DECIDUOUS OENAMENTAL TREES. 161 



Been in connexion with other foUage. Several kinds, a? 

 the Yellow and the Black birches, are really stately trees, 

 and form fine groups by themselves. Indeed, most beauti- 

 ful and varied masses might be formed by collecting 

 together all the different kinds, with their characteristic 

 barks, branches, and foUage. 



As an additional recommendation, many of these trees 

 grow on the thinnest and most indifferent soils, whether 

 moist or dry ; and in cold, bleak, and exposed situations, 

 as well as in warm and sheltered places. 



We shall enumerate the different kinds as follows : — 



The Canoe birch, Boleau d, Canot, of the French Cana- 

 dians (B. papyraced), sometimes also called the Paper birch; 

 is, according to Michaux, most common in the forests of the 

 eastern states, north of latitude 43°, and in the Canadas 

 There it attains its largest size, sometimes seventy feet in 

 height, and three in diameter. Its branches are slender, 

 flexible, covered with a shining brown bark, dotted with 

 white ; and on trees of moderate size, the bark of the trunk 

 is of a brilliant white ; it is often used for roofing houses, 

 for the manufacture of baskets, boxes, etc., besides its most 

 important use for canoes, as already mentioned. The leaves, 

 borne on petioles four or five lines long, are of a middling 

 size, oval, unequally denticulated, smooth, and of a dark 

 green color. 



The White birch (B. popuKfoIia) is a tree of much 

 smaller size, generally from twenty to thirty-five feet in 

 height : it is found in New York and the other middle 

 states, as well as at the north. The trunk, hke the fore- 

 going, is covered with silvery bark : the branches are 

 slender, and generally drooping when the tree attains con 



sidgrable size. The leaves ai-e smooth on both surfaces, 



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