118 



SYLVA AMERICANA. 



BETULA. 



Monoecia Tetrandria. Linn. Amentaceae. Juss. Astringent, tonic, emollient. 



Black Birch. Betula lenta. 



The agreeable foliage of 

 this species, and the valuable 

 properties of its wood, render 

 it the most interesting of the 

 American birches. Wher- 

 ever it grows in the United 

 States, it is known by the 

 name of Black Birch : its 

 secondary denominations are 

 Mountain Mahogany in Vir- 

 ginia, and Sweet Birch and 

 Cherry Birch in Connecticut, 

 Massachusetts, and further 

 north. In Canada it is uni- 

 versally called Cherry Birch. 

 It grows in Nova Scotia, in 

 the state of Maine, New 

 Hampshire, Vermont, though more rarely than the yellow birch. 

 It abounds in the Middle States, particularly in New York, 

 Pennsylvania and Maryland ; farther south it is confined to the 

 summit of the Alleghanies, on which it is found to their termina- 

 tion in Georgia, and to the steep and shady banks of the rivers 

 which issue from these mountains. It flourishes best in a deep, 

 loose and cool soil. 



When it has attained its greatest expansion, it often exceeds 

 70 feet in height, and two or three feet in diameter. The bark 

 upon the trunk of trees less than eight inches in diameter, is 

 smooth, grayish, and perfectly similar in its color and organization 

 to that of the cherry tree. On old trees, the epidermis detaches 

 itself transversely, at intervals, in hard, ligneous plates, six or 

 eight inches broad. At the close of winter the leaves, during a 



plate xr. 



Fig. 1. A leaf. Fig. 2. A fertile anient. 



