_Birch._――The _Black Birch_ abounds in New England and the middle states; farther south it is confined to the summits of the Alleghanies. It often exceeds seventy feet in height. At the close of winter, the leaves, during a fortnight after their birth, are covered with a thick, silvery down, which soon after disappears. When bruised, the leaves and bark diffuse a very agreeable odor, and as they retain this property when dried and carefully preserved, they afford a pleasant infusion, with the addition of a little sugar and cream. The wood is applied to a variety of useful purposes; it is of a rosy hue, which deepens on exposure to the light. The _Yellow_, _Canoe_, _White_, and _Red Birch_ are found in various localities throughout the country. _Pines._――The pines constitute a large and interesting class of American forest trees. The most valuable species is that which is known in England and the West Indies as the _Georgia Pitch Pine_; and which, in the United States, is variously called yellow pine, pitch pine, broom pine, southern pine, red pine, and long-leaved pine, a name which is adopted by Michaux. Towards the north, the long-leaved pine makes its appearance near Norfolk, in Virginia, where the pine-barrens begin. It seems to be especially assigned to dry sandy soils; and it is found, almost without interruption, in the lower part of Carolinas, Georgia, and the Floridas, over a tract more than six hundred miles long, from north-east to south-west, and more than a hundred miles broad, from the sea towards the mountains. Immediately beyond Raleigh, it holds almost exclusive possession of the soil, and is seen in company with other pines only on the edges of swamps, enclosed in the barrens; even there not more than one stock in a hundred is of another species, and with this exception, the long-leaved pine forms the unbroken mass of woods which covers this extensive country.