the trees of great britain & ireland - Facsimile Books & other digitally ...

66 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
^ inch in length. Above these on the stem follow the true leaves, the first and
second orbicular in outline; the third and fourth showing lobes; all have long
slender petioles. The first year's growth terminates in a bud just above the
insertion of the fourth leaf. The primary root gives off a good many lateral fibres,
which are delicate and brittle. Seedlings which germinated at Colesborne early in
June were 3-4^ inches high in August, with roots of about the same length or slightly
shorter. According to Elwes there was no marked tendency to form a tap-root in
any of the specimens which he examined.
VARIETIES
Several forms are in cultivation, which differ from the wild tree in habit, in form
and colour of the leaves, and in colour of the flowers.
1. Var. pyramidalis, Lavallee. Tree with erect branches, forming a narrow
pyramid, like the fastigiate oak.
2. Var. integrifolia, Kirch. Leaves rounded at the base and without lobes. In
this form, the shape of the leaves of seedling trees is preserved.
3. Var. obtusiloba, Pursh. Leaves with only one rounded lobe on each side of
the base.
4. Var. heterophylla. Foliage variable ; some leaves being entire, others with
lobes, which are acute or obtuse.
5. Var. crispa.—Leaves with undulate margins.
6. Var. variegata?—Forms with variegated leaves, of which several sub-varieties
have received names, as argenteo-variegata, aureo-variegata, medio-picta. That known
as aureo-marginata 2 in which the edges of the leaves are yellow is the best.
7. Var. aurea.—Flowers yellow.
IDENTIFICATION
In summer, the shape of the leaves is unmistakable, resembling those of no
other hardy tree : the variety integrifolia, though without lobes, preserves the truncate,
slightly emarginate apex, in the centre of which may be seen the midrib prolonged
as a short bristle.
In winter, the twigs and buds are very characteristic. Buds: terminal, larger
than the lateral, which are alternate on the twigs, and arise from them at an angle of
45 . They are stalked, glaucous, glabrous, composed of 2 stipules joined together by
their edges, forming a closed sac, in which is contained the young shoot; 3 and on
opening it a leaf will be seen embracing an interior bud. It is folded on its mid-rib
with the stalk bent like a hook, bringing the apex of the leaf to the base of the bud.
The twigs are glabrous, shining brown or slightly hoary, and marked by stipular rings
just above the leaf-scars, which are circular, placed obliquely on prominent cushions,
and dotted like a sieve with cicatrices of the fibrous bundles. The lenticels are few
1 The variegated form in which the yellow marking occurs as irregular blotches in the central part of the leaves is well
depicted in Lemaire, Illust. Hwticole, xv. t. 571 (1868).
2 A good figure of the variety is given in Flore des Serres, xix. 2025 (1873).
3 Within the outer l>ud or sac are contained several younger buds, one within the other, each with a folded leaf.
,
Liriodendron
and minute. The pith is solid, but not continuous, being interrupted by woody cross-
partitions. (A. H.)
DISTRIBUTION
In Canada the tulip tree occurs 1 in rich soil in the western peninsula of Ontario,
from Hamilton to Huron Co. It forms a noble tree in the thick forest west of St.
Thomas, and has been found in Nova Scotia. 2
In New England it occurs in the valley of the Hoosac river, Mass., in the
Connecticut river valley, and in Rhode Island, where it is frequent. 3
It extends west to Southern Michigan as far north as Grand river, southward
through all the States east of the Mississippi to Alabama, attaining its maximum
size in the valleys of the Ohio river and its tributaries, and in the foot-hills and
valleys of the Southern Alleghany mountains, in Tennessee, Kentucky, and North
Carolina. West of the Mississippi it occurs commonly, though not in the south
eastern parts of Missouri and Arkansas. Its southern limit appears to be in
Northern Florida, Southern Alabama, and Mississippi.
Sargent says of this tree that it is one of the largest and most beautiful trees of
the American forest, only surpassed in the Eastern States by the occidental plane
and the deciduous cypress.
It sometimes attains in the deep river bottoms and warm, damp, summer climate
of Southern Indiana a height of 160-190 feet, with a straight trunk 8-10 feet in
diameter clear of branches for 80-100 feet from the ground. Individuals 100-150
feet tall with trunks 5-6 feet in diameter are still common. The branches, which are
small and short in proportion to the trunk, give this tree a pyramidal habit, except
in the case of old or very large individuals, on which the head is spreading.
I have seen it growing in the neighbourhood of Boston, where, however, it did
not seem to attain as large a size as in the south of England, and where seedlings
do not come up freely so far as I saw. Near the gate of the Arnold Arboretum the
largest tree, about 70 years old, was 85 feet high by 8 feet 6 in girth.
In Druidhill Park, Baltimore, it becomes a much finer tree, and surpassed in
height any other species growing there. The tallest I saw was in a shady dingle,
and measured 125 feet by n feet, with a straight clean stem. Older trees had
rough bark coming off in scales.
In the mountains of North Carolina, at Biltmore, I saw much larger trees, and
to give an idea of its development in this region I figure (Plate 24) a tree from a
photograph 4 kindly sent me by Mr. W. Ashe of the North Carolina Geological Survey,
taken in the winter. This tree, which stood in Yancey Co., North Carolina, was a
very characteristic specimen, more than 160 feet high and 6 feet in diameter at 5 feet
from the ground. The smaller timber having been cut from around it only a few
years previously, the form of the tree is perfectly typical, and shows the charac-
1 Macoun, Cat. Canadian Plants, pt. i. 28 (1883).
2 G. Lawson, Prof. N.S. fast. Science, 86 (1891).
3 Dame and Brookes, Trees of New England, 1 04 (1902).
4 Pinchot and Ashe, Bull. No. 6, North Carolina Geol. Surv. pt. ii. (1898).