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| | Birch Tree |
 | | IF the Oak and the Beech contend for the rank of king, there is no doubt as to the right of the Birch, clad as she is in cloth of silver, adorned with emeralds, or with "patines of pure gold," to the title of queen of the woods. |
 | | The Birches differ from the Alders in the scales of the seed-bearing catkin being chafflike, and falling together with its winged fruits, whilst those of the Alders remain as a woody cone. |
 | | The White or Silver Birch is a short-lived tree, as a rule from forty to fifty feet high, though exceptionally growing to eighty feet, with a trunk seldom exceeding a foot in diameter, conspicuous from its flaking, silvery-white bark. |
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