THE SOFTWOODS 179 
(Betula alba) is often found growing along with 
it in marshy land, though less frequently by the 
sides of streams meandering through pasture 
lands, where willow, poplar, and hazel are its 
chief associates. The birch is the most graceful 
of all our forest trees. Whether as a tree of 
the mountain, rising up from the heather-clad 
hillside,—where its silvery bark forms a beautiful 
contrast to the dark-coloured heather, while its 
light-green delicate foliage stands out clear 
against the blue sky,—or hanging pendulously 
over the margin of a lake or the bank of some 
murmuring brook, there are few objects in the 
vegetable world which can compare with the 
birch in the grace and delicacy of its beauty, 
and perhaps none which can surpass it in this 
particular regard. Small wonder, then, that it 
has been so often sung by the poets and painted 
by the artists of Britain. Its gracefulness is the 
leading feature in M‘Whirter’s ‘Three Graces’ 
and ‘The Lady of the Lake.’ The same 
charm called forth Coleridge’s description of it 
as 
‘most beautiful 
Of forest trees—the Lady of the Woods.’ 
