Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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The mountain laurel, rhododendron and most of our conifers are evergreen ; the buckeye unfolds its leaves in April; and the. catalpa and coffee nut do not show much foliage until late in May. The leaves of the sumach and horse chestnut fall early in autumn; while those of the pin oak are abundant until December, and those of the California privet hang on until nearly spring. The texture of the trees and shrubs is an indefinable something, contributed in some cases by the leaves; in others by the branches, but more frequently by both, that gives them much of their personalities. The huge bipinnate leaves of the Hereul,es Club, and the pinnate ones of the sumach, standing out at right angles to their upright branches, give a bold, sub-tropical effect. The drooping branches of the weeping willow and Tea's mulberry give them their characteristic weeping effect. The spreading branches and fine sprays of the tamarask, with its tiny green or grayish leaves, give it an airy character, that may be brought out attractively by a back ground of denser, darker foliage. One of the interesting sights along the streams of the Eastern States is that of the red birches growing on the brink and leaning over the water with great masses of brownish shredding bark, hanging loosely from their trunks. Equally picturesque are the native buttonwoods, with their whit.e trunks and branches, mottled with olive green and marked with occasional patches of dull brown flaking bark, reflected in the water beneath. The bright branches of the red twigged dogwoods and golden willows and the green of the kerrias are familiar to many of you. But the moosewood, or striped maple, is unexcelled in the coloring of its bark. The trunks and older branches are deep green, daintily streaked with white, while the branchlets are red on the runny side, merging into green on the shady side. The purplish staminatc catkins of the hazels and alders, the huge glossy buds of the horse chestnut and the large fuzzy buds of many of the magnolias add attractiveness during the winter. The little yellow flowers of the Japanese witchhazel unfold in the cold month of February and are followed by the grayish catkins of the pussywillow and quaking aspen at the break of spring. Then come the golden bells, magnolias, lilacs, mock oranges, spiraeas and dentzias, sour wood and varnish trees, althaeas, hydrangeas and the interesting Gordoia, so nearly extinct. And November ends the pageant of bloom with our native witch-hazel. But often the fruit is more ornamental than the flowers themselves. The pale, sulphur-colored blossoms of Thunberg's barberry are not showy; but the bright scarlet berries, hanging on the branchlets until the following spring, do much to liven the winter landscape. The same is true of the corymbs of bright red berries of the high bush cranberry and the dens.e, dark red panicles of the sumach. The shiny black fruits of the white kerria persist for a year: and a haw tree, when load.ed with its brilliant? fruit, is as beautiful as it is in blossom. If you would have humming birds, plant honeysuckles and weigelas; if you would have cat-birds plant shad bushes; if you would have robins, plant cherries and the Russian mulberry; if you would have the birds that winter in the north to make their home near you, plant evergreens and trees and bushes that carry, their fruit through the winter. 11

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Some Ornamental Characters and Seasonal Values of Woody Plants The trees and shrubs appeal to our sense of beauty and grandeur in many ways; by their size, by their general outlines, and the character and arrangement of their branches; by the color, abundance and duration of their foliage, their texture and the color and character of their bark; by their buds, tlieir blossoms and their fruit, by the birds they attract and by their asociation with our childhood memories. No appreciative person can look upon a large tree, stretching its branches high and wide, without being impressed by it. No responsive person can walk through a forest without a feeling akin to reverence. The trees vary in outline from the almost globular form of the Nor wav-maple, through the white pines, with their pyramidal forms and the dense wliorls of branches with gaps between, and the firs and spruces with their conical outlines, to the irregularity of the old willows and the columnar forms of the Tombardy poplars. And the same tree changes its shape, as it grows. The young elm is vasiform; but it broadens as the years go by, until at full maturity it has a broad rounded top, with arching branches. The sweet cherry and button-wood have central leaders and a regular, rather upright, growth when young, but they become more spreading and lose their trunks in branches, as they grow older. And trees vary in the distinctness of their outlines. Some, as the horse-chestnut, stand out sharply against the sky while others, as the Weir’s cutleaved maple, have a feathery indistinctness. The sharply upward growth of the branches of the Lombardy poplar accentuates its height. The slender, pendant branches of the weeping birch give it an air of fragile gracefulness. The huge shoots of the Hercules Club, when it is bare of leaves, express sturdiness and boldness. We are likely to think of the foliage of the trees and shrubs, as simply green; but it varies greatly in the shade of color. And the general color effect of a tree at a distance maybe very different from that of a leaf in one’s hand. The California privet is a dark green, the red maple a medium green, the pin oak a shining green, the white willow a grayish green, and the native buttonwood a yellowish green. Of course, the health and vigor of the tree or shrub may have a great influence upon its color, the more healthy the tree is, the darker its foliage. There are also nursery grown trees and shrubs with variegated leaves or reddish, purple or yellowish foliage. Such specimens take away from the beauty of their surroundings instead of adding to it, unless they be used very sparingly and skilfully. 'File range of autumn colors, from the green to the crimsons of the oaks, the scarlets of the maples, and the yellows and browns of the beeches, is one of the most beautiful sights that the world affords. The horse chestnut and Norway maple have dense, heavy foliage masses, while that of the ginko or maiden-hair tree drapes rather than covers its trunk and branches, that, like a group of spires, point to the different quarters of the sky. j 10

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The trees have personalities. Where can one, tired in mind and body, find a more restful place to lie than under a hemlock tree? How expressive of hospitality and sympathy is the widespreading elm, with its arching branches! But who would go for consolation to the shade of a Lombardy poplar? We may not own one rod of ground, yet the trees and shrubs offer us a wealth of ever-changing beauty and interest, that may be ours, if we hut see and understand it. 1QHN LINDLEY DOAN. i STARS Last year, his service flag with star of blue Hung from my window, gay and brave. Proclaiming proudly to the world that he (and I?) had gone to war Through bitter cold, the blinding snow and biting sleet It beat against the pane, reminding me of him, And looking out I saw—no, not the flag with star of blue— But my boy, “standing his watch” high on the swaying main mast, Trying to pierce the night with brave young eyes, Calling from time to time to those who watched below: “All’s well—All’s well.” Tonight—a golden star shines high in Heaven’s deep sea blue—his star. My boy rests safe within the harbor’s calm. No storm-tossed ship—no lurking shark-like foe, No bitter cold nor cutting winds, nor bugle calls to watch or fight, Can wake him from a sleep so unlike that of youth— I stifle my sobs and still the beating of my heart, To listen, listen, listen. Was it his voice or just the teasing wind that calls: “All’s well, Mother.” MARY GOODWIN HUBBELL. 12