Nightshade, Jimsonweed,
Poke-weed, Poison Hemlock?

[Illustration: SHOWY PRIMROSE

Not a true Primrose, but a member of the Evening Primrose Family. Range:
Prairies of western United States and northern Mexico; also naturalized
farther east. Photograph by Mr. and Mrs. Leo E. Miller.]

Trees

_He who wanders widest lifts
No more of beauty's jealous veils,
Than he who from his doorway sees
The miracle of flowers and trees._
--_Whittier_

The trees of the forest are of two classes, deciduous trees and
evergreen trees. To the former belong those which shed their leaves in
the fall, are bare in the winter, and then grow a new crop of leaves in
the spring, e.g., oaks, elms, maples. The evergreen trees shed their
leaves also, but not all at one time. In fact, they always have a
goodly number of leaves, and are consequently green all the year round,
e.g., pines, spruces, firs.

[Illustration: RHODODENDRON OR GREAT LAUREL

A tall shrub, or sometimes a tree, growing in woods and along streams.
Range: Eastern North America from Nova Scotia to Georgia. Photograph by
Albert E. Butler.]

The uses of wood are so many and various that we can only begin to
mention them. In looking about us we see wood used in building houses,
in making furniture, for railroad ties, and for shoring timbers in
mines. In many country districts wood is used for fuel. And do you
realize that only a short time ago the newspaper which you read this
morning and the book which you now hold in your hand were parts of
growing trees in the forest? Paper is made of wood-pulp, mostly from
Spruce.

[Illustration: CHRISTMAS FERN

An evergreen fern growing in woods and rocky places. Range: Eastern
United States and Canada. Photograph by Mary C. Dickerson.]

Besides the direct uses of wood, we turn to the forest for many
interesting and valuable products, varying in importance from a
balsam-pillow filled with the fragrant leaves or needles of the Balsam
Fir, to turpentine and rosin (naval stores), produced chiefly by the
Long-leaved Pine of the Southeastern States. Spruce gum is obtained from
the Black Spruce and Red Spruce. Canada balsam used in cementing lenses
together in microscopes, telescopes, and the like, comes from the
Balsam Fir. Bark for tanning comes from Oak and Hemlock. The Indians of
the Eastern Woodlands or Great Lakes area made canoes and many other
useful