148 THE BIECH AND THE ALDER. 



highlands. Here, too, like the Osmunda, they often 

 creep down to the edge of the loch. 



The silver birch, Betula alba, is known even to 

 the most incurious observer, being distinguished 

 from every other tree by the shining whiteness of 

 the bark ; it is remarkable also for the extreme 

 tenuity of its twigs, which in the variety called pen- 

 dula, droop so elegantly, and give an air of such 

 charming grace and modesty to the tree, combined 

 with the expression of a tender and high-souled 

 melancholy, that it has been well named the " lady 

 of the woods." Certainly no tree familiar to the 

 eye in northern temperate latitudes presents a 

 spectacle more consummately soft and delicate. The 

 mimosas and jacarandas of the tropics may rival it 

 perhaps in lace-like transparency; and there are 

 many glorious trees of silvered foliage, such as the 

 oleaster, which stand on a par with it as regards 

 gloss, when illuminated by the sunshine. But take 

 it all in all, even in the presence of these illustrious 

 rivals from the tropics, to the birch, wherever it 

 stands, will probably be awarded the foremost place 

 in admiration. The marvellous beauty of the tree 

 is, after all, seen better in winter than in summer. 

 Not until the branches have denuded themselves 

 and the various denizens of the woodlands stand 

 like the goddesses before Paris on Mount Ida, are 

 the matchless symmetry and proportions, the white- 

 ness and the queenly figure, brought out in their 



