314 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



that it is very short-lived and as Clarence M. Weed sa 

 ' ' Like a Lady in a far country 



I found some very vivid descriptions of this tree: The slender, 

 cb\ g branches are so long and pliant that the slif 



bag in one direction from the trunk, like' a shower of rain 

 driven by the wind. The birch does nor I pendulous grace 



in mere limp dejection, like most of the weeping varieties of trees 

 that gardeners love to propagate, but it holds its head high and 

 the slender branches droop down. — a striki: :he 



weeping willow and other lachrym; - of horl aral 



art. 



There have been constant allusions to this tree in English litera- 

 ture. Perhaps the most descriptive is one of Sir Waltef S 

 which refers to the slender, pendulous boughs, 



"Where weeps the birch with silver bi~ 

 ] long dishevelled hair." 



From an artist's point of view much has been said abou: : 

 trees. In the "Sylvan Year/ 1 Philip Gilbert Hamerton calls the 

 s : em of the birch "one of the masterpieces of Nature "Every- 

 thing," he says "lias been done to heighten its unrivalled bril- 

 liance. The horizontal peeling of the bark, making dark rings aft 

 irregular distances, the brown spots, the dark cotor of the small 

 twigs the rough texture near the ground, and the exquisite sill: 

 smoothness of the tight white bands above. rfEer exactly that 

 variety of contrast which makes us feel a rare quality like thai 

 smooth whiteness as strong lays we are capable of feeling it. And 

 amongst the common effects :: be seen in all northern countrif; 

 one of the most brilliant is the opposition of birch trunks in sun- 

 shine against the deep blue or purple of a mountain distance in 

 shadov- 



Miss Jeckyll, in "Wood and Garden says that Hie tints :: the 

 stem give a precious lesson in color. Tar white :: Hie bark**, 

 she says, "is here silvery white and there mil k white, and some- 

 times shows the faintest tinge of rosy flush. Where the bark 

 has not yet peeled off, the stem is clouded and banded with delica:f 

 gray and with the silver green of lichen. For about two fed 

 upward from the ground, in the case of young trees of about seven 

 to nine inches in diameter, the bark is dark in color, and lies in 

 thick and extremely rugged and upright ridees : wtrasting 



