likewise used in cabinet-work, though it
is not considered equal in quality to the cherry-birch. Its leaves and
twigs have also an aromatic smell when bruised, not so strong, however,
as the last-mentioned. The wood makes excellent fuel, and is much used
for that purpose in some of the large cities of America. The bark, too,
is excellent for tanning--almost equal to that of the oak.

The "red birch" is still another species, which takes its name from the
reddish hue of its bark. This is equal in size to the canoe-birch,
often growing seventy feet high, with a trunk of nearly three feet
diameter. Its branches are long, slender, and pendulous; and it is from
the twigs of this species that most of the "birch-brooms" used in
America are made.

Still another species of American birches is the "dwarf birch" (_Betula
nana_), so called from its diminutive size, which is that of a shrub,
only eighteen inches or two feet in height. It usually grows in very
cold or mountainous regions, and is the smallest of these interesting
trees.

This information regarding the birches of America was given by Lucien to
his brothers, not at that time, but shortly afterward, when the three
were engaged in felling one of these trees. Just then other matters
occupied them, and they had only glanced, first at the canoe-birch and
then at the other tree which Norman had pointed out. The latter was of
a different genus. It belonged to the order _Coniferae_, or
cone-bearing trees, as was evident from the cone-shaped fruits that hung
upon its branches, as well as from its needle-like evergreen leaves.

The cone-bearing trees of America are divided by botanists into three
great sub-orders--the _Pines_, the _Cypresses_, and the _Yews_. Each of
these includes several genera. By the "pine tribe" is meant all those
trees known commonly by the names pine, spruce, fir, and larch; while
the _Cupressinae_, or cypress tribe, are the cypress proper, the cedars,
the arbour-vitae, and the junipers. The yew tribe has fewer genera or
species; but the trees in America known as yews and hemlocks--of which
there are several varieties--belong to it.

Of the pine tribe a great number of species exist throughout the North
American Continent. The late explorations on the western slope of the
Rocky Mountains, and in the countries bordering on the Pacific, have
brought to light a score of species hitherto unknown to the botanist.
Many of these are trees of a