"While you are deciding," said Miss Harson, with a smile, "it may be as
well for us to go on as usual; but I think that a little tent could be
put up here somewhere, which we might enjoy for an hour or so on
pleasant days. I will see about it."
The little girls were delighted, and Malcolm finally condescended to be
pleased with the idea.
"This is a very young birch," continued their governess, "and you see
how slender and graceful it is; also that the bark, or 'skin,' is very
dark. For this reason it is called the black, or cherry, birch, and also
because the tree is very much like the black cherry. It is also called
sweet birch and mahogany birch; the _sweet_ part you can probably
understand, and it gets its other name from the color of the wood, which
often resembles mahogany and at one time was much used for furniture.
There are larger trees of the same kind all around us, and I should like
to know if anything else has been noticed besides the twigs of this
little one."
"_I_ see something," replied Malcolm: "there are flowers--purple and
yellow."
"And what is the particular name for these tree-blossoms?" asked Miss
Harson.
"Isn't it _catkins_?" inquired Clara, timidly.
"Yes, catkins, or aments. They hang, as you see, like long tassels of
purple and gold, and are as fragrant as the bark. Bryant's line,
"'The fragrant birch above him hung her tassels in the sky,'
"was written of this same black birch. Some of these trees are sixty or
seventy feet high, and all are very graceful, this species being
considered the most beautiful of the numerous birch family.
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