- 
CHAP. CIV. BETULA CEH. BE’TULA. 1691 
little succulency, and being astringent and aromatic, they are very rarely sub- 
ject to the attacks of insects. The wood of all the species is much less 
durable than the bark. 
Leaves small, Natives chiefly of Europe. 
¥1. B. a’tpa L. The white, or common, Birch. 
Identification. Lin. Sp. Pl., 1393.; Willd., 4. p. 462.; FL Br., 1012.; Engl. FL, 4 p. 153.; Hook, 
Scot., 274.; Hook. Br. Fl, 3ded., p. 411. : 
Synonymes. B. pubéscens Ehrh. Arb., 67., Pl. Off, 338; B., No. 1628., Hall. Hist.; Bétula 
Raii Syn., 445. ; B. xtnensis Rafi., according to Comp. to Bot. Mag., 1. p. 91. ; Bouleau commun, 
Fr.; gemeine Birke, Ger. sit 
Engravings. Eug. Bot., t. 2198.; Fl. Dan., t. 1467.; Trag. Hist., 1115. f.; Bauh. Hist., 1. pt. 2. 
p. 149. f.; Matth. Valgr., 1. p. 121. f.; Cam. Epit., p. 69. f.; Dod. Pempt., 839. f.; Ger. Emac., 
p. 1378. f.; Lob. Ic., 2. p. 190. f. ; our fig. 1547.; and fig. 1550., of the entire tree ; and the plate 
of this species in our last Volume. 
Spec. Char.,§c. Leaves ovate, acute, somewhat 1547 $353) “Wy 
deltoid, unequally serrated, nearly glabrous. mn VA 
(Eng. Fl., iv. p. 153.) A tree, a native of 
almost every part of Europe, but more espe- 
cially of the colder regions. A diminutive 
shrub in the extreme north, but a tree from 
50 ft. to 60ft. high in the middle regions ; 
flowering, in Lapland, in May; and in the 
Apennines, in February and March. 
Varieties. 
¥ B. a. 2 péndula Smith, Lodd. Cat., ed. 
1836; B. péndula Roth Germ., i. p. 
405., 2. pt. 2. p.476.; B. verrucosa 
Ehrh. Arb., 96., Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836, pir Ni end 
Pl. Off, 328.; B. péndulis virgulis ai ’ x 
Loes. Pruss.; the weeping Birch, is a \\, , 
well-known tree, differing from the £* | 
species in having the shoots more slen- \ Af = 
def, smoother, and pendulous. (See the wy ae % 
plate of the young tree in our last Volume.) Some Continental and 
English botanists, and, among the latter, Sir J. E. Smith, are inclined 
to consider this a variation rather than a variety; but this opinion 
does not prevail among cultivators. Sang states that the weeping 
variety is easily known from the common birch, by its attaining a 
much larger size; by its main branches being more straight and 
upright (though its lateral ones are pendent at their extremities) ; 
and by its leaves being smaller. It attains, he says, the stature of a 
timber tree in much less time than the common sort; and is far 
handsomer, both when young and when in a mature state. All these 
particulars must have been observed by every one who has had much 
occasion to penetrate into birch forests; and the circumstance of 
nurserymen collecting the seeds of this variety, and finding that the 
majority of the plants produced by them are of the smooth-leaved 
and weeping kind, leaves no doubt in our mind that B. a. péndula 
is as much a variety as B. a. pubéscens. Sir W. J. Hooker says (Brit. 
Fi., 3d ed., p. 411.): “ There is a variety of this tree (B. péndula 
Roth, Lindl, Syn., p.229.), with remarkably drooping 1548 
branches, which are more verrucose than in the @ 
common appearance, It is not unfrequent in the f£ 
Highlands of Scotland, and is generally known by 
the name of the drooping birch. To this Scott 
alludes : 
*** Where weeps the birch with silver bark, 
And long dishevelled hair.’ ”’ 
¥ B, a. 3 pubéscens; B. pubéscens Ehrh. Beitr., vi. 98., 
Willd., iv. 462., Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836; and our jig. 
1548. ; has the leaves covered with white hairs; and, though con- 
SiS 
