26 PINES 
would be far readier to dispense with any honour in 
these directions than their congeners in the Celestial 
Kingdom. 
We must remind again those who would plant 
for themselves, as well as for that haunting vision 
lightly spoken of as posterity, that it is not until 
the middle ages of its existence, until after some 
two score and ten years have passed by, and the 
nursery days have been left behind some half a 
century, that this P- Bungeana takes upon itself 
to assume this white robe of glory, or penitential 
sheet, in whichever light you may prefer to liken its 
curious transfiguration. 
Why, it may well be asked, was not this rare gem 
of the earth brought more to the notice of those 
who were planting rarities in the forties of the last 
century ? Had they been, our seniors in life’s 
progress, the seniores priores of the . middle-aged 
and elderly to-day, might have bequeathed to us, 
and to the generations in life’s tenure after us, an 
opportunity to revel in a new sight, and admire a 
new wonder. | 
The Silver Birch, or ‘ ‘ Lady of our Woods,” as the 
tree has been poetically described by Sir Walter Scott, 
although not a tree chosen to reflect white rays upon 
the sepulchres in a Western country ‘burial-ground, 
as are. the Bungeana in China, for all that are treasured 
by us for the conspicuous beauty. of their gleaming 
white stems. If by chance any other species of the 
Birch tree arises and tries to outshine our native 
product—ds have, for instance, the Betula Utilis from 
the Himalayas (in those few places where it will 
thrive), or the hardier P. Papyrifera (the Canoe Birch 
of American Redskins), and some of the forthcoming 
expectations from Chinese exploration—those species 
are eagerly sought for and planted, but the P. Bun- 
geana seems to have been left out in the cold of neglect, 
