316 . NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16:7— Oct., 1920 



In the very end of their swift decay birch trees served the 

 fashionable world in the heydey of the powdered wig. "The 

 whitest part of the old wood of doating birches is made the grounds 

 of our effeminate farined Gallants' sweet powder." 



American birches are more valuable lumber trees and more 

 graceful for ornamental uses than the forest birches of Europe. 



The European birch is found throughout the north of Europe, 

 and grows in every kind of soil, both wet and dry. The Earl of 

 Haddington called it, with quaint humor, "an amphibious plant", 

 and after two hundred years this is still descriptive of its habits. 



Mathews tells us that there is an extreme species of birch in 

 our country, a shrub, rather than a tree, which shows how nature 

 sometimes deviates from her commonest types. B. glandulosa is 

 a dwarf variety of the birch, with miniature leaves and stunted 

 stems, which is found among the high mountains of New England. 

 It grows close to the ground, hugging rocky foundations, and the 

 smooth, brown branches are conspicuously dotted with resinous, 

 wartlike glands. The bush grows from one to four feet high and 

 the leaf is scarcely over three-quarters of an inch long. 



President Eliot once said that he had often reflected on the 

 problem of why one person is a successful teacher, while another 

 of equal knowledge, talent and character fails. As the result of 

 much observation he had concluded that what makes a teacher 

 successful is the power to impart joy. The end of a teachers work 

 should be to inspire in the pupil joy in learning, joy in the posses- 

 sion of truth. This is not a lower aim than some other conceivable 

 one, but the highest of all, for joy is the highest end of the uni- 

 verse, the final purpose of God himself. — Frank C. Porter. 



Bird Song 



Entre nous, 



Je suis heureux, 

 Et plus, que voulez nous ? 



T. D. A. Cocker ell. 



