IV1US. COMP. ZOOL 
LIBRARY 
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Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897. 
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authorized on June : 27, 1918. 
Volume XIII. 
SEPTEMBER, 1920 
Number 4 
MY TWO BIRCHES. 
By Dr. Robert T. Morris, New York City. 
When I planned the entrance gate 
at Merribrooke, masons made an at- 
tractive sweep of curved wall to meet 
the square stone posts. That left an 
area facing the highway to be beauti- 
fied. I asked myself about the ways in 
which the passer-by might be pleased 
and complimented by a bit of thought 
displayed in his behalf. The wall and 
the posts I decided should be covered 
with ivy. That much was certain. Ivy 
would round and soften the outlines 
of the strong but cold gray stone. An 
Austrian pine with dark, severe foliage 
should guard one side of the gateway 
like a dignified sentinel. On the other 
side, in the curve of the wall, two white 
birches should ornament the space, 
their dark and tapering branches rank- 
ing as emblems of aristocracy among 
trees. For purposes of contrast I 
would plant a white pine near-by in 
order to atone for a certain degree of 
discrepancy between the severity of the 
Austrian pine and the grace of the 
birches. 
Yet further contrast was needed. The 
birches should not stand in plebeian 
grass, but nestling at their feet I would 
have a bed of myrtle, bravely green in 
the wintertime when standing out 
above the snow, sprightly with new 
green and with blue flowers in the 
springtime, cheeringly green in the 
autumn at a time when other plants 
are littering the ground with fluttering 
memorabilia of a departing season. In 
addition to the myrtle, a rhododendron, 
stout of limb and gorgeous in spring 
days, should add to the glory of the 
white birches. Finally, a clump of 
decorative grass would afford a refined 
finish to the environment in which the 
birches were to grow to majestic pro- 
portions. Thus, twenty years ago, 
were the two aristocrats started on 
their career of beauty. 
The little trees were then about five 
years of age, fit companions for the 
crickets under the myrtle and for the 
chipmunks which ran along the top of 
the wall, and they felt dignified indeed 
if a song sparrow honored them by 
alighting on their youthful branches. 
Year by year they grew apace, stretch- 
ing their lower limbs out to the morn- 
ing mists, their upper branches toward 
the sunset, and all of the beautiful 
things around them. The soft white 
of the bark arose in dainty frills of 
white. Natural decoration of tiny lines 
of dark brown barely perceptible to 
Copyright 1920 by The Agassiz Association, ArcApiA: Sound Beach, Conn. 
