78 AMERICAN HANDBOOK 



can be got from the woods while young, it is 

 preferable to raising them from seeds. They 

 may be raised from seeds sown either in fall 

 or spring, on a bed of light sandy loam. If 

 slightly covered with decayed leaves, they 

 will more easily germinate. Large trees are 

 bad to transplant, on account of their main 

 roots extending so far ; but if transplanted 

 several times while young, there are few 

 easier. 



2. B. LENTA, LinncBus. Leaves cordate, 

 ovate, acuminate, sharply serrate ; the nerves 

 beneath hairy, as well as the leafstalks. 

 Sweet black birch. Native of the Northern 

 States. 



One of the handsomest of the birches. It 

 is one of the earliest to put out its foliage to 

 welcome the spring. It is generally conically 

 round-headed when old, and frequently has 

 its branches as pendulous as a weeping willow. 

 It will grow sixty or seventy feet high under 

 very favorable circumstances. The Bartram 

 specimen is fifty feet high, three feet ten in 

 ches in circumference. 



Propagated and cultivated as No. 1. 



3. B. NIGRA, Linnaeus. Leaves rhombic 



