186 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



The hoary cliffs arc crown'd wi' flowers, 

 Wliite o'er tlie linns the bui'nie pours, 

 And rising, weets wi' misty showers, 

 The birks of Aberfeldy, 

 Bonnie lassie, &c. 



Let fortune's gifts at random flee. 

 They ne'er shall draw a wish fi'ae me. 

 Supremely blest wi' love and thee. 

 In the birks of Aberfeldy, 

 Bonnie lassie, &c." 



And atrain : — 



Keats describes : — 



" Lot fragrant birks, in woodbines drest, 

 Thy craggy cliffs adorn, 

 And for the little songster's nest 

 The close embow'ring thorn." 



" The silvery stems 

 Of deKcate bircb trees." 



And Professor Wilson gives us a beautiful description of a birch tree in his " Isle 

 of Palms:" — 



" On the green slope 

 Of a romantic glade we sate ns down. 

 Amid the fragi-ance of the yellow broom ; 

 While o'er our heads the weeping birch tree stream'd 

 Its branches, arching like a fountain shower." 



Sdb-Species II. — Betiila glutinosa. Fries. 



Plate MCCXCVI. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, ct Hclv. Vol. XII. Tab. DCXXIII. Fig. 1282. 



B. pubesccns, Ehrh. Koch, Syn. FL Germ, ct Helv. ed. ii. ]). 701. Gren. & GuJr. Fl, 



de Fr. Vol. III. p. 147. Crep. Man. Fl. Belg. cd. ii. p. 271. 

 B. alba, Reich. Ic. I.e. p. 2. 

 B. alba, var. ft, IIool: & A rn. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 3G5. 



Leaves rliomboidMl-ovatc or ovate, rounded or having a right or 

 even acute angle at the base, or sometimes subcordatc on the barren 

 shoots. Catkin-scales of the female catkin with the lateral lobes 

 ascendinir. 



"o 



Var. a, denudata. Gren. & Godr. 



B. glutinosa, Wallr. Sched. Grit. p. 497. 



B. earpatica, " Waltht. & Kit. Willd. Spec. Plant, Vol. IV. p. 4G4 " (Wallroth). 



Young branches and leaves glabrous and resinous. 



