BETULA NIGRA, L. 65 



Betula nigra, L. 



Red Birch. River Birch. 



Habitat and Range. Along rivers, ponds, and woodlands 

 inundated a part of the year. 



Doubtfully and indefinitely reported from Canada. 



No stations in Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, or Con- 

 necticut ; New Hampshire, found sparingly along streams 

 in the southern part of the state ; abundant along the banks 

 of Beaver brook, Pelham (F. W. Batchelder) ; Massachusetts, 

 along the Merrimac river and its tributaries, bordering 

 swamps in Methuen and ponds in North Andover. 



South, east of the Alleghany mountains, to Florida ; west, locally 

 through the northern tier of states to Minnesota and along the Gulf 

 states to Texas ; western limits, Nebraska, Kansas. Indian territory, 

 and Missouri. 



Habit. A medium-sized tree, 30-50 . feet high, with a 

 diameter at the ground of 1-1^ feet ; reaching much greater 

 dimensions southward. The trunk, frequently beset with 

 small, leafy, reflexed branchlets, and often only less frayed 

 and tattered than that of the yellow birch, develops a light 

 and feathery head of variable outline, with numerous slender 

 branches, the upper long and drooping, the reddish spray 

 clothed with abundant dark-green foliage. 



Bark. Reddish, more or less separable into layers, fraying 

 into shreddy, cinnamon-colored fringes ; in old trees thick, 

 dark reddish-brown, and deeply furrowed ; branches dark red 

 or cinnamon, giving rise to the name of "red birch" ; season's 

 shoots downy, pale-dotted. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds small, mostly appressed 

 near the ends of the shoots, tapering at both ends. Leaves 

 simple, alternate, 3-4 inches long, two-thirds as wide, dark 

 green and smooth above, paler and soft-downy beneath, turn- 

 ing bright yellow in autumn ; outline rhombic-ovate, with 

 unequal and sharp double serratures ; leafstalk short and 

 downy ; stipules soon falling. 



