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LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
of trees ; but the European weeping birch is peculiarly 
pleasing as it grows old, on that account. It is this variety 
which Coleridge pronounces, 
“ Most beautiful 
Of forest trees — the Lady of the woods.” 
And Bernard Barton, speaking of our native species, says, 
■“ See the beautiful Birch tree fling 
Its shade on the grass beneath — 
Its glossy leaf, and its silvery stem ; 
Dost thou not love to look on them V ’ 
The American sorts, and particularly the Black birch, 
start into leaf very early in the spring, and their tender 
^green is agreeable to the eye at that season ; while the 
swelling buds and young foliage in many kinds, give out a 
delicious, though faint perfume. Even the blossoms, which 
hang like little brown tassels from the drooping branches, 
are interesting to the lover of nature. 
“ The fragrant birch above him hung 
Her tassels in the sky. 
And many a vernal blossom sprung, 
And nodded careless by.” 
Buyant. 
Nothing can well be prettier, seen from the windows of 
the drawing-room, than a large group of trees, whose depth 
and distance is made up by the heavy and deep masses of 
the ash, oak, and maple ; and the portions nearest the eye or 
the lawn terminated by a few birches, with their sparkling 
white stems, and delicate, airy, drooping foliage. Our White 
birch, being a small tree, is very handsome in such situa- 
tions, and offers the most pleasing variety to the eye, when 
