TREE PLANTING IN UTAH. 239 



periment under consideration. For, with our present limited 

 experience with them, it cannot be said that they are a success, 

 and yet I hesitate to say they are a failure. We have but the 

 two following" species : 



Canoe or Paper Birch. (Betula papyrifera Marsh.) This 

 species, in its habitat, reaches the magnitude of a true 

 forest tree, and is, perhaps, the thriftiest of all the birches. It 

 is a noble tree, having- a tall, straight shaft, which bears a 

 massive canopy of bright green leaves; the bark, though white, 

 has not the snowiness of a true white birch. Its wood is red- 

 dish brown, is strong- and hard, and weighs 37 pounds per cubic 

 foot. We have now but four specimens of this species; these 

 have made a very slow growth; their average height is 18 feet, 

 and their average circumference 13 inches. From its behavior 

 in this experiment, the Canoe Birch seems to have but few 

 qualities to recommend it for this region. 



White Birch. (Betula populifolia Marsh.) There are no 

 trees to which the terms white, black, red and yellow are so 

 well applied as to the various species of the birch which bear 

 these names. In every case, the color so plainly demonstrates 

 the propriety of the name, that no person could mistake the 

 species to which the epithet is applied. Of the one under con- 

 sideration, this is particularly true. 



The White Birch is a small, slender tree, seldom reaching 

 a greater height than 50 feet, having smooth, snowy white bark. 

 It grows best on a light, dry soil. Our specimens are growing 

 on the lawn as ornamentals, a purpose for which they are hardly 

 surpassed, if planted as specimen trees. On the College cam- 

 pus, it cannot be said they have done particularly well; but 

 near by in the park surrounding the Logan Temple, and about 

 several homes in the city of Logan, are a number of white 

 birches, and better specimens could hardly be found. This, 

 and its horticultural varieties, have finely divided branches, 

 which incline to a drooping habit, or assume that habit, and 

 bear slender, feathery sprays of small, tremulous leaves, some- 

 times cut, which make them, altogether, remarkably elegant 

 and graceful trees. Poets call it "the lady of the woods." It 

 looks best planted as a specimen tree, where it can have a back 

 ground of tall shrubs or small trees. 



