204 FOREST TREES. 



most in Sweden and Norway, it has received the name 

 of Norway maple. Its appearance and uses so much 

 resemble the species last mentioned, that a particular 

 description is unnecessary. 



Mouse Wood. In the British provinces in America, 

 m New England, and in small quantities farther south, 

 a small species of maple constitutes a large portion of the 

 underbrush in many of the forests. It seldom grows to 

 more than ten feet in height, and four or five inches in 

 diameter. The light color and fine grain of the wood, 

 bring it into use in some of the smaller work of cabinet- 

 makers, but its small size will prevent an extensive ap- 

 plication of it in the useful or domestic arts. 



This is one of the first trees to announce the approach 

 of spring. This circumstance, together with its -rapid 

 growth, and thick and beautiful foliage, has brought it 

 into extensive cultivation in the parks and gardens of 

 Europe. 



The principal use mado of it in America is the brows- 

 ing of cattle at the opening of spring, when the buds 

 are swollen, the twigs tender, and rich in saccharine 

 matter. At this time the various kinds of domestic ani- 

 mals, as well as the moose and other animals in the 

 forest, feed upon the buds, twigs and branches of this 

 tree with avidity. The first settlers observing the ra- 

 pidity with which this tree was devoured by moose, then 

 abounding in the forests, gave it the name of moose 

 wood, which it has ever since retained. 



No tree of the forest rises with such majesty in north- 

 ern climates as the birch. It is found as far north as the 

 seventieth degree of latitude, though under the intense 

 cold to which it is there exposed, it appears only as a 

 shrub. A few degrees farther south, it rises to the 

 height of seventy or eighty feet, and between the sixty- 

 fifth and fiftyfifth degrees of latitude, is the tallest and 

 hardiest of the trees which compose the forests. 



On the other continent, Russia, Sweden, Norway and 

 Lapland are the countries where the different species of 

 birch abound ; on this continent, Canada, the New Eng- 



