poles in the process of drying. This is the industry of barking for the purpose of the tanner. When the Oaks in a coppice are about sixteen years old they are most suitable for this purpose, the bark then containing a larger percentage of tannin than at any other period. The operation is best performed in May, when the sap is in flow, and should be completed between the first swelling of the leaf-buds and the unrolling of the leaves. If the weather is cold and damp the bark will peel the better, provided there is an absence of north or east winds. Before the tree is cut down the bole is stripped, the first ring being taken from just above the roots to a height of two and a half feet above. When the tree is felled, it is cut into lengths and the bark stripped from them; then all branches that are an inch or more in diameter are peeled. The bark is piled to dry for a couple of weeks, and is then broken into small pieces and sent away in sacks.

It is not alone in the use of the bark that the tannic acid of the Oak is made evident; it is to the presence of this that the austerity of the acorn is due, and also the ink-producing properties of certain Oak-galls. Everything connected with the tree gets a roughness of flavour from this same principle. Even that remarkable fungus, the Vegetable Beef-steak, that may be found on old Oaks in autumn, is impregnated with it.

Prior regards the name Oak (Anglo-Saxon ae) as originally belonging to the fruit, and only later transferred to the tree that produces it. The more obvious explanation (though we know that in etymological and other matters the obvious is not always the true interpretation) is, that acorn (ac-corn) signified the corn or fruit of the ac. Selby tells us that “During the Anglo-Saxon rule, and even for some time after the Conquest, Oak-forests were chiefly valued for the fattening of swine. Laws relating to pannage, or the fattening of hogs in the forest, were enacted during the Heptarchy; and by Ina’s statutes, any person wantonly injuring or destroying an Oaktree was mulcted in a fine varying according to size, or the quantity of mast it produced.”

When good John Evelyn wrote his “Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees,” he was greatly concerned lest our” wooden walls” should diminish in strength for want of a succession of stout Oaks in our woodlands, and therefore he put the Oak in the forefront of his discourse. To-day steel and teak have largely supplanted oak in the building of our navy, and our walls of defence are no longer of wood. Yet in spite of these changes, and the consequent reduction of the Oak’s importance, we must still look upon it as the typical British tree, and, regardless of its place in botanical classifications, we shall follow the lead of our master and place it first on our list.

There is no necessity for entering upon a minute description of the botanical characters of so well known a tree. The sturdy, massive trunk, firm as a rock; the broad, rounded Outline of its head, caused by the downward sweeping extremities of the wide-spreading lower limbs; the wavy outline of the lobed leaves, and the equally distinct egg-and-cup-shaped fruit -these are characters that cannot be confused with those of any other tree, and are the most familiar objects in the landscape in most parts of our islands. To my mind, no wood is so awe-inspiring as one filled with old oaks, all so much alike, yet each with a distinct individuality. We regard with reverence a human centenarian, who may have nothing beyond his great age to commend him to us; but we think of the long period of history of which he has been a spectator, possibly an active maker of history. The huge Oak has probably lived through ten or twenty such periods. Compared with the Oak, man is but of mushroom growth. It does not produce an acorn until sixty or seventy years old, and even then it is not mature. Not till a century and a half have passed over its head is its timber fit for use, and as a rule it is not felled under the age of two hundred years. Many trees are left to a much greater age, or we should not have still with us so many venerable specimens, and where they have not been left until partially decayed, the timber is found to be still very valuable when finally cut down. Of one of these patriarchs of the forest, cut down in the year 1810, we have figures of quantity and value from a contemporary record. It was known as the Gelenos Oak, and stood about four miles from Newport, Monmouthshire. When felled, it yielded 2426 cubic feet of sound timber, and six tons of bark. It was bought just as it stood for £405, and the purchaser had to pay £82 for labor for stripping, felling, and converting into timber. Five men were employed for twenty days in stripping the bark and felling the tree, and after that a pair of sawyers, working six days a week, were five months cutting it up. But the bark realized £200, and the timber about £400. The timber and bark from this one tree were about equal to the average produce of three acres of oak coppice after fifteen years’ growth.

Full-grown oaks vary in height from sixty to one hundred and thirty feet, the difference depending upon situation; the tallest, of course, being those that have been drawn up in forests, at the expense of their branches. Trees growing freely in the open are of less height, and are made to appear comparative dwarfs by the huge proportions of the bole. In the forest this may be no more than ten feet in girth, but in isolated specimens may be as much as fifty-four feet (Cowthorpe Oak), with a much broader base. The thick rough bark is deeply furrowed in a large network pattern, which affords temporary hiding-places for insects. The branches are much given to turn and zig-zag from side to side-a character that makes them very useful in boat-building, as “knees” of various. angles may be cut from them without having recourse to bending. The best knees are to be obtained from Oaks grown in the hedgerow.

The Oak flowers in April or May, and the blossoms are of two distinct forms-male and female. The males are in little clusters, which are borne at intervals along a hanging stalk, two or three inches in length. They are green, and therefore inconspicuous; but examined separately, they will be found to have a definite calyx, whose margin is cut into an uncertain number (4-7) ‘of lobes. There are no petals, but attached to the sides of the calyx there are ten stamens. The female flowers are fewer, and will be found on short erect stalks above the male catkins. Each female flower consists of a calyx, invested by a number of overlapping scales, and enclosing an ovary with three styles. The ovary is divided into three cells, each containing two seed-eggs. An acorn should therefore contain six kernels, but, as a rule, only one of the seed-eggs develops, though occasionally an acorn contains two kernels. The overlapping scales at the base of the female flower become the rough .cup that holds the acorn.

The Oak is subject to a considerable amount of variation, probably due to differences of situation, soil, etc., and some authors have sought to elevate certain of the varieties into species by giving them distinctive names. It does not appear to be certain, however, that these forms are at all constant, and they are connected by intermediate forms that make the identification of many individuals a matter of difficulty. In one of these forms (sessiliflora) the stalk of the acorns connecting them with the branch is very short, but the leaves have a distinct footstalk, from half an inch to an inch long. This form is more plentiful in the north and west, and is conspicuous in the Forest of Dean. A second form, known as pedunculata, has the leaf-stalk short or absent; the base of the leaf broad and somewhat heart-shaped, and the stalk upon which the acorns are borne very long. A third form (intermedia), commonly known as Durmast, has short leafstalks, short stalks to the acorns, and the under side of the leaf downy. Pedunculata is found more on the lower hills and the sides of valleys, whilst sessilifora prefers higher ground, with a southern or western aspect.

The Oak is most abundant on clay soils, but is at its best when growing in deep sandy loam, where there is also plenty of humus. Its roots in such soil strike down to a depth of five feet, and therefore it thrives in association with Beech, whose roots are much nearer the surface, and whose fallen leaves supply it with humus.

The Oak is more persistently attacked by insects than any other tree. One authority (Leunis) has tabulated the species that get their living mainly or entirely from their attacks on the foliage, timber, or bark, and they number about five hundred. With some species this warfare is waged on so extensive a scale, that in some years by early summer the Oaks are almost divested of their foliage, and a new crop of leaves becomes a necessity. But the reserve forces of the Oak are quite equal to this drain, and the tree does not appear to suffer, though a much less thorough attack would be serious to a Conifer. One of the worst of these Oak-spoilers -though it by no means restricts its energies to attacks on this tree-is the Mottled Umber Moth (Hibernia difoliaria), whose pretty caterpillars may be seen hanging by silken threads from the leafless twigs.

A striking Oak insect is the Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervsu), which, in warm evenings in the south of England, may be seen flying round the Oaks, the size and antler-like jaws of the male arousing feelings of respect in the minds of those who are not acquainted with its habits. The formidable-looking “horns” are usually harmless. The beetle spends its larval stage in the wood of unhealthy Oaks, and, when mature, seeks his hornless mate among its foliage.

A few words on the life of a tree may be welcomed here for those not studying botany. Although the nurseryman makes use of suckers and cuttings for the quicker multiplication of certain species, every tree in its natural habitat produces seeds and is reproduced by them. The flowering of our forest trees is a phenomenon that does not as a rule attract attention, but their fruiting or seed-bearing becomes patent to all who visit the woods in autumn. A tree has lived many years before it is capable of producing seed.

The seed-bearing age is different in each species; thus the Oak begins to bear when it is between sixty and seventy years old, the Ash between forty and fifty, the Birch and Sweet Chestnut at twenty-five years. Some produce seed every year after that period is reached, others every second, third, or fifth year; others, again, bear fitfully except at intervals of from six to nine years, when they produce an enormous crop. Most tree-seeds germinate in the spring following their maturity, but they are not all distributed when ripe. The Birch, the Elm, and the Aspen, for examples, retain their seeds until spring, and these germinate soon after they have been dispersed.

The seeds contain sufficient nutriment to feed the seedling whilst it is developing it roots and first real leaves. We can, of course, go further back in starting our observations of the life progress of the monarch of the forest. We can dissect the insignificant greenish flower of the Oak when the future seed (acorn) is but a single cell, a tiny bag filled with protoplasm. From that early stage to the period when the tree is first ripe for conversion into timber we span a century and a half, equal to two good human lives, and the Oak is but at the point where a man attains his majority. The Oak is built up after the fashion by which man attains to his full stature. It is a process of multiplication of weak, minute cells, which become specialized for distinct offices in the economy of the vegetable community we call a tree. Some go to renew and enlarge the roots, others to the perfecting of that system of vessels through which the crude fluids from the roots are carried up to the topmost leaf, whence, after undergoing chemical transformation in the leaf laboratory, it is circulated to all parts of the organism to make possible the production of more cells. Each of these has a special task, and it becomes invested with cork or wood to enable it to become part of the bark or the timber; or it remains soft and develops the green coloring matter, which enables it, when exposed to sunlight, to manufacture starch from carbon and water.

This is very similar to what takes place in the human organism, where the nutriment taken in is used up in the production of new cells, which are differentiated into muscle-cells, bone-cells, epidermal-cells, and so forth, building up or renewing muscles or nerves, bones or arteries; but the mechanism of distribution is different, the heart-pump doing the work of capillary attraction and gravitation. The ancients believed in the Dryads, spirits that were imprisoned in trees, and whose life was coterminous with that of the tree; and it will be seen that they had stronger physical justification for their belief than they knew. Shakespeare relates how Sycorax, the witch-mother of Caliban, imprisoned Ariel in a tree; and Huxley finely tells us that” The plant is an animal confined in a wooden case; and Nature, like Sycorax, holds thousands of’ delicate Ariels’ imprisoned in every oak. She is jealous of letting us know this; and among the higher and more conspicuous forms of plants reveals it only by such obscure manifestations as the shrinking of the Sensitive Plant, the sudden clasp of the Dionrea, or, still more slightly, by the phenomena of the cyclosis.”

The tree, as we have indicated, gets its food from the air and the soil. The rootlets have the power of dissolving the mineral salts in the soil in which they ramify; some authorities believing that they are materially helped in this respect-so far as organic matter is concerned-by a fungus that invests them with a mantle of delicate threads. However that may be, the fluid that is taken up by the roots is not merely water, but water plus dissolved mineral matter and nitrogen. At the same time as the roots are thus absorbing liquid nutriment, the leaves, pierced with thousands of little stomata, or mouths, take in atmospheric air, which is compounded chiefly of the gases oxygen and carbon. The leaf-cells containing the green coloring matter (chlorophyll) seize hold of the carbon and release the oxygen. The carbon is then combined with the fluid from the roots by the vital chemistry of the leaves, and is circulated all over the system for the sustenance of all the organs and tissues.

The flowering of the trees varies so greatly that it can only be dealt with satisfactorily as each species is described. It may be stated, however, that all the true forest trees are windfertilized, and therefore have inconspicuous greenish blossoms. By true forest trees we mean those that alone or slightly mixed are capable of forming high forest. The smaller trees, such as Crab, Rowan, Cherry, Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Buckthorn, etc., belong more to the open woodland, to the common and the hedgerow. These, from their habitat, can be seen singly, and therefore can make use of the conspicuous flowers that are fertilized by insects.

There are two points of view from which to regard trees-the mercantile and the esthetic.

The former is well exemplified in Dumbiedyke’s advice to Jock: “Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye’re sleeping.” The canny Scot was thinking of the” unearned increment” another generation might gather in, due to the almost unceasing activity of the vegetable cells in the manufacture of timber. The other view was expressed by “the Autocrat of the Breakfast-table” in a letter to a friend: “Whenever we plant a tree we are doing what we can to make our planet a more wholesome and happier dwelling-place for those who come after us, if not for ourselves.” But, after all, it is the trees that have been planted by Nature that give the greatest pleasure apart from commercial considerations-the lonely Pine, that grows in rugged grandeur on the edge of the escarpment where its seed was planted in the crevice by the wind; the Oak that grows outside the forest, where a squirrel or a jay dropped the acorn, and where the young tree had room all its life to throw out its arms as it would; the little cluster of Birches that springs from the ferns and moss of the hillside. All trees so grown develop an individuality that is not apparent in their fellows of the timber forest; and however we may delight in the peace and quiet of the forest, with its softened light and cool fragrant air, we can there only regard the trees in a mass.

We might, indeed, reverse the old saying, and declare that we cannot see the trees on account of the wood.

Nature and the timber-producer have different aims and pursue different methods in the making of forests, though the latter is not above taking a hint from the former occasionally. Nature mixes her seeds and sows them broadcast over the land she intends to turn into forest, that the more vigorous kinds may act as nurses, sheltering and protecting the less robust. Then comes the struggle for existence, with its final ending in the survival of the fittest. In the mean time the mixed forest bas given shelter to an enormous population of smaller fry-plants, mammals, birds, and insects-and has been a delightful recreation ground for man. The timber-producer aims at so controlling the struggle for existence that the survival of the fit is maintained from start to finish. He plants his young trees in regular order, putting in nurses at intervals and along the borders, intending to cut them down when his purpose has been served. The timber trees are allowed no elbow-room, the putting forth of lateral branches is discouraged, but steady upward growth and the production of “canopy” is abetted. His aim is to get these timber-sticks as near alike as possible, free from individuality and with the minimum of difference in girth at top and bottom of each pole. This means a thicker and longer balk of clean timber when the tree is felled and squared. The continuous canopy induces growth in the upward direction only, and discourages the weeds and undergrowth that add to the charm of the forest, but which unprofitably use up the wood-producing elements in the soil. This plan contrasts strongly with the views on planting formerly prevalent in this country, John Evelyn, for example, making a special point of giving the Oak room to stretch out its arms, “free from all incumbrances.” But, then, unlike the timber-producers, Evelyn had an eye for landscape beauty, and giving an opportunity for the display of such beauty. He says: “And if thus his Majesty’s forests and chases were stored, viz. with this spreading tree at handsome intervals, by which grazing might be improved for the feeding of deer and cattle under them (for such was the old Saltus), being only visited with the gleams of the sun, and adorned with the distant landscapes appearing through the glades and frequent valleys, nothing could be more ravishing.”

The greater the success of the forester, the more profound is the solemn stillness of the forest-and the more monotonous, In place of the natural forest, with its varied and teeming life, we have what Wordsworth called a timber factory. In the natural forest, with its mixture of many kinds of trees, the undergrowth of shrubs, and carpet of grass and weeds, the stronger trees spread out their arms in all directions, and fritter away (as the scientific forester would say) their wood-producing powers in making much firewood and little valuable timber. But the result is very beautiful, and -the nature-lover can wander among it without tiring, and can study without exhausting its treasures. Emerson says: ” In the woods is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years.” To the scientific forester this is all waste land, and he pleads for the” higher culture” being applied to it. With every desire that the natural resources of our country should be properly developed, we do hope that he will not be entirely successful in his efforts, and that a few of the woods and wastes of Nature’s own planting may be left for the recreation of the simple folk who have not yet taken to appraising the value of everything by the price it will fetch in the market.

The trees described herein are the really wild growths that have lived a natural life; and though many of the photographs are from planted trees, they are such as have been allowed to grow as they would, and show the characteristic branching of the species.