1708 ARBORETUM ANU FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



soil is dry and meagre. In such situations, it commonly attains the height 

 of 20 ft. or 25 ft. ; but single trees, in moist places, grow to nearly double 

 that height, with trunks from Bin. to Oin. m diameter. It is less com- 

 mon in America than any other species of birch, being rarely found in 

 groups; and single trees are met witli only at considerable intervals. It is 

 most common in the district of Maine ; hut, even there, it is only seen by the 

 sides of the highways, and in sandy soils that have been exhausted by cultiva- 

 tion. The wood is very soft, brilliant when polished, and perfectly white ; 

 l)ut it speedily decays, and, in America, is employed for no purpose, not even 

 for fuel. The twigs are too brittle for common brooms. It was first culti- 

 vated in England by Archibald Duke of Argyll, at Whitton, in 1750; and it 

 is to be met with in the principal British and Continental nurseries. When 

 the plants are raised from seed, they make very handsome trees ; and, as seed 

 is freely produced, this mode ought always to be adopted : but plants from 

 layers "seldom attain any magnitude. The largest trees that we know of in 

 the neighbourhood of London are at Purser's Cross and Syon ; where, how- 

 ever, they are under 50 ft. in height. In the Fulham Nursery, there is one 

 30 ft. high; and the largest tree of this kind in England, seems to be at Dod- 

 dington, in Gloucestershire, where it is (JO ft. high. In Ireland, in the Glas- 

 nevin Botanic Garden, 35 years planted, it is 30 ft. high. The price of plants, 

 in the London nurseries, is from Is. to \s. 6d. each, and seeds \x. per quart ; 

 at New York, plants are 10 cents each, and seeds GO cents per pound, or 

 5 dollars per bushel. 



It 8. B. PAPYRA^CEA Ait. The Paper Birch. 



Identijkation. Ait. Hort. Kew., 3. p. 3.j7. ; WiUd. Sp. PI., 4. p. i&i., Baum., p. 58. ; N. Du Ham., 



3. p. 'i05. ; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. fisil. 

 Synonyyncx. B. papyrifera Michx. Fl. Bor. Amer., 2. p. 180., Marshal, p. 36. ; B. lanceolata Hort.; 



B. rubra Lodit. Cat., ed. 1836 ; B. canadensis Lodd. Cat. ; B. nigra ^Ihe Paris nurseries ; tanoe 



Birch, white Birch, Ainer. 

 Engravings. Michx. Arb.,2. t. 1.; Willd. Baum., t. 1. f. 1. ; o\xx fig. 1561. ; and the plate of thu 



tree in our last Volume. 



Spec. Char., Sfc. Leaves ovate, acuminate, doubly serrate; veins hairy be- 

 neath ; petiole glabrous. Female catkins on long footstalks, drooping; 

 scales having the side lobes short, somewhat orbiculate. (Wil/d. Sp. Pl.,i\. 

 p. 464.) A North American tree, attaining 60 ft. or 70 ft. in height ; and 

 flowering, in America, in May and June. Introduced in 1750. 



I'arieties. .. „ ,, , . 



Y B. p. 2/iisc(i, B. fusca Bosc.—Th\i variety is mentioned, in the Nouveau Du Hamcl, as having 

 been collected by Bosc in Carolina. The leaves are smaller than those of the species, 

 and less downy. The branches, covered with a short soft down, of a brownish colour, 

 somewhat resemble those of B. nigra Ait. 



5 B. p. i trichdclada Hort., has extremely hairy branches, and its twigs in threes. It has heart- 

 shaped leaves. There is a tree in the Horticultural Society's Garden. 



$ B. p. 4 platyphylla Hort. has very broad leaves. 



Descrij)tio7i, c^r. The largest size which this tree attains in North America, 

 according to Michaux, is about 70 ft. in height, with a trunk 3 ft. in diameter ; 

 but a writer in the Gardener's Magazine mentions trees which girt from 18 ft. 

 to 20 ft. in the settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company, Its branches are 

 slender, flexible, and covered with a shining brown bark, dotted with white. The 

 leaves are borne on petioles four or five lines long, and are of a middling size, 

 oval, unequally denticulated, smooth, with scarcely any hairs, and of a dark green. 

 The catkins are pendulous, and about 1 in. in length : the seeds are ripe towards 

 the middle of July. On trees the trunks of which do not exceed Bin. in di- 

 ameter the bark is of a brilliant white ; and is as indestructible as the bark 

 of B. alba. The heart wood of this tree, when first laid open, is of a reddish 

 hue ; and the sap wood is perfectly white. It has a fine glos.sy grain, with a 

 considerable share of strength; but speedily decays when exposed to alternate 

 dryness and moisture. Michaux considers it, liowever, equal in point of uscfid 

 properties to the white birch of Europe. A section of the trunk of a full- 

 grown tree, 1ft. or 2 ft. in length, immediately below the first ramification, 

 exhibits very elegant undulations of the fibre, representing bunches of feathers, 

 or sheaves of corn. These pieces are divided by cabinet-makers into thin 



