148 TREES IN UNDRESS. 



taken up and scattered everywhere by the winds. 

 With the exception of the alder, no other decidu- 

 ous tree hangs out its seed receptacles so conspic- 

 uously through the Winter. 



The mention of the alders reminds one that 

 these shrubs belong to a family of graceful 

 writers. The birches, as Coleridge says, "are the 

 ladies of the woods," and the running, flowing, 

 sweeping lines they dash off, in variously-colored 

 inks, against the blue, are certainly elegant and 

 symmetrical, and add much beauty to the Winter 

 landscape. 



Usually the white birches are seen in groups on 

 low, poor meadowlands and sandy soil. Their 

 slim, pliant trunks, leaning at every angle and in 

 different directions as if swaying in the dance, are 

 dressed in pearly satin gowns, that gleam in the 

 Winter's sunshine like new silver, in striking con- 

 trast to the fine, dark-brown spray above. 



The sisters to the fair white birchen nymphs 

 love to pose on higher, richer woodland soil, and 

 clothe themselves in robes of different color. 

 Lenta adorns herself in silken bronze, scented 

 with the fragrance of wintergreen, and Liitea, a 

 rarer, taller sister, is wrapped in a vestment of 

 lustrous yellowish silk, with skirts fringed, tucked 

 and rufifled into numerous flounces and furbelows, 

 and bedecked with lichen spangles. Her graceful 

 head, tricked out with purple and green ribbons, 



