42. BETULA PATYRA.CEA CANOE BIRCH. 33 



HABITAT. Canada and eastern United States generally, said to attain 

 its greatest size along the western slopes of the southern Alleghany Moun- 

 tains and thence westward. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood very hard, strong, tough, close-grained 

 and heavy, nearly white. Specific Gravity, 0.7286; Percentage of Ash, 

 0.83; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.7226; Coefficient of Elasticity, 

 114881; Modulus of Rupture, 1149; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 

 498; Resistance to Indentation, 213; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 

 45.41. 



USES. This timber is used to some extent for beetles, tool-handles, 

 levers, etc., for which its strength and hardness admirably qualify it. It 

 is used also for making hoops. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. None are known of this species. 



ORDER BETULACE^! : BIRCH FAMILY. 



Leaves simple, alternate, straight- veined and furnished with stipules which fall 

 away early. Floirers mostly naked, monoecious, both kinds in catkins, 2 or 3 together 

 under a 3-lobed bract or scale. Sterile flowers with distinct stamens and 2-celled 

 anthers. Fertile flotrers with two thread-like stigmas, and a 2-celled ovary, each cell 

 containing 2 pedulous ovules, becoming by abortion in Fruit, a small, 1-celled, 

 1-seeded nutlet, often with membranous wings; seed anatropous, albumenless, with 

 flattish, oblong cotyledons which become foliaceous in germination. 



Trees or shrubs, with bark which separates more or less easily into thin layers. 



GENUS BETULA, TOURN. 



Leaves ovate, serrate; these, with the twigs, especially the latter, spicy-aromatic. 

 Flowers appearing in early spring with or before the leaves. Sterile flowers in long, 

 drooping, cylindrical, both terminal and lateral., yellow catkins, appearing in summer 

 and remaining dormant during the following winter to open and perform their function 

 early the next season; bracts 3-lobed, shield-shaped, and beneath each are 2 bractlets 

 and 3 flowers with calyx represented by a mere scale, which bears the 4 short stamens, 

 each with a single-celled anther. Fertile flowers in cylindrical or oblong catkins 

 with 3-lobed scales, and beneath each scale are 2-3 naked pistils without braclets or 

 calyx. Fruit a small, broadly- winged, scale-like nutlet or samara. 



Trees and shrubs with outer bark horizontally fibrous and usually separable in 

 sheets, that of the branchlets dotted, inner bark more or less aromatic and of pleasant 

 flavor. 



43. BETULA PAPYRACEA, AIT. 

 CANOE BIRCH, PAPER BIRCH, WHITE BIRCH. 



Ger., Papier- Birke ; Fr., Bouleau a Canot ; Sp., Abedul. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves of rather firm texture, ovate, with heart-shaped 

 or abrupt base, somewhat doubly serrate, smooth dark green above, beneath pale, 

 glandular dotted and hairy along the veins; petiole not often over i or ^ the length 

 of the leaf-blade. Sterile catkins 1-2 inches long. Fertile catkins (mature in July 

 or August) pedunculate, pendulous or nodding, cylindrical, 1 in. or more in length 

 and about ^ as thick, with glabrous scales having short roundish lateral lobes; wing 

 of nutlet much broader than its body. 



(" Papyracea" is the Latin equivalent of papery.) 



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