56 
House & Garden 
OUR AMERICAN BIRCHES 
These Native Trees Present a Great Variety of Kinds Which are 
Available for Landscape Work 
W HO is there who has not wandered 
down some leafy forest glade and 
stopped to admire the arched grace¬ 
fulness of the white birch, or to exclaim at 
the delightful pictures they make against a 
sombre background of leafless trees in 
winter. Yet consider how rarely this much 
admired tree, and all its kin no less lovely 
than itself, is used to form pictures in our 
own landscape compositions. 
Perhaps it is because we have only stop¬ 
ped to admire native scenery as scenery, 
and have not taken the time or the trouble 
to assure ourselves that these same things 
which go to create beautiful, natural pic¬ 
tures, can do the same in the more intimate 
spaces of a country place. Or again, per¬ 
haps the birch is merely a tree of striking 
appearance to us, and we have no further 
knowledge of its characteristics or possibili¬ 
ties. If this be the case then it is high time 
that we became acquainted. 
The birch tree has always been a factor 
in our lives, and the lives of our fore¬ 
father, the country’s pioneers. They in 
their turn appreciated the benefits and utili¬ 
tarian possibilities of this tree from the 
Indian, who used its bark for his canoe 
H. STUART ORTLOFF 
and his wigwam, and who knew that cer¬ 
tain species had bark with a medicinal 
value. Then later this valuable tree became 
a source for paper pulp, and cabinet woods. 
However, it has always been a tree which 
appeals to the esthetic sense of the artist 
and the poet. It has that gracefulness of 
line, and the delicacy of texture which cap¬ 
tivates and charms. 
But as plant material for landscape com¬ 
positions it has a place of its own. It does 
not make a street tree of lasting duration or 
of great usefulness. It is best suited to a 
location at the edge of the forest, where 
it stands out in great beauty in front of a 
background. It is seen to a great advan¬ 
tage when its long, drooping, graceful 
branches trail almost to the water’s edge, 
and double their beauty by reflections. As 
a specimen tree it is admirable, for it de¬ 
velops into a close branched, rounded 
head, and adds distinction to its surround¬ 
ings. Another interesting possibility is to 
use it as an accent point or the termination 
of a vista in the woods themselves. The 
white purity of the birch trunk will invari¬ 
ably attract the eye, and lend color to the 
mottled green of the woodland. 
The birch tree has been known and 
valued for centuries. Pliny in his writing 
speaks of it and derives the name from the 
word bitumen, but others have derived it 
from its Celtic name bitu. However, the 
most interesting derivation is from the Latin 
word batuere, meaning to beat. Perhaps 
there are many schoolboys of a few years 
back who will appreciate this meaning, for 
they remember how formidable the birch 
stick was in the hands of an irate school¬ 
master. But in the Latin it is used because 
the fasces of the Roman lictors were made 
of birch rods, and these were used to beat 
or drive the people back. 
There are twenty-eight known species of 
the birch family in the Northern Hemi¬ 
sphere; ten in North America; six or seven 
in Europe, and seven or eight in Asia. The 
most common and abundant with us is the 
gray birch (betula populifolia), or, as it is 
sometimes called, the Oldfield birch. This 
tree thrives even on poor soil, and is one of 
the first things to spring up on abandoned 
fields and burnt-over areas. For this reason 
it serves as a cover or protector to more 
valuable plants which spring up more 
(Continued on page 82) 
McFarland 
The yellow birch (betula lutea) is the sturdiest and, generally, the largest of the species. Its bark dark¬ 
ens with age from a silvery gray, through light orange, to a reddish brown, and while it is apt to lose some 
of its gracefulness at maturity, the warm tones of its surfaces make it a splendid tree for mass plantings 
