12.
when making up your tree diary. While you
do your study, collect some samples of leaves,
press them, or cover them with a plastic
sticky seal. Keep the flowers and fruit,
date each correctly (likewise needles and
cones) and keep notes. Measure your tree,
height and girth.
Take a bark rubbing using a wax crayon.
Rub the crayon across the paper one way only
and watch the bark appearing.
Soon you will notice the
lenticels appearing (the
breathing pores). Each tree
will look different. See
whether you can see a scar
appearing (of a small dead
branch). When your rubbing
is complete, name it care-
fully and add it to your
diary.
Of course this is only the beginning of
your interest. You can now go on and look
much closer at the flowers. Are the flowers
all the same or are some different? Perhaps
your flowers are male and female or maybe
male and a nearby tree female.
It doesn't matter when you start your
diary: spring, summer, autumn, winter. So
you can start now. Keep a diary and really
learn about trees. For wood is the only re-
plenishable fuel that this world has!
ANN BATTERBURY
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