Tree

a perennial, woody plant, larger than a shrub. The distinction between a shrub and a tree is largely one of size. In the United States a plant is scarcely called a tree unless it has a stem twenty-five or thirty feet in height. The name is applied to plants also that may hardly be called woody, as the tree cactus of Arizona, and the tree fern of tropical regions. The largest trees in the world are said to be those in the forests of eucalyptus in the mountains near Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Next to these are the giant redwood trees of California. Trees that cast their foliage on the approach of winter are said to be deciduous; those that produce fresh leaves before the old are shed are called evergreen. Trees that bear cones are called coniferous. Some evergreen trees, as the laurel, are not coniferous; some coniferous trees, as the tamarack, are not evergreen. Nutbearing trees are nuciferous; berry-bearing trees are bacciferous. See Forestry; Lumber; and the different forest trees, as OAK; HICKORY; PINE; CHESTNUT; EUCALYPTUS; ELM; ASH; also orchard trees, as APPLE; CHERRY, etc.