On * The Point ”—Second Excursion 
the instant of full bloom with its countless sweeping 
tassels of white, but in foliage it is inferior, and it lacks 
the picturesque atmosphere of its relative. 
BrrcHes.—The birch family belongs to what in Eu- 
ropean society would be called the ‘‘upper middle 
class,’’ and a patent of nobility, more deserved than in 
many such conferments, has been granted to one mem- 
ber of it, the cut-leaved weeping white birch. All the 
species— black, yellow, red, paper, and white—deserve 
favorable mention, and the beauty of their forest-growth 
is often transferred to adorn the lawn, all being found 
in the Park. 
The black or sweet birch is most widely known, many 
people’s acquaintance with it being, indeed, more inti- 
mate than they think, for it is the oil extracted from its 
bark that gives the ‘‘wintergreen’’ flavor of a well- 
known tooth- powder. This shares with the yellow 
birch the peculiarity of having its leaves mostly in 
pairs, giving unusual effect to a spray of foliage. The 
most obvious difference of these two species is the yel- 
lowish, silvery-gray bark of the latter, that exfoliates in 
very thin layers whose ends are curled up, while the 
dark-brown bark of the sweet birch shows only a trace 
of exfoliation. In some yellow birches the trunk is as 
beautiful as it is unusual; the bark is less aromatic than 
in the black birch. The river birch, with its branches 
slender and drooping, furnishes material for ‘‘ birch 
brooms.’’ 
The most ornamental are the ‘‘ paper’’ and the white 
birch ; the former, with broader, almost roundish, leaf, 
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