66 TREES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



Inflorescence. April to May. Sterile catkins usually in 

 threes, 1* 1 inches long, scales 2-3-flowered : fertile calkins 

 bright green, cylindrical, stalked; bracts 3-lobed, the central 

 lobe much the Longest, tomentose, ciliate. 



Fruit. June. Earliest of the birches to ripen its seed ; 

 fruiting catkins 1-2 inches long, cylindrical, erect or spread- 

 ing; bracts with the 3 lobes nearly equal in width, spreading, 

 the central lobe the longest : nut ovate to obovate, ciliate. 



Horticultural Value. Hardy throughout. New England ; 

 grows in all soils, but prefers a station near running water ; 

 young trees grow vigorously and become attractive objects in 

 landscape plantations ; especially useful along river banks to 

 bind the soil; retains its lower branches better than the 

 black or yellow birches. Seldom found in nurseries, and 

 rather hard to transplant ; collected plants do fairly well. 



Plate XXXII. Betula nigra. 



1. Leaf-buds. 



2. Flower-buds. 



3. Branch with sterile and fertile catkins. 



4. Sterile flower. 



5. Fertile flower. 



(>. Scale of fertile flower. 



7. Fruit. 



8. Fruiting branch. 



Betula populifolia, Marsh. 



White Birch. Gray Birch. Oldfield Birch. Poplar 

 Birch. Poverty Birch. Small White Birch. 



Habitat and Range. --Dry, gravelly soils, occasional in 

 swamps and frequent along their borders, often springing up 

 on burnt lands. 



Nova Scotia to Lake Ontario. 



Maine, abundant ; New Hampshire, abundant east- 

 ward, as far north as Conway, and along the Connecticut to 

 Westmoreland ; Vermont, common in the western and fre- 

 quent in the southern sections ; Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 

 and Connecticut, common. 



