BETULACE^ 



203 



and firm, dull dark green and glandless or rarely glandular on the upper surface, 

 light yellow-green and glabrous or puberulous, with small tufts of pale hairs in the 

 axils of the primary veins and covered with many black glands on the lower sur- 

 face, 2'-3' long, 1^-2' wide, with slender yellow midribs marked, like the remote 

 primary veins, with minute black glands, turning light clear yellow in the autumn; 

 their petioles stout, yellow, glandular, glabrous or pubescent, ^'-f long; stipules 

 ovate, acute, ciliate on the margins, with pale hairs, light green. Flo'wers : stami- 

 nate aments clustered, during the winter f -1^ long, about ^' thick, with ovate, acute 

 scales light brown below the middle, dark red-brown above, becoming 3^'-4' long, 

 and about ^ thick; pistillate aments I'-l^ long, about ^q' thick, with light green 

 lanceolate scales long-pointed and acute or rounded at the apex; styles bright 

 red. Fruit : strobiles cylindrical, glabrous, about 1^' long and ^' thick, hanging on 

 slender stalks; nut oval, about J^' long, much narrower than its thin wing. 



A tree, usually 60-70 tall, with a trunk 2-3 in diameter, becoming in old age, 

 or when crowded by other trees, branchless below and supporting a narrow open head 

 of short pendulous branches, and brauchlets at first light green, slightly viscid, 

 marked by scattered orange-colored oblong lenticels and covered with long pale 

 hairs, dark orange color and glabrous or pubescent during the summer, becoming 

 dull red in their first winter, gradually growing dark orange-brown, lustrous for four 



h^- 170 



or five years and ultimately covered with the white papery bark of older branches. 

 Winter-buds ovate, acute, about ^' long, pubescent below the middle and coated 

 with resinous gum at midsummer, dark chestnut-brown, glabrous and slightly resin- 

 ous during the winter, their inner scales becoming strap-shaped, rounded at the 

 apex, about ^' long and ^ wide. Bark on young trunks and large limbs thin, creamy 

 white, lustrous on the outer surface, bright orange color on the inner, marked by 

 long narrow slightly darker colored raised lenticels, separating into thin papery lay- 

 ers pale orange color when first exposed to the light, becoming on old trunks for a few 

 feet above the ground sometimes ^' thick, dull brown or nearly black, sharply and 

 irregularly furrowed and broken on the surface into thick closely appressed scales. 

 "Wood light, strong, hard, tough, very close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with 

 thick nearly white sapwood; largely used for spools, shoe-lasts, pegs, and in turnery, 

 the manufacture of wood-pulp, and for fuel. The tough resinous durable bark im- 

 pervious to water is used by all the northern Indians in their canoes and for baskets, 



