232 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



reason for their harmonising better with most hardwoods than 

 such trees as have the habit of the spruce or larch, and 

 possess a spiry top. Beech and Scots fir make a fine com- 

 bination, especially in autumn and spring, when the rich 

 tints of the former tree in autumn, and the warm purplish- 

 brown buds and twigs in spring, blend well with the dark 

 glaucous green of the Scots fir needles, and in sunlight 

 produce a rich mass of colour in isolated clumps, or on 

 the margins of woods. Birch and Scots fir, of course, is 

 a mixture which one almost looks for under any natural 

 conditions, and there are few trees which fail to mix with 

 Scots fir successfully. 



THE BIRCH. 



Another deciduous tree, which is naturally associated 

 with most types of woodland, is the birch. Being of lower 

 stature than most trees, it should not be mixed regularly 

 with them, but the two should stand more or less in dis- 

 tinct groups the Scots pine, spruce, etc., forming the larger 

 and thicker masses, and the birch scattered along their edges, or 

 standing thinly on the more open ground. The birch makes 

 a beautiful contrast to the pine. Its silvery, variegated bark, 

 and pendulous spray of purple twigs and buds in winter, its 

 delicate green in spring, its feathery plumes in summer, or 

 its pale yellow tint in autumn, relieve the dark and un- 

 changing hues of the Scots pine at the different seasons of 

 the year, while its more or less crooked and leaning stems 

 intensify the effect of the perpendicular columns of the 

 pines, and take away that somewhat monotonous and de- 

 pressing effect which large and unmixed pine woods are apt 

 to produce. Birch probably produces the best effect when 

 planted, and allowed to stand unthinned, in thick but small 

 clumps, with an occasional single tree or two in between. 

 These clumps throw out leaning stems in all directions, some 

 almost crawling along the ground for a short distance, and 

 then rising in graceful curves ; others growing into tall 

 slender poles, surmounted by a weeping head of delicate 

 spray. In fact, the birch is a tree which has many friends 



