84 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



green leaves this tree makes a fine show in an open 

 space where there is no interference with its vigorous 

 growth. Its wood is reddish brown, line grained, and 

 is well adapted to cabinet work. As a matter of fact, 

 it is often stained to imitate mahogany, and so treated 

 one is completely deceived as to the true nature of 

 the wood. Its bark does not separate into thin layers, 

 like that of the paper birch. 

 Yellow Birch. The yellow birch gets its name from 

 Betuia lutea. fts yellowish trunk ; there is really 

 little yellow in it, but enough, perhaps, to justify the 

 name ; more exactly, I should describe the color as 

 silvery yellow-gray. Again, those horizontal marks 

 which characterize the Betuia family are sprinkled 

 over the delicate, silvery bark ; notice, also, the way 

 this thin bark is curled and frizzled away from the 

 trunk ; it ornaments the latter with a thousand shin- 

 ing, edges, which catch and hold the scattered, flicker- 

 ing sunlight of the woods so that the tree is dis- 

 tinctly separated from its stalwart, dull-hued, rough- 

 seamed neighbors. Indeed, the yellow birch possesses 

 a certain unmistakable femininity of character which 

 is suggestive of some tattered and disheveled woodland 

 nymph. A young sapling about three quarters of an 

 inch in diameter, whose silvery-yellow bark is in per- 

 fect condition, makes a beautiful cane Avhen tastefully 

 mounted. There are few trees which, like the yellow 



