Betula 967 



stalk, about inch long ; scales glabrous, ciliate, with rounded, recurved lateral 

 lobes larger than the middle lobe. 



The twigs in winter are slender, shining, glabrous, covered with scattered 

 glands and waxy patches. Buds ovoid, acute, inch long, appressed to the 

 branchlet, with brown glabrous scales. 



The shoots, which spring, as in B. pubescens, from the roots, after a tree is 

 felled, are covered with numerous glandular warts and layers of wax, and bear large, 

 incised, pubescent leaves. The seedlings of this species have simply serrate, 

 pubescent leaves resembling those of seedlings of B. pubescens? but conspicuously 

 glandular on both surfaces ; the stem is pubescent, but bears numerous glands. 



Varieties 



1. Var. dalecarlica, Linnaeus, f., Suppl. 416 (1 781), Fern-leaved Birch. Leaves 

 (Plate 270, Fig. 10) produced into a long acuminate apex, and with the margin cut 

 into pinnatifid serrated lobes. This variety has been found growing wild in the 

 provinces of Dalecarlia and Wermland in Sweden, and is occasionally seen in 

 cultivation, there being a good specimen in Kew Gardens. 2 It is sometimes known 

 in nurseries as var. laciniata. 



2. Shrubby forms, with leaves smaller than in the type, have been distinguished 

 as var. oycowiensis, Regel, in DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 164 (1868), found growing wild 

 in Silesia and Galicia ; and var. arbuscula, Winkler, observed by Fries in the wild 

 state in Dalecarlia. 



3. Var. japonica, Rehder, in Bailey, Cycl. Am. Hort. i. 159 (1900); Schneider, 

 Laubholzkunde, i. 112 (1904). 



Betula japonica, Siebold, Verh. Batav. Gen. xii. 25 (1830); Winkler, Betulacea, 78 (1904). 

 Betula latifolia, Tausch, Fl. Ratisb. 751 (1838); Komarov, Act. Hort. Petrop. xxii. i. p. 38 (1904). 

 Betula alba, Linnaeus, sub-species latifolia, Regel, in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxxviii. 399 (1865), and 



in DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 165 (1868). 

 Betula alba, Linnaeus, var. Tauschii, Shirai, in Tokyo Bot. Mag. viii. 319 (1894). 



In eastern Asia, in Manchuria, Saghalien, and Japan, the common birch is 

 represented by a series of forms which have been grouped together by Winkler 

 under the name B. japonica, Siebold. In some respects they approach more 

 closely B. verrucosa than B. pubescens, and are perhaps best treated as a geographical 

 variety of the former species. Trees of Japanese origin cultivated in Kew Gardens 

 show the following characters : Young branchlets sparingly glandular, glabrous or 

 with a few scattered hairs. Leaves, 2 inches long, \\ inch wide, ovate, cuneate at 

 the base, acuminate at the apex ; margin ciliate, sharply and simply serrate ; nerves 

 seven or eight pairs ; upper surface with scattered pubescence ; lower surface light 

 green, glandular, glabrous except for slight pubescence on the midrib and nerves ; 

 petiole, I inch, glabrous, glandular. Fruiting-catkins about 1 inch long, \ inch wide, 



Cf. Watson, Compendium, 560 (1870) ; and Kerner, Nat. Hist. Plants, Eng. Trans, ii. 514 (1898). 



1 According to Schiibeler, p. 461, this beautiful variety was first found in 1767 at Lilla Ornas, about seven English miles 

 south of Falun in Sweden, when it was quite a small tree, 6 feet high, but grew to be in 1878, 64^ feet high, with a trunk 

 6 feet 8 inches in girth. An excellent illustration of it is given by Schiibeler (Fig. 86) with outlines of the leaves (Fig. 87). 

 (H. J. E.) 



