(transl.: “Fruitful, or felicitous, tree / tree of the lover of Hellenic culture”)

The birch tree, found across both ancient and modern Europe and commonly occurring in groves, has long been revered for its slender grace, pliancy and luminous mottled bark. The birch, among other trees, is home to Dryads, the ancient Greek wood nymphs; and its bark, or skin (within which Finlay indicates the Dryads are now camouflaged), has proverbially been used as a surface for writing and inscription. The whiteness of the birch, when glimpsed in passing, can recall the whiteness of a marble column. As much, however, as the birch tree entices the Philhellene into an antique and mythological past, it also has provided a very palpable instrument for moral correction (i.e., the switch – “Bring Back the Birch,” reads a notable work in Finlay’s garden of Little Sparta). Lest the Philhellene wander into a retreat from the present and from engagement, he or she is recalled to bring the love – and knowledge – of the Hellenic past forcibly to bear upon a contemporary culture become vacuous through secularism and irrelevance. The birch, one of the trees to leaf earliest in the spring, is above all a symbol of renewal and revitalization.