120 



SYLVA AMERICANA. 





Yellow Birch. Betula lutea. 



Fig. 1. 



PLATE XII. 

 A leaf. Fig. 2. A fertile ament. 



This species of birch 

 abounds in the forests- of 

 Nova Scotia, of New Bruns- 

 wick, in the state of Maine, 

 New Hampshire and Ver- 

 mont, where it is designated 

 by no other name than 

 Yellow Birch. On the wes- 

 tern bank of the Hudson it 

 is rare ; and in New Jersey 

 and Pennsylvania only a few 

 individuals of the species are 

 met with, in moist and shady 

 situations. It is confounded 

 by the inhabitants of these 

 States with the black birch, 

 which is very abundant, and 

 to which it bears a striking resemblance. It is generally found 

 on cool and rich soils among the ashes, the hemlock spruce, 

 and the black spruce. 



When it arrives at its greatest magnitude, it. is more than 

 70 feet in height and two feet in diameter. It is a beautiful tree, 

 and its trunk is of nearly an uniform diameter, straight, and 

 destitute of branches for 30 or 40 feet. It is particularly re- 

 markable for the color and arrangement of its epidermis, which 

 is of a brilliant golden yellow, and which frequently divides itself 

 into very fine strips, rolled backwards at the ends, and attached 

 in the middle. The young shoots, and the leaves at their 

 unfolding are downy ; towards the middle of summer when fully 

 expanded, the leaves are perfectly smooth, except the petiole, 

 which remains covered with a fine, short hair : they are about 

 three and a half inches long, one and a half broad, oval-acuminate, 

 and bordered with sharp and irregular teeth. The leaves, the 

 bark and the young shoots, have an agreeable taste and smell, 



