BETULACE^ 



201 



clothing the stem to the ground and forming a narrow pyramidal pointed head, and 

 brauchlets roughened by small raised leuticels, resinous-glandular when they first 

 appear, like the unfolding leaves, gradually growing darker, bright yellow and 

 lustrous before autumn like the young stems, bright reddish brown during the first 

 winter, and ultimately white near the trunk; often growing in clusters of spreading 

 stems springing from the stumps of old trees. "Winter-buds ovate, acute, pale 

 chestnut-brown, glabrous, about \' long. Bark about ^ thick, dull chalky white on 

 the outer surface, bright orange on the inner, close and firm, with dark triangular 

 markings at the insertion of the branches, becoming at the base of old trees thicker, 

 nearly black, and irregularly broken by shallow fissures. Wood light, soft, not 

 strong, close-grained, not durable, light brown, with thick nearly white sapwood; 

 used in the manufacture of spools, shoe-pegs and wood pulp, for the hoops of bar- 

 rels, and largely for fuel. 



Distribution. Dry gravelly barren soil or on the margins of swamps and ponds; 

 Nova Scotia and the valley of the lower St. Lawrence River southward to northern 

 Delaware, and westward through northern New England and New York, ascending 

 sometimes to altitudes of 1800, to the southern shores of Lake Ontario; rare and 

 local in the interior, very abundant in the coast region of New England and the 

 middle states; springing up in great numbers on abandoned farm-lands or on lands 

 stripped by fire of their original forest covering; most valuable in its ability to 

 grow rapidly in sterile soil and to afford protection to the seedlings of more valuable 

 and less rapidly growing trees. 



5. Betula coerulea, Blanch. Blue Birch. 



Leaves ovate, long-pointed, broadly or narrowly concave-cuneate at the entire 

 often unequal base, sharply mostly doubly serrate above, with straight or incurved 



glandular often apiculate teeth, covered above when they unfold with pale deciduous 

 glands, at maturity dull bluish green on the upper surface, pale yellow-green on 

 the lower, and sparingly villose along the under side of the slender yellow midribs 

 and primary veins, 2'-21' long, I'-l^' wide, their petioles slender, f-l\' long, yellow 

 more or less deeply tinged with red. Flowers: staminate aments usually in pairs, 

 or singly or in 3's, ll'-2' long, about j\' thick, with ovate rounded short-pointed 



