TREES OF AMERICA. 125 



trays of it ; the saplings and small branches 

 are good for making hoops, and great quanti- 

 ties of the twigs are used in the manufacture 

 of birch brooms, for sweeping streets, and 

 yards, and such places ; you have seen them, 

 I dare say, for sale in the shops. The twigs 

 of the other kinds of birch are too brittle for 

 brooms. 



" The yellow birch, like the canoe birch, is 

 confined to the northern parts of the continent 

 of North America, and it is probably the most 

 beautiful of all the varieties. It grows sixty 

 or seventy feet high, with a perfectly straight 

 trunk, on which no branches appear lower 

 than thirty or forty feet from the ground. 

 The outer bark, or epidermis, is of a bright 

 golden yellow, and it frequently divides itself 

 into fine strips, which are rolled backwards at 

 the ends, and stick to the inner bark at the 

 middle : the leaves and the bark have a very 

 pleasant smell : the fruit is light brown, and 

 oval-shaped : the wood is better than that of 

 all the other kinds, except the black ; it is 

 strong, dark-coloured, and when polished 

 makes handsome furniture. In Nova Scotia 

 and Maine it is a great deal used for ship 



timber, and for the runners of sledges ; the 



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