TREES AT LEISURE 



the texture of the firm fine- 

 grained bark and are as unlike 

 those of the tatterdemalion 

 birch as could well be imagined. 

 The white birch coquettes with 

 us with her untidy silken rib- 

 bons from the forest depths in a 

 manner which a self-respecting 

 beech would scorn; and she 

 is not the only one of her kind 

 that wears shining ribbons, al- 

 though we are less likely to 

 notice the darker colors of the 

 black and yellow birches. 



In all the woodland there is 

 no more beautiful bark to be 

 found than that which pencils 

 the trunk of the white ash in 

 fine vertical lines and fades 

 away into smoothness on the 

 lower limbs. The ash branch- 

 lets, though of pleasing lines, 

 are few and coarse; those of the 



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