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[Ill.u.s.tration: Morel]
Puffb.a.l.l.s (_Lycoperdaceae_)
The next important and safe group are the puffb.a.l.l.s before they begin to puff. All our puffb.a.l.l.s when young and solid white inside are good, wholesome food. Some of them, like the brain puffball or the giant puffball, are occasionally a foot in diameter, and yield flesh enough to feed a dozen persons.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Brain puffball]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Pear puffball]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Cup puffball]
They are well known to all who live in the country, their smooth rounded exterior, without special features except the {127} roots, and their solid white interior are easily remembered. Peel, slice, and fry.
Bibliography
The following are standard and beautifully ill.u.s.trated works on mushrooms and toadstools. They have been freely used for guidance and ill.u.s.trations in the preparation of the above:
"Edible Fungi of New York." By Charles H. Peck. Published by New York State Museum, Albany, 1900.
"The Mushroom Book." By Nina L. Marshall. Published 1902 at New York by Doubleday, Page & Co. $3.50.
"One Thousand American Fungi." By McIllvaine and Macadam. Published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company of Indianapolis, 1902. $3.00. Add 40 cents express.
"Mushrooms." G. F. Atkinson. Holt & Co.
"The Mushroom." M. E. Hard. The Ohio Library Co., Columbus, Ohio.
COMMON NORTH AMERICAN TREES
White Pine (_Pinus strobus_)
A n.o.ble evergreen tree, up to 175 feet high. This is the famous pine of New England, the lumberman's prize. Its leaves are in bunches of five, and are 3 to 5 inches long; cones 4 to 6 inches long. Wood pale, soft, straight-grained, easily split. Newfoundland to Manitoba and south to Illinois.
[Ill.u.s.tration: White pine]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Hemlock]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Red cedar]
{128}
There are many different kinds of pines. They are best distinguished by their cones.
Hemlock (_Tsuga Canadensis_)
Evergreen. Sixty to seventy feet high. Wood pale, soft, coa.r.s.e, splintery, not durable. Bark full of tannin. Leaves 1/2 to 3/4 inches long; cones about the same. Its knots are so hard that they quickly turn the edge of an axe or gap it as a stone might; these are probably the hardest vegetable growth in our woods. Its topmost twig usually points easterly. Nova Scotia to Minnesota, south to Delaware and Michigan.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Cottonwood]
[Ill.u.s.tration: s.h.a.gbark]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Walnut]
Red Cedar (_Juniperus Virginiana_)
Evergreen. Any height up to 100 feet. Wood, heart a beautiful bright red; sap wood nearly white; soft, weak, but extremely durable as posts, etc. Makes a good bow. The tiny scale-like leaves are 3 to 6 to the inch; the berry-like cones are light blue and 1/4 of an inch in diameter. It is found in dry places from Nova Scotia to Florida and west to British Columbia.
Cottonwood (_Populus deltoides_)
Small and rare in the Northeast, but abundant and large {129} in West; even 150 feet high. Leaves 3 to 6 inches long. Found from Quebec to Florida and west to the mountains.
s.h.a.gbark or White Hickory (_Hicoria ovata_)
A tall forest tree up to 120 feet high. Known at once by the great angular slabs of bark hanging partly detached from its main trunk, forced off by the growth of wood, but too tough to fall. Its leaves are 8 to 14 inches long, with 5 to 7 broad leaflets.
Black Walnut (_Juglans nigra_)
A magnificent forest tree up to 150 feet high. Wood, a dark purplish-brown or gray; hard, close-grained, strong, very durable in weather or ground work, and heavy; fruit round, 1-3/4 inches through.
Leaflets 13 to 23, and 3 to 5 inches long. Found from Canada to the Gulf.
White Walnut or b.u.t.ternut (_Juglans cinerea_)
A much smaller tree than the last, rarely 100 feet high, with much smoother bark, leaves similar but larger and coa.r.s.er, compound of fewer leaflets, but the leaflet stalks and the new twigs are covered with sticky down. Leaves 15 to 30 inches long, leaflets 11 to 19 in number and 3 to 5 inches long; fruit oblong, 2 to 3 inches long. New Brunswick and Dakota and south to Mississippi.
Common Birch or Aspen-leaved Birch (_Betula populifolia_)
