1898.] ESSAYS. 27 



very pleasing tree to the cultivated eye, and sure to be marked 

 in any collection as one of nature's best works in the beeches. 

 Its growth is slow unless planted in good soil, when it makes a 

 vigorous growth. 



The American beech, found more or less over our northern 

 regions, is much admired for its singularly neat and airy foliage, 

 which often adheres to the branches during the winter. When 

 in groups, they are delightful in their many excellent features ; 

 always in full foliage, as but few insects injure them. 



The lindens (Tt'Iia), once so popular, are now much less 

 planted. The American, commonly called Bass, makes a stately 

 tree, with a large leaf; and in July their flowers fill the air 

 with delicate perfume. 



The birches are an ornamental class of trees quite distinct in 

 their habits of growth and foliage, prove well adapted to many 

 situations and are charming in the landscape. 



The Cut-Leaved birch is most esteemed and more largely 

 used for planting. It makes a graceful tree of upright and 

 partially weeping growth. The graceful sweep of its pendulous 

 branches, with its beautifully cut and varnished leaf and with its 

 snow-white bark, it must rank queen of the birches. 



The Canoe birch about here is in its southern limit, and does 

 not attain the same diameter of trunk that it does in more 

 northern regions. I have watched the growth of one specimen 

 for nearly forty years, until it is now almost two feet in diame- 

 ter ; its clear white papery bark giving a marked effect to the 

 trunk, well furnished with branch and leaf. Where it flourishes, 

 it is truly a picturesque tree, of spreading, graceful form, and its 

 cultivation should be encourag-ed. 



The Black or Sweet birch is the very first of the family that 

 the boy learns to recognize, as he bites the fragrant bark. The 

 tree has many fine features, and is beautiful in its golden 

 racemes and airy leaf; it is deservedly finding its way from the 

 wild to cultivated grounds, and thrives therein. 



There has been recently introduced, I believe from England, 

 the Purple birch. Both bark and leaf are intensely purple, 

 promising to cope with the Purple beech. With purple tint and 



