74 



But the best sight the striped maple has to show is 

 its bloom. Try to catch it in late April or early 

 May, when it is letting down its lovely fairy-like ra- 

 cemes of tenderest green. It is then the very essence 

 of grace and delicacy. The leaf of the striped maple 

 has a decided goose-foot look. Beyond the striped 

 maple are European beech (note its tender leaves with 

 edges entire, frilled with delicate hairs) and European 

 flowering ash again. 



A few feet further along, on the right of the Walk 

 we meet a yellow-wood, and back of the yellow-wood, 

 about half way toward the Drive is a white paper 

 or canoe birch (Betula papyrifera). As there are sev- 

 eral varieties of white birch near here, it is a good 

 place to note their distinguishing features. The 

 canoe or paper birch has long, ovate, taper-pointed, 

 heart-shaped leaves ; the American white or gray birch 

 has triangular shaped leaves, very conspicuously taper 

 pointed and very truncate at their broad bases. This 

 is the Betula populifolia or poplar leaved birch. If 

 you know the leaf of the Lombardy poplar you will see 

 the significance of this name. Another white birch, 

 very frequent in the Park is the European white birch, 

 Betula alba, with rather deltoid leaves and, in the cut- 

 leaved variety, laciniata, very beautifully in-cut. These 

 are the usual varieties of the white birch in the Park 

 and you can tell them at once by their leaves. The 

 canoe birch, at its best, has a brilliant chalky white 

 bark, a very beautiful specimen of which you will 

 find near the Plaza Entrance, described in the first 

 chapter of this book. 



