HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February,1910 
in shaded places. Not until the seedlings are at least a year old 
will it be safe to transplant them. 
Birches may also be propagated by grafting or budding upon 
seedling stocks of the common kinds. Cion-budding is a good 
method, but these matters need not be gone into here, as they 
more concern the nurseryman than the lay gardener or the amateur 
planter, who will probably turn to the reliable nurseryman for 
his Birch specimens. 
In planting it should be remembered that the cut-leaved 
varieties, such as the Cut-leaved Weeping Birch (Betula alba 
var. laciniaia), placed at a distant point of a long narrow border 
adds light, and gives the semblance of greater distance to the 
landscape, when standing clear from the other foliage masses. 
Then, too, Birches shaded by other trees force themselves 
into tall tapering growths, but when planted free from con¬ 
gested growth they become bushier in outline. Unlike nearly 
all other trees Birches are improved by not being allowed 
their full development. However, they should be pruned spar¬ 
ingly, if at all, and never after their tenth year. 
It is a great mistake to plant Birches too lavishly. Their 
ornamental character requires care and judgment in placing 
them so as not to “overdo” the landscape. In this let Nature, 
the great landscape gardener, be your guide. Against an ever¬ 
green background she places a few Birches, in a copse of under¬ 
brush a sprightly sentinel or two, at the bend of a stream a group 
of pendulous branched ones, becoming more liberal when the gray 
hillside is to be enlivened, or the dark forest lightened. The 
ingenuity of man (which has devised more animal-like forms 
for the Yew and Box than ever Noah dreamed of in his Ark or 
philosophy), has likewise expended itself on the Birch, in con¬ 
sequence of which the garden-maker will find several varieties 
semi-artificial in growth-form that will fit in with the scheme of 
formal gardens and formal landscape, such as certain weeping 
varieties of the European White Birch (Betula alba). 
Our woods throughout the country produce so many Birches 
whose species are mainly distinguished by the peculiar differences 
in color and texture of their bark that the following notes should 
serve as an identification guide to everyone, while the landscape 
characteristics of these Birches may lead the enthusiastic wood¬ 
land explorer to transplant some of the seedlings he may find to 
spots on the home grounds, if, in advance, he can have some idea 
7i 
of the particular relation of Birches to what one may call the door- 
yard landscape. 
1. AMERICAN WHITE birch —(Betula populifolia) 
Bark: Chalky grayish white, close-fitting, which does not 
peel off with age, nor does the chalk rub off, as it does from the 
bark of the Canoe Birch (Betula papyrijera). T he under bark 
is yellowish. 
Foliage: Mass generally thin and light, and suggests that of the 
Poplar and the Aspen. Leaves smooth and glossy, yellow in 
autumn. 
Soil: Prefers dry barren sandy soil of old fields and rocky 
woods, and thrives where other trees would die. 
Landscape Features: For roadsides, edges of swamps, etc., 25 
to 50 feet high, rapid growth. Good nursery specimens, well 
rooted, 4 to 6 feet, may be had for about fifty cents each; 6 to 8 
feet, for about seventy-five cents each. 
2. canoe birch —(Betula papyrijera) 
Bark: Very white, splits into thin layers. Powdery surface 
rubs off. Thus distinguished from American White Birch 
(Betula populifolia). 
Foliage: Thicker than that of the American White Birch, but 
otherwise much the same. In this respect these two trees are 
often confused. Large leaves, yellow in autumn. 
Soil: Prefers river banks and rich loamy mountain and hill 
slopes. Easily transplanted. 
Landscape Features: Edge of ponds, riverside, hillside, 60 
to 80 feet high, rapid and vigorous growth. Especially pictur¬ 
esque and graceful. Good nursery specimens, well rooted, 6 to 8 
feet, may be had for about one dollar; 8 to 10 feet, for about one 
dollar and fifty cents each. 
3. yellow birch —(Betula lutea) 
Bark: Yellowish silver gray; rolls back and peels off in thin 
filmy strips from trunk. This fringed and tattered bark reveals 
gleams of golden-colored inner bark. 
(Continued on page xiv) 
The Cut-leaved Weeping Birch is much 
prized for landscape effects 
The Weeping Birch (Betula alba var. pen- 
dula Youngi) 
The European White Birch is too rarely 
met with on American lawns 
