Getting Acquainted with the Trees — Key Ideas to Explore

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Authors: McFarland, J. Horace (John Horace), 1859-1948 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2009 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Trees Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 39,383

Reading time 172 min

Text sections 7

The catalog record for Getting Acquainted with the Trees — Key Ideas to Explore provides practical reading context through 39,383 words, 2 hr 52 min estimated reading time, and 7 detected text sections.

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #28764

McFarland's 1904 tree guide blends personal observation with botanical detail, using seasonal changes and tree structure to encourage attentive looking. The author's photographs and informal tone make this a distinctive early nature-writing work.

Editorial Edition Score 4.7/5

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Text length15 pts
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File: pg28764

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Getting Acquainted with the Trees

_Illustrated from Photographs by the Author_

NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914

By The Outlook Company

Published April, 1904

Reprinted April, 1904

New edition September, 1906

Reprinted August, 1913 March, 1914.

These sketches are, I fear, very unscientific and unsystematic. They record the growth of my own interest and information, as I have recently observed and enjoyed the trees among which I had walked unseeing far too many years. To pass on, as well as I can, some of the benefit that has come into my own life from this wakened interest in the trees provided by the Creator for the resting of tired brains and the healing of ruffled spirits, as well as for utility, is the reason for gathering together and somewhat extending the papers that have brought me, as they have appeared in the pages of "The Outlook," so many letters of fellowship and appreciation from others who have often seen more clearly and deeply into the woods than I may hope to.

Driven out from my desk by weariness sometimes--and as often, I confess, by a rasped temper I would fain hide from display--I have never failed to find rest, and peace, and much to see and to love, among the common and familiar trees, to which I hope these mere hints of some of their features not always seen may send others who also need their silent and beneficent message.

A STORY OF SOME MAPLES 1

THE GROWTH OF THE OAK 25

WILLOWS AND POPLARS 95

THE ELM AND THE TULIP 131

NUT-BEARING TREES 157

List of Illustrations PAGE

Silver maple flowers 4

Young leaves of the red maple 7

"The Norway maple breaks into a wonderful bloom" 9

Samaras of the sugar maple 11

A mature sycamore maple 13

Sycamore maple blossoms 15

Flowers of the ash-leaved maple 17

Ash-leaved maples in bloom 19

The swamp white oak in winter 29

Flowers of the pin-oak 31

The swamp white oak in early spring 36

A blooming twig of the swamp white oak 41

Acorns of the English oak 47

A lone pine on the Indian river 53

Hemlock Hill, Arnold Arboretum 56

The long-leaved pines of the South 61

Fountain-like effect of the young long-leaved pines 62

An avenue of white pines 67

Cones of the white spruce 71

An apple orchard in winter 78

When the apple trees blossom 81

The Spectabilis crab in bloom 84

Fruits of the wild crab 87

The beauty of a fruiting apple branch 91

Bloom of double-flowering apple 94

A weeping willow in early spring 100

The weeping willow in a storm 103

A pussy-willow in a park 106

Blooms of the white willow 108, 109

A white willow in a characteristic position 112

Clump of young white willows 116

White poplars in spring-time 119

Carolina poplar as a street tree 123

Winter aspect of the cottonwood 126

A mature American elm 136

The delicate tracery of the American elm in winter 139

The English elm in winter 143

Winter effect of tulip trees 148

A great liriodendron in bloom 150

Flowers of the liriodendron 153

The wide-spreading black walnut 162

The American sweet chestnut in winter 165

Sweet chestnut blooms 167

A shagbark hickory in bloom 173

The true nut-eater 178

The American beech in winter 180

Sweet birch in spring 191

Flowers of the spice-bush 194

Leaves and berries of the American holly 195

American holly tree at Trenton 196

Floral bracts or involucres of the dogwood 199

The red-bud in bloom 201

Blooms of the shad-bush 206

Flowers of the American linden 207

The American linden 209

Flowers of the black locust 211

Young trees of the black locust 212

The sycamore, or button-ball 215

Button-balls--fruit of the sycamore 217

The leaves and fruit of the liquidambar 222

The papaw in bloom 226

Flowers of the papaw 227

The persimmon tree in fruiting time 231

Berries of the spice-bush 234

A Story of Some Maples

This is not a botanical disquisition; it is not a complete account of all the members of the important tree family of maples. I am not a botanist, nor a true scientific observer, but only a plain tree-lover, and I have been watching some trees bloom and bud and grow and fruit for a few years, using a camera now and then to record what I see--and much more than I see, usually!

In the sweet springtime, when the rising of the sap incites some to poetry, some to making maple sugar, and some to watching for the first flowers, it is well to look at a few tree-blooms, and to consider the possibilities and the pleasures of a peaceful hunt that can be made with profit in city street or park, as well as along country roadsides and in the meadows and the woods.

Continue Reading →

McFarland opens his tree sketches with a confession: he walked unseeing among trees for years before a wakened interest took hold. This personal origin shapes the book's structure—each chapter moves from a tree's winter silhouette through its spring flowers, summer leaves, and autumn fruit, as if the author is discovering these features in real time. The photographs, taken by McFarland himself, reinforce this observational stance, capturing branches against sky or bark in close detail.

The book's arrangement is not strictly botanical. Chapters group trees by family or habit—maples, oaks, pines, apples, willows and poplars, elms and tulip trees, nut-bearing trees, and a final catch-all. Within each, McFarland shifts between personal anecdote, descriptive natural history, and occasional advocacy for scientific names over common ones.

From Winter Outline to Spring Bloom

McFarland repeatedly returns to the tree's winter form as a starting point for acquaintance. He describes the liriodendron (tulip tree) against an early April sky, its twisty branches interlaced, and remembers the pure beauty of that silhouette. For the swamp white oak, he notes its winter aspect before moving to its spring flowers. This pattern—beginning with bare structure, then adding seasonal layers—gives the book a rhythm of slow revelation.

The author's eye for shape is precise: the elm's delicate tracery, the Lombardy poplar's columnar form, the white willow in a storm. He often compares trees to each other, as when he says the tulip tree is utterly dissimilar in form from the American elm. These structural observations ground the more lyrical passages about flowers and foliage.

Recurring Images: Flowers, Samaras, and Candlesticks

Certain visual motifs appear across chapters. Maple samaras (the winged fruits) are described for several species—silver maple, sugar maple, ash-leaved maple. The tulip tree's seed cones are called curious candlesticks. Oak flowers, often overlooked, get close attention: pin-oak blossoms, swamp white oak blooming twigs. McFarland seems drawn to the small, easily missed reproductive parts that mark the tree's annual cycle.

He also notes how light plays on bark and leaves. The Norway maple breaks into a wonderful bloom; the white poplars in spring-time catch the eye. These recurring attention to flowers and fruits—not just leaves and trunks—gives the book a phenological thread, tracking what appears when.

Movement Between Forest and Garden

McFarland shifts between wild and cultivated settings. He describes the long-leaved pines of the South, a lone pine on the Indian River, and hemlock hill in the Arnold Arboretum. An apple orchard in winter contrasts with the Spectabilis crab in bloom. The weeping willow appears in a park, then in a storm. This movement between natural and planted landscapes reflects the author's own path from city desk to countryside.

The book's illustrations reinforce this: photographs show both forest scenes and individual trees in open ground. McFarland notes how a tree's form changes depending on whether it grows in close forest or open place—the tulip tree towers with a clean bole in the woods but assumes a conical shape in the open. This attention to context is a subtle structural element.

The Author's Voice: Confession and Advocacy

McFarland's foreword sets a tone of personal discovery: he writes of being driven out from his desk by weariness or a rasped temper, finding rest among common trees. This first-person framing recurs throughout, as when he admits to having walked unseeing for years. The book is as much about learning to see as about the trees themselves.

He also advocates for using scientific names, arguing that liriodendron is no harder to pronounce than chrysanthemum. This pedagogical impulse—wanting readers to adopt precise language—runs alongside the observational descriptions. The result is a hybrid work: part memoir, part field guide, part gentle argument for botanical literacy.

Readers will find this book most useful if they follow McFarland's own method: start with a single tree in winter, note its outline, then return through the seasons. The photographs serve as visual anchors, but the real guide is the author's patient attention to detail. The book does not aim to be a complete botanical manual; it is an invitation to look more closely at the trees already around us.

That rainy afternoon, McFarland’s photographs made me pause over a single oak branch, noticing how its bark held the day’s dampness. His unhurried observations felt almost like a conversation, and I found myself wondering who else had walked these same woods with such patience. That curiosity led me, quite gently, to Wayside and woodland trees — Reading Companion, whose quieter tone felt like sitting beside an old friend on a mossy log, watching the same rain fall.