TREES GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 275 



pleasant associations and again because it is a tree at once 

 recognised. To know a tree does much in fact towards awak- 

 ening the affections. 



AMERICAN WHITE BIRCH. OLD-FIELD BIRCH. 

 GREY BIRCH. {Plate CL.) 



Bttula populifblia. 



Bark of trunk: chalky white; smooth; not peeling readily. Young 

 branches ; rich, reddish brown, and spotted with wart-like dots. Buds ; ses- 

 sile ; scaly. Leaves ; simple ; alternate ; with long, slender petioles ; some- 

 times in pairs ; almost triangular ; pointed at the apex, and squared, roundei 

 or pointed at the base ; unevenly serrate ; often becoming entire at the base ; 

 bright green, lustrous and glabrous above, lighter underneath and almost 

 glabrous at maturity. Flowers ; yellowish green ; growing in scaly catkins. 

 Staminate ones ; from two to four inches long, and having three tiny flowers 

 under each bract. Stamens : four ; short. Pistillate catkins ; with two to 

 three bl ossoms under each bract. Ovaries; naked. Fruit; broadly winged. 



The white birch is one of the restless, short-lived spirits of 

 the woodlands. It is delicate and beautiful with leaves almost 

 as tremulous as those of the aspen. Through 

 it, a stream of tenderness seems to flow, for 

 its trunk too is flexible, and often during the 

 winter bends under the load of ice it has to 

 uphold. Its powers of endurance are greatly 

 in contrast to those of many of the trees, the 

 oaks especially. 



Of the birches of Eastern North America it 

 is the smallest and least widely distributed. 

 On lands that have been devoured by fire or 

 those that have been abandoned by farmers, **i* **"&* 

 it springs up quickly. In southern New England it is fre- 

 quently found growing on the margins of swamps. Hardly a 

 tree more graceful or sylph-like is known in cultivation, when 



