BETULACER. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
59 
of Canada’ and the northern states to Long Island, New York, and northern Pennsylvania, central 
Michigan and Minnesota, the bluffs of the Niobrara River in northern Nebraska,’ the Black Hills of 
Dakota,’ northern Montana, and northwestern Washington.* An inhabitant of rich woody slopes and 
the borders of streams, lakes, and swamps, the Canoe Birch, although it never forms a large part of 
the forest, is very common in the maritime provinces of Canada, in the region immediately north of the 
Great Lakes, and in northern New England and New York, where it ascends to higher elevations than 
any other deciduous-leaved tree ; it is small and comparatively rare in the coast region of southern New 
England, in southern New York, and in central Minnesota ; widely distributed at high latitudes from 
Labrador to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, it is never very abundant here or a conspicuous 
object in the landscape, and within the Arctic Circle becomes small and crooked; west of the Rocky 
Mountains, where it attains its largest size, the Canoe Birch usually grows singly, and is found only 
along the banks of streams. 
The wood of Betula papyrifera is light, strong, hard, tough, and very close-grained ; it is heht 
brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood, and contains numerous obscure medullary 
rays. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.5955, a cubic foot weighing 37.11 pounds. 
It is largely used in the making of spools, for which purpose it is preferred to the wood of other 
American trees, and of shoe-lasts and pegs, in turnery, in the manufacture of wood-pulp, and for fuel. 
The Indians of the north employ it for their sledges and paddles, the frames of their snow-shoes, and 
the handles of their hatchets. 
layers, and impervious to water, is indispensable to all the northern tribes of Indians; with it they 
The tough resinous durable bark of this tree, easily separated into thin 
build their canoes and manufacture baskets, bags, drinking-cups, and many other articles of domestic 
use; and when the skins of large animals cannot be obtained, it protects their wigwams from the 
inclemency of the boreal winter.® 
The sweet sap, which flows freely in early spring from wounds made in the trunk of the Canoe 
Birch, furnishes the Indians with a pleasant cooling drink, or by boiling can be made into syrup. 
According to Aiton,’ Betula papyrifera was introduced in 1750 by the Duke of Argyll® into 
English plantations. 
1 Brunet, Cat. Vég. Lig. Can. 52.— Bell, Rep. Geolog. Surv. 
Can. 1879-80, 45°. — Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. 436 ; Trans. Roy. Soc. 
Can. xii. 5, 
2 Bessey, Rep. Nebraska State Board Agric. 1894, 110. 
8 Williams, Bull. No. 43, South Dakota Agric. College, 108. 
4 In 1882 Betula papyrifera was collected near Seattle, Washing- 
ton, by Mr. C. V. Piper. 
The western form of this tree differs from the eastern in its 
greater height and rather darker colored bark, in its more pubes- 
cent branchlets, which sometimes do not become glabrous until 
their second season, although vigorous shoots of young plants in 
the east are often clothed with thick pubescence, and in its rather 
larger leaves, which, on the lower surface, are also more pubescent. 
6 «Birch, of this there is plenty in divers parts of the Country. 
Of the barck of these the Salvages of the Northerne parts make 
them delicate Canowes, so light, that two men will transport one 
of them over Land whether they list, and one of them will trans- 
porte tenne or twelve Salvages by water at a time.” (Morton, 
New English Canaan, 45 (Force, Coll. Hist. Tracts, ii. No. 5].) 
“ Ceux-ci sont sires & ne tournent jamais quand ils sont d’écorce 
de Bouleau, laquelle se leve ordinairement en hiver avec de ]’eau 
chaude. Les plus gros arbres sont les meilleurs pour faire de 
grands Canots ; quoique souvent une seule écorce ne suffise pas. 
Le fond est pourtant d’une seule piéce auquel les Sauvages scavant 
coudre si artistement les bords avec des racines, que le Canot 
paroit d’une seule écorce. Ils sont garnis ou de clisses & de va- 
rangues d’un bois de cédre presque aussi leger que le liége. Les 
clisses ont l’épaisseur d’un écu ; l’écorce, celle de deux, & les va- 
rangues celle de trois. Outre cela il regne & droit & & gauche d’un 
bout du Canot & Vautre deux Maitres ou precintes dans lesquels 
sont enchassées les pointes des varangues & ov les huit barres qui 
Ces batiments ont 20. 
pouces de profondeur, c’est-’-dire des bords jusqu’au plat des 
le lient & le traversent sont attachées. 
varangues ; ils ont 28. pieds de longueur & 4. & demi de largeur 
vers la barre du milieu. S’ils sont commodes par leur grande 
legereté & par le peu d’eau qu’us tirent, il faut avoiier, qu’ils sont 
en recompense bien incommodes, par leur fragilité ; car pour peu 
qu’ils touchent ou chargent sur le caillou ou sur le sable, les cre- 
vasses de l’écorce s’entrouvrent, ensuite eau entre dedans, & mou- 
ille les vivres & les Marchandises. Chaque jour il y a quelque 
nouvelle crevasse ou quelque couture 4 gommer. Toutes les nuits 
on est obligé de le décharger a flot, & de les porter A terre, ob on 
les attache & des piquets de peur que le vent ne les emporte ; car 
ils pesent si peu que deux hommes les portent a leur aise sur 
V’épaule, chacun par un bout. Cette seule facilité me fait juger 
qu’il n’y a point de meilleure voiture au monde pour naviguer dans 
les Rivieres du Canada qui sont remplies de Cascades, de Cata- 
ractes & de courans.” (Lahontan, Nouveaux Voyages dans l’Amé- 
rique, 1. 35.) 
6 Richardson, Arctic Searching Exped. ii. 310. 
7 Hort. Kew. iii. 337.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. iii. 1708, f. 1561, t. 
8 See i. 108. 
