V. 1. THE YELLOW BIRCH. 207 



three large branches, near the top, at sixty or seventy feet from 

 the ground. The roots often swell out above the surface in a 

 picturesque or sometimes fantastic manner. 



The leaves, except on the growing shoots, are in twos, on 

 short, curved, hairy footstalks. When they first come out, they 

 are covered with hair. They are oval or elliptic, of more or 

 less egg-shaped, contracted towards the base and heart-shaped, 

 tapering to a rather long point, more coarsely serrate than those 

 of the black birch, the serratures prolonged, smooth or a little 

 hairy above when mature, pale and hairy along the mid-rib 

 beneath. On the green, hairy, growing shoots, the leaves are 

 alternate, with short, taper, lance-shaped stipules, which soon 

 fall off. In autumn, the leaves become of a soft, pale yellow. 



The catkins of the male flowers are two or three inches long, 

 at the ends of the branches, somewhat larger and shorter than 

 on the black birch, but, like them, hanging like golden and pur- 

 ple tassels on the branches, just as the leaves are beginning to 

 unfold. The scales are slightly fringed. The aments of the 

 fertile flowers are short and nearly erect, in the common axil of 

 two leaves, on the sides or ends of the branchlets. When fully 

 grown and mature, they form an egg-shaped cone, about an 

 inch or an inch and a quarter long, and four or five eighths of 

 an inch thick, nearly sessile, erect, and formed of stiff, tough, 

 three-lobed scales, hairy without, and containing, within, three 

 inversely kidney-shaped winged seeds, with the two brown 

 styles in a notch at the top. 



The yellow birch has not often been cultivated for ornament, 

 but it has great beauty. In travelling, we sometimes see it on 

 the edge of a wood, with its abundant soft, green, often droop- 

 ing foliage, between masses of which is seen the gleam of the 

 light bronze trunk with its silver and pearly lustre.— showing 

 what might be its effect introduced in ornamental woods. 



The wood of this tree is applied to numerous uses. Bending 

 readily, it is particularly adapted to the making of the posts and 

 bars of chairs. It is used for the staves of small and inferior 

 casks, for boot-trees, and foT joists and bedsteads. In Rich- 

 mond, among the Shakers, floors are made of it, as also of the 

 black birch. It is valuable as fuel. 



