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| Many of them are tall and stately, straight as an arrow with no lateral branches until near the top, real objects of beauty to those who can appreciate a beautiful tree. Maurice Thompson says of its flowers: "Out of a giant tulip-tree, A great gay blossom falls on me, Old gold and fire its petals are, It flashes like a falling star," The blossom frequently produce a large flow of nectar and are visited by bees and many other insects, thus securing fertilization which owing to the structure of the flower the visits of a single species might fail to do. The fruit is an oblong cone-like structure of many seeds. The seeds have a key-like wing, much like those of the ash, that aids in their distrubution by the wind. The four lobed leaves that look as though the end was snipped off are easily distinguished from those of any other tree. In early autumn they turn a golden yellow color. No other tree contributes more to the charm of the autumn wood. THE HONEYCOMB ROCKS Just opposite the Furnace on the Westmoreland County side of the creek there is a peculiar formation known locally as the Honeycomb Rocks. It consists of a series of irregular pocket-like pits which bear some resemblance to the cells of a honeycomb. Just how this formation was produced is difficult to determine. Possibly when the material of which this strata is composed was yet in a plastic state some harder material was injected into it thus making this formation possible. These rocks are comparatively soft and subject to disintegration; in fact the cove in which this freak of nature is located has been caused by action gradual wearing away of the rock by the action of the elements. This erosion does not effect the harder parts that form the walls of these cells and thus leave this series of pocket-like pits. The sand deposits that are constantly being formed on the floor of this cove affords a home for that curious insect called the Ant Lion, the same creature that we termed "Mully Ups" in our childhood days. |
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