SOME OTHER TREES 



was simply dazzling in effect. This birch has 

 bark, as every one knows, of a shining creamy 

 white. Not only its color, but its tenacity, 

 resistance to decay, and wonderful divisibility, 

 make this bark one of the most remarkable of 

 nature's fabrics. To the Indian and the trap- 

 per it has long been as indispensable as is 

 the palm to the native of the tropics. 



There are other good native birches, and 

 one foreigner — the true white birch — whose 

 cut -leaved form, a familiar lawn tree of droop 

 ing habit, is worth watching and liking. The 

 name some of the nurserymen have given it, 

 of "nine -bark," is significantly accurate, for at 

 least nine layers may be peeled from the 

 glossy whiteness of the bark of a mature tree. 



I intend to know more of the birches, and 

 to see how the two kinds of flowers act to 

 produce the little fruits, which are nuts, though 

 they hardly look so. And I would urge my 

 tree -loving friends to plant about their homes 

 these cheery and most elegantly garbed trees. 



The spice -bush, of which I spoke above, 

 is really a large shrub, and is especially notable 

 for two things — the way it begins the spring, 



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