1922] Fernald,—Notes on the Flora of Nova Scotia 169 
8-13 mm. long and with prolonged base, are subfoliaceous and some- 
times even subsquarrose. 
The latter is the tree taken by Dr. Britton to be B. lutea, but 
when Michaux's original description and plate are examined it at 
once becomes clear that the original B. lutea Michx. f.! was identical 
with B. alleghaniensis, i. e. the common Yellow Birch with short 
and subcoriaceous short-based scales which “abonde surtout dans les 
foréts de la Nouvelle-Ecosse, de la Nouvelle-Brunswick, du district 
du Maine, op elle est désignée sous le seul nom de Yellow birch, Bouleau 
jaune." This is indicated not alone by the very characteristic 
drawing of the fruiting ament and scale but by Michaux's definite 
statement (pp. 153, 154) that “les écailles . . . sont trifides, 
trés-acuminées, et longues d'environs 3 lignes (7 millimétres)." 
That this extreme of the species is more common in the forests of 
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine than is the tree with longer 
and subfoliaceous scales is clear from the representation of the two 
in the herbaria (including that of the Arnold Arboretum) at hand. 
Of typical B. lutea (B. alleghaniensis) Nova Scotia shows a representa- 
tion of 7 collections, New Brunswick 3, and Maine 21; while of the 
tree with long subfoliaceous scales Nova Scotia shows 3 collections, 
New Brunswick 1 and Maine 3. 
Although it has been implied that the long-scaled extreme is of 
more northern range than the short-scaled typical Betula lutea (B. 
alleghaniensis) it is noteworthy that the collections at hand show 
the latter to be more generally collected in the cooler or more northern - 
regions. The figures just listed are to the point; likewise the fact 
that our only collections from Quebec are of typical B. lutea as are 
6 out of 8 from Vermont and 6 out of 9 from New Hampshire. Further- 
more, the collections from the southern Alleghanies show the typical 
short-scaled B. lutea from an altitude of 3400 feet on the Blue Ridge 
of Virginia, from “Upper slopes of Mt. Pisgah,” North Carolina 
(type of B. alleghaniensis) and from 6000 feet on the Great Smoky 
Mountains; while the southern material of the long-scaled extreme 
is from “along the East Fork of the Greenbrier River," West Virginia, 
“ex regioneinferiori Montium Alleghany, Doe River Valley, Tennessee’, 
from “near foot of Thunderhead Mt., E. Tenn," and common below 
4000 feet in the mountains of Macon County, North Carolina. The 
collections from Indiana are, likewise, consistent with these ranges, 
1F. André-Michaux, Hist. des Arbres Forest. de l'Am. Sept. ii. 152, t. 5 (1812). 
