THE BIRCHES 185 



brown and spotted with many wart-like dots. 

 And look at those little rough triangular patches 

 of dark color under each arm! These grow 

 with the growth of the tree, and often serve to 

 mark the spot where a branch was but now is 

 not. Subsisting as it nearly always does on 

 scanty living, this birch is the smallest and least 

 widely distributed of its family. Its wood is 

 too perishable to be of much value. Spools and 

 barrel hoops are made of it, and it makes a quick 

 wood for the kitchen fire. The weeping birch 

 and other ornamental varieties which we meet 

 on our pilgrimage are propagated from a Euro- 

 pean species of the white birch. 



