BETULACEZ, SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 63 
aquatic Birch, and its seeds, like those of several other trees which are partly inundated during a 
portion of the year, ripen in early summer when the water of streams is usually at its lowest level, and, 
falling on the damp rich soil of their exposed banks, germinate at once and produce plants which obtain 
a firm foothold and grow to be several inches high before the autumn. Other Birches inhabit cold 
northern countries or high mountains in warmer regions, but the River Birch flourishes and attains its 
largest size in the damp semitropical lowlands of Florida, Louisiana, and eastern Texas. 
The River Birch is a beautiful tree with its massive dark trunk, its graceful branches roughened 
by the curling flakes of its bright bark, with its lustrous leaves and delicate winter spray ;' and to its 
presence upon their banks, dipping the ends of its slender flexible branches into placid or bounding 
waters, the charm of many southern rivers is often largely due. When cultivated the River Birch 
grows rapidly in good soil and does not need the vicinity of water to insure its development into a large 
and graceful tree ; but, although it is admirably suited to decorate the parks of cold and temperate 
countries, it has rarely been planted except in a few of the old pleasure-grounds of central and northern 
Germany. 
' Sargent, Garden and Forest, ii. 591, f. 149. — Rothrock, Forest Leaves, iv. 185, f. 
