THE BIRCHES. 83 



conventional veining. But here the resemblance ends : 

 the birch leaf is shiny, the elm 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 TO 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. 



