BIRCH. 



" A matron old, whom men school-mistress name, 

 Who boasts unruly brats with birch to tame ; 



They grieven sore, in piteous durance pent, 

 Awed by the power of this relentless dame, 



And, ofttimes, on vagaries idly bent, 

 For unkempt hair, or task unconned, are sorely shent. 



" And all in sight doth rise a birchen tree, 



Which learning near her little dome did stowe ; 

 Whilom a twig of small regard to see, 



Though now so wide its waving branches flow, 

 And work the simple vassals mickle woe. 



For not a wind might curl the leaves that blew, 

 But their limbs shuddered, and their pulse beat low ; 



And as they looked they found their horror grew, 

 And shaped it into rods, and tingled at the view." 



With others of my kindred no such sad thoughts are 

 blended. The weeping birch, of taller and more rapid 

 growth, is seen most frequently in parks and pleasure- 

 grounds ; and the elegant dwarf-birch grows on mountains 

 and wet heaths, far from the village-school. Verging, also, 

 on the line of perpetual snow, he is noticed by Linnaeus, in 

 his Lapland tour, and affords a striking illustration of the 



