i86 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



Because it is common and the wood rather weak and 

 soft, landscape gardening has rather passed it by, 

 turning a cold shoulder, yet the slender tree is very 

 beautiful. True, it has not the length of life, the girth 

 and strength of limb, of the silver-barked canoe birch, 

 but the white birch will grow in a climate that fevers 

 its northern cousin. In spite of its delicate qualities, 

 it is not a trivial tree, for I have seen it with a bole of 

 more than forty feet in length, measuring eighteen 

 inches through at the ground. When you set it, you 

 are not planting for posterity, perhaps, but will gain a 

 speedy result ; and the fertility of the tree, when once 

 established, will take care of the future. 



What is more charming after a summer shower than 

 a natural cluster of these picturesque birches, as they 

 often chance to group themselves in threes, like the 

 Graces the soft white of the trunks, with dark hiero- 

 glyphic shadows here and there disappearing in a drap- 

 ery of glossy leaves, green above and reflecting the bark 

 colour underneath, all a-quiver and more like live things 

 poised upon the russet twigs than delicate pointed leaves ! 

 Then, when the autumn comes, how they stand out in 

 company with cedar bushes and sheep laurel on the hill- 

 sides to make beautiful the winter garden, and we stand 

 in mute admiration when these white birches reach from 



