White birch

“ The characteristic white birches, with their reflection in the quiet pool, the dark trunk and spreading branches of the great tree in the foreground, the tender foliage, and soft, hazy gleams into the depths of the forest, afford the materials for a delightful picture, the more precious in our sight that it is so truly a representation of our native land, so thoroughly American. The broken birch canoe adds to the beauty of nature a most effective and pathetic touch, by briefly figuring the melancholy history of a fast-departing race. ”

“ A number of birches are cultivated as ornamental trees, the weeping birch being extensively planted in this country. They are graceful of form, fair appearing from bark to least tremulous leaf. They are easily propagated by seeds and grow rapidly.
The American White Birch has a short life, but is a graceful tree and plucky one, springing up in deforested land and abandoned fields. It grows south as far as Pennsylvania. It is a small tree, from 25 to 45 feet high, the bark smooth and white, not readily peeling ”

“ One turns again and again to admire the white birch arranged in groups, each lovelier than the one just beheld. It takes an artist's soul to really enjoy these wonderful and harmonious scenes. We carried notebooks and a camera, but used them slightly. Shall we ever forget the azure sky, the gleaming yellow and white of the birch, the green meadows, the silvery flashing of the happy streams, or the bright green and blue of far lakes? No, they shall remain as long as memories of beautiful things last. ”

“ On the left was a birch wood, with a rare purple bloom upon its leafless boughs, like the purple of far hills at sunset. Here and there a dead birch stem glimmered white against the dark. And about the feet of the bare trees was a wealth of colour almost more marvellous still—the rich brown, lustrous velvet of mosses and dead leaves, the fiery red of withered brake fern, beaten down by wind and rain. Below the wood, on a little island in the river, was a group of old Scotch firs, with the water gleaming white between the ruddy branches. ”

“ The cut-leaf or fern-leaf white birch is now common in nurseries. It grows rapidly, is extremely graceful, has leaves delicate as a fern, and in winter throws against the sky a tracery of twigs which is beautiful to look upon. ”

“ You spoke in your last chronicle of the screen of white birches through which you saw the sun rise over the meadows of Opal Farm. This birch springs up in waste lands almost everywhere. We have it in abundance in the wood lot on the side of our hill, and it is scattered through the wet woods below our wild walk, showing that all it needs is a foothold. ”

“ The small White Birch is never assembled in large forest groups. Like the Alder, it seems to be employed by Nature for the shading of her living pictures, and for producing those gradations which are the charm of spontaneous wood-scenery. In this part of the continent, a Pitch-Pine wood is commonly fringed with White Birches, and outside of these with a lower growth of Hazels, Cornels, and Vacciniums, uniting them imperceptibly with the herbage of the plain. ”

“ As you turn away from the main road towards the woods, you pass groups of tall slender birch-trees, with their white silvery bark, and their delicate thread-like fibres hanging in frozen showers from the ends of the branches, and clothing the birch with a kind of icy foliage, while the other trees remain bare and ragged. The birch is eminently a winter tree, and its tresses of fibres, whether petrified and covered with crystal by the frost, or waving freely in the breeze which has stripped them of their snow, are equally ornamental. ”

“ The bark has a reddish tinge, and it is so loose and ragged-looking that it has been said to roll up its bark in coarse ringlets, which are whitish with a stain of crimson. The red birch, which is more rare than any of the other kinds, is a much larger tree than the white birch, but, like all its relations, it is very graceful. The wood is white and hard and makes very good fuel, while the twigs are made into brooms for sweeping streets and courtyards. ”

“ So you see, every white birch is eager to give its bark for fuel and protection, which is nearly all it can do, save to watch over the young trees of the forest, as I have told you, to shield them from harm.
“It is a long time for a birch to wait, sometimes many, many years before even a little child will strip off one of its tattered shreds and laugh for delight at the pretty bit of silver in its hand, little dreaming of the prince whose garment it is ”

“ Another name for this tree is poplar birch, because the triangular-shaped leaves, which taper to a very long, slender point, have a habit of trembling like those of the poplars. The branches are of a dark chocolate color which contrasts very prettily with the grayish-white trunk, and their extreme slenderness causes them to droop somewhat like those of the willow. The white birch will spring up in the poorest kind of soil, and it is found in the highest latitude in which any tree can live. ”

“ The most beautiful nest I ever found was located sixteen feet from the ground, in the crotch of a white birch. The support was formed by the main trunk and several ascending, rudimentary branches. When I looked up into the tree a tiny, fluffy mass of white birch curls attracted my attention. On this cushion the nest was shaped of similar curls of white birch bark and partially decomposed inner bark, fiber ”

“ The white, or common birch-tree, is not of a large growth, but when cultivated in a favourable soil, and a good situation, it rises to a considerable height. There is a degree of elegance in its general appearance, in summer, and the bark in winter is frequently variegated with red and white. It is easily cultivated by the usual method; but, when raised from seed, the young shoots of the birch should remain two years in the seminary, and then be transplanted in rows. ”

“ Best when grown individually. There are fifteen or more species belonging to the genus (Fagus) . The blue beech or ironwood, a rather small tree, may be used where its peculiar color is desired.
Birch.—Some twenty-four species are known in the United States, inhabiting mostly the northern part, extending into Canada and Alaska. The birches, especially the paper or white birch, are distinguished by their light-colored bark. That of the white birch was used by the Indians for canoes. It is an excellent park tree if it can be saved from being peeled by the ubiquitous vandal. ”

“ That white birch fungus always presents its face to the ground, parallel with it, for here are some on an upright dead birch whose faces or planes are at right angles with the axis of the tree, as usual, looking down, but others, attached to the top of the tree which lies prostrate on the ground, have their planes parallel with the axis of the tree, as if looking round the birch. ”

“ The white curls of birch bark, the much weathered twigs, the fluffy shining bands and knots of spider’s silk, made a very dainty looking structure. After the first morning, I did not see the male about the nest. As a general thing, I find that, if birds are observed building, the male usually leaves his part of the work to the female. The lady bird continued to shape the nest with her breast, turning around and around, as if swinging on a central pivot, just her beak and tail showing above the rim. ”

“ The Birches. If the black birch with its sweet, aromatic bark is not known to a boy, the white, or canoe, birch is sure to be. It seems to be the fate of this beautiful tree to be disfigured by every wandering youth who has strength enough to tear off a strip of its paper-like bark.
Fig. 105. Leaf of Black Birch
The leaf of the black, or sugar, birch may be distinguished from the elm by its smoothness and thinness. ”

“ The gray birch has a close-fitting bark which is dirty white in color, with triangular black blotches under the branches, it is exceedingly chalky to the touch and never peels off as it [Pg 63] grows old, while the bark of the canoe birch peels off in thin lateral strips, is clear white in color, and seldom shows any dark blotches on the trunk, The bark of the recent shoots of the gray birch is rough to the touch, and that of the canoe birch is smooth and sticky where the buds join the stem. ”

“ Birch forms large forests in the North.
[43] Pliny and Plutarch agree that the famous books of Numa Pompilius, written 700 years before Christ, were upon birch-bark. (Keeler.)
[44] The banquet-hall of the famous Auditorium Hotel in Chicago is finished in birch. (Kidder.)
PLATE 14. BIRCH (Betula) .
White Birch. Betula populifolia Marsh.
Nomenclature. (Sudworth.)
White Birch (local and common name) .
Gray Birch (Me., R. I., Mass.) . ”

“ The wood is "white" when the amount is small, and as heartwood increases with age the same tree might at one time afford white and at another red wood.
Birch trees may be known by their more or less laminated bark with its peculiar long horizontal lenticles or dashes. The [p069] leaves of the several birches differ but little, but the decided colors exhibited by their barks give names and serve to distinguish the species. Nine of the twenty-four known species of birch occur in North America; six are trees and the others low shrubs. Betula is said to be derived from bitumen. ”

“ A tree of several species, constituting the genus Betula; as, the white or common birch (B. alba) (also called silver birch and lady birch) ; the dwarf birch (B. glandulosa) ; the paper or canoe birch (B. papyracea) ; the yellow birch (B. lutea) ; the black or cherry birch (B. lenta) .
2. The wood or timber of the birch.
3. A birch twig or birch twigs, used for flogging.
μ The twigs of the common European birch (B. alba) , being tough and slender, were formerly much used for rods in schools. ”

“ This species is smaller than the last and has reddish brown underparts and a black stripe through the eye. The breeding habits are the same as those of the White-bellied variety, but these birds almost invariably coat the tree below the opening with pitch, for what purpose is unknown. They lay from four to six white eggs, numerously spotted with reddish brown; size, .60 x .50. Data. Upton, Maine, June 21, 1898. Nest in hole of dead birch stub, 20 feet from the ground; made of strips of bark and a few feathers. 5 eggs. ”

“ From the garden a path leads along the ridge to a higher elevation, where the three tall crosses, seen for miles around, spring from a rocky knoll at the rear of a small semicircular opening, enclosed by firs, prettily intermingled with beech and birch. Heath and yellow broom grow from crevices in the rocks, and the wild thyme, crushed by your foot, fills the air with aromatic sweetness, for the spot is left to the nurture of the winds and the rain. ”

“ When burned it cracks and throws off sparks that eat holes in the wearing apparel of the camper-out. The other, with its white resinous bark, was the canoe birch (Betula papyrifera) , which has given pleasure to man from time immemorial, and is used in so many ways by both Indian and white hunters. On the latter three white gulls, with their mantles of black, were standing with heads bowed, as though respectful mourners at the funeral of the noble birch that was moving faster and faster towards the rapids. ”

“ The Buprestidæ walk heavily, but fly with the greatest ease during the heat of the sun, and settle on the trunks of trees exposed to its 515 rays. In Europe, and especially in the North, they are very rare, and of very small size. They must be looked for on birch-trees, whose white colour seems to attract them. In the hottest parts of the world they are very abundant, of large dimensions, and adorned with sparkling colours. ”

“ Once past the brow and a view opens over a hilly landscape in the opposite direction, repeating the characteristics of Bohemian scenery—large unfenced fields, with clumps of firs and patches of forest on the highest swells, and the road, in long undulations, running between rows of birch and mountain-ash. ”

“ She drew bridle at the edge of the birches, half turned in her saddle, bidding him follow with a gesture, and rode straight into the covert, now bending to avoid branches, now pushing intrusive limbs aside with both gloved hands.
[136] Out of the low bush pines, heirs of the white birches’ heritage, rabbits hopped away; sometimes a cock grouse, running like a rat, fled, crested head erect; twice twittering woodcock whirred upward, beating wings tangled for a moment in the birches, fluttering like great moths caught in a net. ”

“ They can be so laid out as not to interfere with the use of the motor cars. They should be separated from the main driveway by a turf border and covered with gravel.
Planting is very effective for this feature of the ground, and trees, that is if the right sort are chosen, are admirable, used in this connection. White birches lend a picturesqueness that cannot be equaled, but they are short-lived. The elm with its graceful branches seems to fit into every landscape scheme. Do not plant them too near the posts. If you do, their roots will reach out often causing upheaval and creating havoc. ”

“ The white birches, strange sylvan denizens of door and barnyard, stood shaking their delicate leaves as if announcing sweetly that the kind forest would cover all the wounds of human neglect, and soon everything would be as though man had not lived. ”

“ But in the open spots of the wood—in the glades where life most prevails—are the beautiful birches, with their striped, silvery bark. Well does this tree merit its appellation of "lady of the woods." There is none so frail, so graceful, nor so generally beautiful. Almost every part of the birch is used and for a great variety of purposes. In spring the delicate green of the larch hangs in trailing tassels, and contrasts well with the dark green foliage of the indigenous pine. ”