On " The Point " Second Excursion 



the instant of full bloom with its countless sweeping 

 tassels of white, but in foliage it is inferior, and it lacks 

 the picturesque atmosphere of its relative. 



BIRCHES. The birch family belongs to what in Eu- 

 ropean society would be called the "upper middle 

 class," and a patent of nobility, more deserved than in 

 many such conferments, has been granted to one mem- 

 ber of it, the cut-leaved weeping white birch. All the 

 species black, yellow, red, paper, and white deserve 

 favorable mention, and the beauty of their forest-growth 

 is often transferred to adorn the lawn, all being found 

 in the Park. 



The black or sweet birch is most widely known, many 

 people's acquaintance with it being, indeed, more inti- 

 mate than they think, for it is the oil extracted from its 

 bark that gives the "wintergreen " flavor of a well- 

 known tooth - powder. This shares with the yellow 

 birch the peculiarity of having its leaves mostly in 

 pairs, giving unusual effect to a spray of foliage. The 

 most obvious difference of these two species is the yel- 

 lowish, silvery-gray bark of the latter, that exfoliates in 

 very thin layers whose ends are curled up, while the 

 dark-brown bark of the sweet birch shows only a trace 

 of exfoliation. In some yellow birches the trunk is as 

 beautiful as it is unusual ; the bark is less aromatic than 

 in the black birch. The river birch, with its branches 

 slender and drooping, furnishes material for " birch 

 brooms." 



The most ornamental are the " paper " and the white 

 birch ; the former, with broader, almost roundish, leaf, 



87 



