838 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



beat ; from the fasces of the Roman lictors, which were alwas's made of birch rods, being used to 

 drive back the people. Pliny derives the name from bitumen. 



Gen. Char., S^c. Barren flowers. Catkins cylindrical, lax, imbricated all 

 round with ternate, concave scales the middle one largest, ovate. Corolla 

 none. Filaments 10 to 12, shorter than the middle scale, to which they 

 are attached. Anthers roundish, 2-lobed. Fertile flowers. Catkins similar 

 but more dense ; scales horizontal, peltate, dilated outwards, 3-lobed, 3- 

 flowered. Corolla none. Germen compressed. Styles 2. Stig?na simple. 

 N2d oblong, deciduous, winged at each side. (G. Don.) 



Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous; serrated or entire. Flowers 

 whitish, in pendulous catkins. Trees or shrubs, deciduous, with round 

 slender branches, and the bark in most species in thin membranous la3'ers. 

 Natives of Europe, Asia, and North America. 



The species are generally found in mountainous rocky situations in the middle 

 of Europe ; but they grow wild in plains and peaty soils in the northern regions. 

 The common birch is one of the hardiest of known trees ; and there are only 

 one or two other species of ligneous plants which approach so near to the 

 North Pole. They all ripen seeds in the chmate of London ; and are all of the 

 easiest culture in any ordinary soil ; but, being hair-rooted, they do not grow so 

 well in ver}' strong clays ; nor do plants of this genus, when raised from layers 

 or cuttings, grow so freely as in the case of most other genera. The leaves 

 of the birch having little succulency, and being astringent and aromatic, are 

 very rarely subject to the attacks of insects. The wood of all the species is 

 much less durable than the bark. The leaves of most of the species die off of 

 a rich yellow, and some of them of a deep red or scarlet. 



Natives chiefly of Europe. 

 The white, or common. Birch. 



Leaves small, 

 t \. B. a'lb.\ L. 



Identification. Lin. Sp. PI., 1393. ; Engl. Fl., 4. p. 133. ; Hook. Br. Fl., 3d ed., p. 411. 

 Hynonymes. B. pubescens Ekrh. Arb. 67. ; Betiila Rati Syn. 445. ; B. aetnensis Rafi. ; Bouleau 



commun, Fr. ; gemeine Birke, Ger. ; BedoUo, Ital. 

 Engravings. Eng. Bot., t. 2198. ; and o\xr fig. \b'2%. 



Spec. Char., 8^c. Leaves ovate, acute, somewhat deltoid, unequally serrated, 

 nearly glabrous. {Smith.) A deciduous tree. Europe, more especially 

 in the colder regions ; a diminutive shrub in the extreme north, but a 

 tree from 50 ft. to 60 ft. high in the middle regions. Flowers whitish ; in 

 Lapland, in May ; and in the Apennines, and in England, in February and 

 March. Fruit brown ; ripe in September and October. Decaying leaves 

 rich yellow, scarlet, or red. ' 



Varieties, 



"t B. a. 2 pendula Smith. B, pendula Roth 

 Germ, i. p. 405. pt. 2. p. 476. ; B. verrucosa 

 Ekrh. Arb. 96. ; B. pendulis virgulis Locs. 

 Pruss.; the weeping Birch. A well-known 

 tree, distinct from the species in having the 

 shoots more slender, smoother, and pendu- 

 lous. (See the plate of the young 

 tree in Arb. Brit., 1st edit., vol. 

 vii.) 

 S B. a. 3 pubescens. B. pubdscens 

 Ehrh. Beitr. vi. 98. (Our flg. 

 1526.) The leaves covered 

 with white hairs. 

 3f B. a. 4 pontica. B. pontica Lodd. 

 Cat, ed. 1836. {OnYfig. 1527.) 

 Leaves somewhat larger than 

 in the species, and the plant of 



ISifi. S. a. pub&cms. 



more robust growth. 



1527. B. a. pdntica. 



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