Month: April 2022

From Friends of Sligo Creek:

In the August following, a young man living on a nearby farm was attracted by the beech standing close by the bridle path. His fingers were skillful in lettering with a knife, and the smooth bole of the tree enticed him. His first thought was to carve the name of the commander who had brought the final victory to the Union cause. So, as high as he could comfortably reach, he inscribed, “Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.”

Then a more ambitious plan leaped into his brain. He would carve the names of all the Presidents of the United States as a memorial to his country, so recently saved from disunion. Painstakingly he began in firm, even letters…

From Eukaryote Writes Blog:

Wood, as you may have guessed by now, is also not a clear phyletic category. But it’s a reasonable category – a lignin-dense structure, usually that grows from the exterior and that forms a pretty readily identifiable material when separated from the tree. (…Okay, not the most explainable, but you know wood? You know when you hold something in your hand, and it’s made of wood, and you can tell that? Yeah, that thing.)