1706 ARBORETUM AND FRU'TICETUM. PART III. 
Canada, of high mountains 1558 
in New York and Penn- RF! 
sylvania, where it does not 
grow above 2ft. or 3ft. high, 
and flowers in May and June. 
‘The rootis red, and is used 3& 
for inlaying. It was intro- 
duced in 1762; and there 
are plants at Messrs. Lod- 
diges’s. It appears but little 
ditferent from the preceding 
sort, and both are probably 
only stunted varieties of B. 
alba. 
% 5. B.na’na L. The dwarf Birch. 
Identification. Lin. Sp. Pl., 1394. ; Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. p. 465.; Fl. Br., 1012. ; Eng. Fl, 4 p. 154. ; 
Hook. Scot., p. 274. ; Dicks. H. Sicc., fasc. 8. 16.; Ehrh. Arb., 18.; Gagneb. Act. Helvet., 1. 
p. 58. ; Lind. Wicksb., 5.; Hayne Dend., p. 168. ; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 262. ; Lodd. Cat., 
ed. 1836. 
Synonymes. B. nana Suecdrum Brome. Chi. Goth., 11., Linn. Act. Suec., 1735, 15.3 B. No. 1629., 
tn Hist., 2. p. 300.; B. No. 259., Amm. Ruth., 180. ; B. palastris pimila, &c., Cels. Act. Suec., 
1782, 3. 
Engravings. Am. Acad., 1. t. 1.; Eng. Bot., t. 2326.; Fl. Lapp,, ed. 2., t. 6. f. 4.5; Lightf., t. 25. ; 
Pall. Ross., 1. t. 40. f. D. G.; Fl. Dan., t. 91. ; and our jig. 1559, 
Spec. Char., Sc. Leaves orbicular, crenate, reticulated with veins beneath. 
(Eng. Fi., iv. p.154.) A bushy shrub, seldom exceeding 2 ft. or 3 ft. in 
height ; with numerous branches, slightly downy when young, and beset with 
numerous, little, round, firm, smooth, sharply crenated 
leaves, beautifully reticulated with veins, especially 
beneath ; and furnished with short footstalks, having 
a pair of brown Janceolate stipules at their base. Cat- 
kins erect, stalked, cylindrical, obtuse ; the barren ones 
lateral, and the-fertile ones terminal. Scales of -the 
latter 3-lobed, 3-flowered, permanent. Stigmas red. 
(Smith’s Eng. Fl., vol. iv. p. 155.) A native of Lap- 
land, Sweden, Russia, and Scotland, in Europe; and of 
Hudson’s Bay, and other parts of Canada, in America; 
on mountains, but almost always in boggy places. Ac- 
cording to Pallas, it is common in the whole of the 
north of Russia and Siberia; but not on the moun- 
tains of Altai or Caucasus. In wet situations, he says, 
the shoots grow to the length of 6 ft.; and, in a state of 
cultivation, they grow as high as 9 ft.,and assume an erect form. This shrub 
is of singular use in the domestic economy of the inhabitants of Lapland. 
Its branches furnish them with their beds, and their chief fuel; its leaves, 
with a better yellow dye than that obtained from thé common birch; its 
seeds afford nourishment to the ptarmigan, or white partridge (Té€trao 
Lagépus L.), which supplies a considerable portion of their food, and also 
forms an important article of commerce ; and, for their medicine, it produces 
the fungus Polporus fomentarius Mich., respecting which some details will 
be found under the head of Qiercus, sect. Robur, from which the moxa, or 
amadou, is prepared, and which the Laplanders consider an efficacious 
remedy in all painful diseases. Such is the wonderful power of adaptation 
of man, in a country possessing few natural resources. B.nana has been 
in cultivation in Britain since the days of Miller, and is by no means un- 
frequent in collections. Price of plants, in the London nurseries, is 2s. 
each; and of seeds, 6d. per packet. At New York, plants are 25 cents each. 
Varieties. 
&% B. n. 2 stricta Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836, is somewhat more erect in habit 
than the species. There are plants at Messrs. Loddiges’s. Pallas men- 
