THE BIRCH. 



3 6 5 



standing upright between. These young leaves are of a very fresh 

 yellowish-green colour, and the blades are much wrinkled between the 

 secondary ribs. As they expand and become darker in colour, the 

 wrinkles disappear, and the two sides of the leal-blade curl upwards 

 from the main rib, which is itself curved back from base to tip. 



The leaves are now separated from one another on the growing 

 hoot, and increase to about one and a half inches in length. The 

 blade flattens out, and they hang from thin, curved red-tinted stalks 

 of more than half the length of the leaf itself. Though the summer 

 tint of the foliage is a dark green, the polished leaf-surfaces seem to 

 reflect the blue or grey of the sky ; early in the autumn they change 

 to yellow. 



