STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER 



A small, slender tree, 15 to ipfeet 



Gray or White high^ with an erect trunk. It 



Birch grows in poor soil and is found 



Betula iopulifolia j j i 



growing commonly atong sandy 

 roadsides. Several shoots spring from the trunk 

 near the ground. Bark close fitting, with a 

 chalky white surface. Black triangular spaces 

 below each branch. The ends of the twigs 

 are very rough to the touch. Alternate leaf- 

 scars. 



This little birch is perhaps the least interest- 

 ing member of a most attractive family. It is 

 found commonly growing along the sandy 

 banks of country roads and in waste, barren 

 places where pitch pines and blueberry bushes 

 and scrub oaks are found. It is invariably 

 associated with sterility in our minds, and 

 seems to demand nothing of the soil on which 

 it grows, adapting itself immediately to its sur- 

 roundings, and thriving where other trees 

 would die. 



Although the bark is white and might be 

 confounded with that of the canoe birch at first 

 sight, the trees can easily be told apart. The 

 gray birch has a close-fitting bark which is 

 dirty white in color, with triangular black 

 blotches under the branches, it is exceedingly 

 chalky to the touch and never peels off as it 



62 



