THE BIRCH. 



BETULA ALBA. 



Natural Order — Amentace.e. 

 Class — MoNCECiA. Order — Polyandria. 



No tree is more generally or more deservedly 

 admired on the ground of its own intrinsic beauty 

 than the Birch. As the Oak has no tree to vie 

 with itself in the sterner attributes of majesty, 

 dignity, and strength, so the 



" most beautiful 

 Of forest-trees, the Lady of the Woods," 



stands unrivalled in lightness, grace, and elegance. 

 In one respect it even claims precedence over the 

 monarch of the forest, and that one which its 

 slender and delicate form would least lead us to 

 expect : it stands in need of no protection from 

 other trees in any stage of its growth, and loves 

 the bleak mountain side and other exposed situa- 

 tions, from which the sturdy Oak shrinks with 

 dismay. But the style of beauty in which each 

 of these trees excels is so different in kind, that 

 neither of them can properly interfere with the 

 other. 



Pliny describes the Birch as a slender tree in- 

 habiting the cold parts of Gaul. The branches, 

 he says, were used for making baskets and the 

 hoops of casks ; and the fasces or bundles of rods, 

 which were carried before the Roman magistrates 



