o06 BIRCH FAMILY. 



1. MYRICA, RAYBERRY, SWEET (iALE. (Ancient name of some 

 aromatic shrub.) Fl. spring, with or earlier than the leavo. 



M. Gale, SWEKT (i.vi.K. Col. I hogs N. : l-4 high, with pale wedge- 

 laneeolate leaves, serrate towards the apex; little nuts crowded, and a- if 

 winded by a pair of scale>. 



M. ceril'era, BAYHKIJRV, WAX-MYRTLE. Along the coast : shrub 2-S 

 high, with fragrant lance-oblong or lanceolate mostly entire leaves, becoming 

 glossy above, the scattered bony nuts thickly incrnsted with greenish or white 

 wax and ajjjiearing like berries. 



2. COMPTONIA, SWEET-FERX. (Named for Henry Campion, a 

 bishop of London.) Flowers rather later than the leaves, in spring. 



C. asplenif'61ia, the only species, in sterile rocky soil, chieflv E. : l-2 

 high, with linear-lanceolate down \ leaves pinnatifid into many short and rounded 

 lobes, resembling a Fern, and sweet-aromatic. 



108. BETULACE^E, BIRCH FAMILY. 



Trees or shrubs, often resinous-sprinkled and aromatic, with al- 

 ternate, simple, mostly straight-veined leaves, commonly deciduous 

 stipules, and monoecious flowers, both kinds in scaly catkins, and 2 

 or 3 under each bract. Ovary 2-celled and 2-ovtiled, but the fruit 

 (a little nut or akene often surrounded by a wing like a samara) 

 1 -celled and 1-seeded. Stigmas 2, thread-like. 



1. BETULA. Sterile catkins lone; and hanging: 3 flowers under each shield- 



shaped scaly bract, each witfi a -eale bearing 4 ^mrt stanu-iis with 1-edle.l 

 anthers. Fertile catkins stout: 2 or 3 llowers under each 3-lobed bract, each 

 of a naked ovary ripening into a rounded broadly wing.'d M air-like little key- 

 frnit, tipped with the 2 stigma-. 



2. ALNUS. Flowers much as in lletula: but usually a distinct 3-5-parted calyx; 



anthers 2-celled; oval fertile catkins composed of thick and at ! 

 woody persistent scales; and the little nutlets less winged or wingU-.->. 



1. BETULA, BIRCH. (The ancient Latin name.) Trees with slender 

 sprav (or a few low shrubs), more or less spicy-aromatic twigs, sessile scalv 

 buds, flowers in early spring along with the leaves ; the sterile catkins golden 

 yellow ; the fertile ones mostly terminating very short iMeavcd branches of 

 the season. The following are all native trees. 



# Trunk inlh hroirn or i/elloiv-qrai/ bark, the inner and the hn'r/s mid thin straight- 



veined //ares spicy-aromatic: ]>tiil<s >V,n/7 .' thick fruiting catkins with 

 their thin scales rather persistent : fruit with narrow tciinj. 



B. 16nta, SWEET, BLACK, or CHERRY Fiitcn. Moist woods mostly X.: 

 a rather large tree, with fine-grained valuable wuod, dark brown close bark on 

 the trunk (not peeling in thin layers) and bron/e-rcddish twigs, vu-y aromatic; 

 leaves oblong-OVate and >omc\vhat heart-shaped, sharply doubly serrate all round, 

 soon glossy above and almost smooth: Inntin^- catkins oblong-cylindrical. 



B. Ititea, YELLOW or (JuAY B. With the other and more northward : 

 less aromatic ; bark of trunk ycllowish-irray and somewhat silvery, separating 

 in filmy layers; leaves duller, more downy, and rarely at all heart-shaped; 

 fruiting catkins short-oblong. 



* * Trunk with chalky-white bark j>Iinq horizontally in linn shtefs: leaves and 



narrow cylindrical smooth catkins slender-stalked: bracts falling with the 

 broad-winged fruit. 



B. alba, var. populifolia, AMERICAN WHITE BIRCH. Small tree in low 

 or sterile soil, from I'enn. X. E., 15 -25 high, with triangular very taper- 

 pointed smooth and glossv leaves. 



B. papyrcea, PAPER or CANOE BIRCH. Large tree, from upper part of 

 Penn. X., mostly far N. ; with more ovate and even heart-shaped leaves (dull 



