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At the junction of Walks here, one cross-walk runs 

 off to the east and one to the west. Let us now fol- 

 low the easterly or right-hand one. Beyond the cop- 

 per beeches, a short distance, out on the smooth green 

 of the lawn, about midway between the Walk and the 

 Street, stands a white birch. It is the European white 

 birch, Betula alba. You can tell it chiefly by its leaves 

 which are rather small and ovate, slightly deltoid, and 

 rather unequally cut on the margins. You can dis- 

 tinguish it from our native canoe or paper birch by its 

 bark and trunk alone. The trunk of the canoe birch 

 is plump and rounded, of a cleaner, more chalky 

 white, and far less marked with the "eyebrows" or 

 dark streaks where the branches shoot out from the 

 trunk. But if these points of difference are not enough, 

 examine the leaves. They will surely set you right. 

 The leaf of the paper birch is heart-shaped at the base 

 and long ovate with a tapering point. The only other 

 white birch this tree might be taken for, by the novice, 

 is the American white or gray birch, the leaf of which 

 is distinctly triangular and exceedingly taper-pointed, 

 with a decidedly truncate and broad base. Our gray 

 birch's bark is of a cream white and often flushed 

 with a beautiful reddish tinge. On young trees the 

 tinge is of a deep salmon or copper hue. So the 

 white birches are very easily distinguished. 



Just in front of the European birch is a clump of 

 ninebark with trifoliate-shaped leaves and, in front of 

 the ninebark, a smaller bush with leaves which are 

 distinctly white or "snowy" on the undersides. This 

 is Hydrangea nivea, and in June or July it lifts over 



