162 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
heart-shaped at the base, very acuminate, and doubly and 
irregularly toothed. The petioles are slightly twisted, and 
the leaves are almost as tremulous as those of the aspen. 
It is a beautiful small tree for ornamental plantations. 
The common Black or Sweet birch. ( B . lenta .) This 
is the sort most generally known by the name of the birch, 
and is widely diffused over the middle and southern states. 
In color and appearance the bark much resembles that of 
the cherry tree ; on old trees, at the close of winter, it is 
frequently detached in transverse portions, in the form of 
hard ligneous plates six or eight inches broad. The leaves, 
for a fortnight after their appearance, are covered with a 
thick silvery down, which disappears soon after. They are 
about two inches long, serrate, heart-shaped at the base, 
acuminate at the summit, and of a pleasing tint and fine 
texture. The wood is of excellent quality, and Michaux 
recommends its introduction largely into the forests of the 
north of Europe. 
The Yellow birch ( B . luted) grows most plentifully in 
Nova Scotia, Maine, and New Brunswick, on cool, rich 
soils, where it is a tree of the largest size. It is remark- 
able for the color and arrangement of its outer bark, which 
is of a brilliant golden yellow, and is frequently seen divided 
into fine strips rolled backwards at the end, but attached in 
the middle. The leaves are about three and a half inches 
long, two and a half broad, ovate, acuminate, and bordered 
with sharp and irregular teeth. It is a beautiful tree, with 
a trunk of nearly uniform diameter, straight, and destitute 
of branches for thirty or forty feet. 
The Bed oirch ( B . rubra ) belongs chiefly to the south, 
being scarcely ever seen north of Virginia. It prefers the 
moist soil of river banks, where i x reaches a noble height 
