258 



The Birches 



leaf-stalks are i to 1.5 cm. long. The flowers 

 open in May. The clustered staminate cat- 

 kins are 6 cm. long or longer, their scales 

 broadly ovate and bluntish. The ripe pistillate 

 catkins are oblong-cylindric, 2 to 3 cm. long, 

 ver}^ short-stalked or stalkless, their scales 4 to 

 6 mm. long, more or less hair}% nearly or quite 

 as wide as long, 3-lobed above the middle, the 

 wedge-shaped part below the lobes very short, 

 the edges sparingly long-hairy; the nut is nar- 

 rowly obovate or oblong, 2 to 3 mm. long. It 

 is also called Gray birch and Water birch. 



15. YELLOW BIRCH Betula lutea 



F. A. Michaux 

 Fig. 216. Southern Yellow Birch. 



The Yellow birch, also called Gray birch, 

 is a forest tree, ranging from Newfoundland to Manitoba, south to Massachusetts, 

 Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It is a very large tree, reaching a maximum height 

 of about 30 meters, with a trunk i to 1.5 meters in diameter. 



The bark of young and middle-aged trunks is usually silvery gray or yellow- 

 ish, and is either close and furrowed or peels off freely in very thin layers; on old 

 trunks, especially near their bases, it is rough, reddish brown, fissured, and often 

 1.5 cm. thick; trees of the same size standing side 

 by side often exhibit the bark either close or 

 peeHng, so that the age or size of the trunk is not 

 absolutely correlated with the character of the 

 bark. The young twigs are long-hairy and green, 

 becoming brown or orange-brown, smooth and 

 shining, finally silvery-gray. The pointed buds 

 are about 6 mm. long and somewhat hairy. The 

 leaves are ovate or oblong-ovate, pointed, often 

 long-pointed, sharply simply or doubly toothed, 

 7 to 12 cm. long, rounded, somewhat narrowed 

 or rarely cordate at the base; they are long-hairy 

 when young, dark green and smooth on the upper 

 surface, paler green and hairy on the lower, at 

 least on the veins, when old ; the hairy leaf-stalks 

 are 2 cm. long or less, the pointed ovate stipules 

 about I cm. long. The tree flowers in April or May as the leaves unfold. The 

 clustered staminate catkins are 6 to 9 cm. long. The ripe pistillate catkins are 

 oblong, blunt, very short-stalked, or stalkless, their scales 8 to 10 mm. long, longer 

 than wide, hairy and hairy -fringed, about equally 3-lobed to or above the mid- 



FiG. 217. Yellow Birch. 



