1692 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART in. 



sidered by many botanists as a species, and 



distinct enough in appearance, we have no 



hesitation whatever in pronouncing it to be 



merely a variety, 

 t B. a. 4 ptnilica ; B. pontica Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836; 



and our /?i,'. 13+9.; h;ts the leaves somewhat 



larger than the s[)ecies, and ajipcars of more 



robust growtii. There is a tree of this kind in 



the Oxford Botanic (Tarden, which, 40 years 



planted, is 4j ft. high ; the diameter of the 



trunk i ft. 1 1 in., and of the head .'iO ft. At 



Croome there is a tree, which, 40 years 



phinted, is 70 ft. high ; and in the Glasnevin 



Botanic Garden, one 35 years old, which is 



38 ft. high. The plants in Messrs. Loddiges's 



collection are quite young, and not above 



3 ft. or 4 ft. in height. 

 tB.a. 5 urtirifolia, B. «rticif6lia Lodd. Cat., has 



the leaves deeply laciniated, serrated, and hairy. 



^ B. «. 6 (la/t'carlica L. Supp., 41fi., is described by the younger Linnaeus, as having its leaves 

 almost palmate, with the segments toothed ; " cut like those of hemp," according to 

 Bosc. 



^ B. a. 7 mncrocdrpa Willd. has the female catkins twice as long as those of the species. 



'f B. a. Sfuliis varicgatis Duraont has the leaves blotched with yellowish;white. 



Other Varieties. B. ^jopulifolia and B. daurica, given below as sjiecies, 

 arc, we think, as much varieties as the preceding sorts; for, though B.])o\)n- 

 liftMia will come tolerably true from seed, yet it is often produced from seeds 

 of the common birch. B. daiirica appears to be a variety of -ff. alba, stunted 

 from the climate in which it grows ; and the same observation will apply 

 to B. sibirica, and some others, enumerated in the Catalogue of Messrs. 

 Loddigcs for 1836. B. exceisa and B. nigra of some of the London gar- 

 dens are mere varieties of the common birch, and quite distinct from the 

 species described by botanists under these names, which are natives of 

 America. (See Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 502. 689.) There are some other 

 sorts in the collection at Messrs. Loddiges's ; such as B. undulata, B. 

 Thoumidnn and B. Fischer/i, which appear to us to belong to B. alba ; but, 

 the plants being exceedingly small, we are not able to determine this with 

 certainty. B. laciniata being merely a cut-leaved variety of B. y;o[)ulif(jlia, we 

 have included it under that head; as we have the sort named B. jjcndula, 

 in the collection of the Messrs. Loddiges. We prefer, in this case, as in 

 similar ones, giving varieties which have been generally considered species 

 as such, merely indicating our opinion l)y a letter in parentheses, for the 

 sake of disposing of the synonymes. There are some varieties of a trifling 

 nature given by Linnaeus in his F/nra Sticrica : such as one with a roimder 

 leaf than the species, and pendent branches ; one with a white, broad, and 

 acuminate leaf; one with brittle branches, and a blackish woolly leaf; one 

 (7/. saxiitilis torminalis) with an oblong leaf; and, lastly, the dwarf birch, 

 |)robablv the B. pumila of Lodd. Cat. These varieties are recorded in 

 Martyn's Miller ; but, unless we are right in conjecturing B. piimila to be 

 the last, we have not seen any of them. Dr. Agardh mentions " three 

 singidar varieties with laciniated leaves (B. hybrida Alavic//) near Fahlun. 

 (Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 63.) The birch varies so much from seed, that 

 scarcely any limits can be given to the number of sorts that might be 

 selected from a seed-bed. In extensive birch forests, also, whether in the 

 rocky scenery of Sweden, the bogs in the north of Russia, or on the hills of 

 Germany, full-grown trees may be seen, as various in tneir foliage and habit 

 of growtii as the young plants in seed-beds. For this reason, we are in- 

 clined to think that there are only two European species of birch, B. alba 

 and //. nana; and four American species, B. papyracea, B. excclsa, B. 

 Icnta, and B. nigra. 



