TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 177 



I a light canoe will build me, 

 Build a swift Cheemaun for sailing, 

 That shall float upon the river, 

 Like a yellow leaf in Autumn, 

 Like a yellow water-lily ! 



" Lay aside your cloak, O Birch-Tree 1 

 Lay aside your white skin wrapper, 

 For the summer-time is coming, 

 And the sun is warm in heaven, 

 And you need no white-skin wrapper I 



And the tree with all its branches 

 Rustled in the breeze of morning, 

 Saying with a sigh of patience, 

 " Take my cloak, O Hiawatha ! " 



SWEET BIRCH. BLACK BIRCH. CHERRY BIRCH. 



{Plate XCIII.) 

 Be'tula Unta. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Birch. Rounded; branches^ 30 Zo/eet. New Foundland to Ontario April y May. 

 slender. southward and westward. 



Bark: dark; rich brown ; smooth but becoming rough as the tree grows 

 old; not subject to peeling. Branches: reddish; smooth; and covered with 

 white wart-like dots; sweet; aromatic. Leaves : simple; alternate ; with short, 

 downy petioles ; ovate, with pointed apex and rounded or cordate base ; finely 

 and doubly serrate ; ribs, straight ; vivid, green and glossy above ; dull and 

 pubescent below but becoming smooth. Flowers : growing in catkins and 

 appearing before the leaves. Staminate ones: golden ; long. Pistillate ones : in 

 dense, shorter catkins. Strobiles: dark green ; sessile ; with rounded and 

 lobed scales. Nut : obovate. 



When we go among the trees and perhaps rest for awhile under 

 the shade of the sweet birch, we might, if our ears were sufficient- 

 ly quickened, hear many tales of country-lore that are passing 

 through the swish of its leaves. Tales are astir about the evil 

 spirits that seek it and greedily devour its sweet bark. To their 

 hearts gratitude is unknown. The tree could tell also of many 

 that love the shimmer of its leaves ; that notice the golden pollen 

 in its beautiful spray of staminate blossoms and partake of its 

 shade as graciously as though they were accepting a gift from a 

 friend. The subtle instinct of the urchin, for surely he never 

 learned from botany how good to the taste were its twigs, leads 



