THE BIRCHES. 83 



conventional veining. But here the resemblance ends : 

 the birch leaf is shiny, the elrn leaf is not on the 

 contrary, it is rough ; it also has a much more lop- 

 sided figure. Furthermore, my drawing of the birch 

 shows that the leaves grow in pairs alternately along 

 the stem ; the elm leaves grow singly ; then, the little 

 elongated dots on the tiny twigs of the birch, and the 

 downy, short leaf stem, both of which bespeak the 

 Betula tribe, are characteristics wholly ' unelmlike. 

 There is also another distinguishing mark of the black- 

 birch leaf : its base is unmistakably scalloped.* Now, 

 compare this shape with that of the hop-hornbean 

 leaf, and it will be seen that the scallop in the latter 

 is extremely slight. These are minor differences, 

 which, however, should not escape our notice. 



I find the black birch in a shrublike condition in 

 Campton, N. H., much more frequently than in tree 

 form ; but when it does reach the proportions of a 

 tree it grows from 20 to 70 feet high, and carries a 

 fairly straight trunk covered with a gray-brown bark 

 somewhat resembling the cultivated cherry, but with 

 those unmistakable horizontal marks which charac- 

 terize the birches. 



With the sunshine distributed over its brilliant 



* The botanical expression for this scalloped base is " cordate " 

 or "heart-shaped"; but I refrain from using a term which might 

 mislead one to believe the entire leaf was shaped like a heart. 



