CUPULIFER.E. (OAK FAMILY.) 471 



1. BE TULA, Tourn. BIRCH. 



Sterile flowers 3, and bractlets 2, to each shield-shaped scale or bract of the 

 catkins, consisting each of a calyx of one scale bearing 4 short filaments with 

 1 -celled anthers (or strictly of two 2-parted filaments, each division bearing an 

 anther-cell). Fertile flowers 2 or 3 to each 3-lobed bract, without bractlets or 

 calyx, each of a naked ovary, becoming a broadly winged and scale-like nutlet 

 (or small samara) crowned with the two spreading stigmas. Outer bark 

 usually separable in sheets, that of the branchlets dotted. Twigs and leaves 

 often spicy-aromatic. Foliage mostly thin and light. Buds sessile, scaly. 

 Sterile catkins long and drooping, terminal and lateral, sessile, formed in sum- 

 mer, remaining naked through the succeeding winter, and expanding their 

 golden flowers in early spring, with or preceding the leaves ; fertile catkins 

 oblong or cylindrical, peduncled, usually terminating very short 2-leaved early 

 lateral branches of the season. (The ancient Latin name, of Celtic origin.) 



* Trees, with brown or yellow-gray bark, sweet-aromatic as well as the twigs, 



membranaceous and straight-veined Hornbeam-like leaves heart-shaped or 

 rounded at base, on short petioles, and sessile very thick fruiting catkins ; 

 their scales about equally 3-cleft, rather persistent ; wing of fruit not broader 

 than the seed-bearing body. 



1. B. 16nta, L. (CHERRY B. SWEET or BLACK BIRCH.) Bark of trunk 

 dark brown, close (outer layers scarcely laminate), very sweet-aromatic; leaves 

 ovate or oblong-ovate from a more or less heart-shaped base, acuminate, sharply 

 and finely doubly serrate all round, when mature shining or bright green above 

 and glabrous except on the veins beneath ; fruiting catkins oblong-cylindrical 

 (1-1J X long), the scales with short and divergent lobes. Rich woodlands, 

 Newf. to N. Del., and south in the mountains, west to Minn., and S. Ind. 

 Tree 50-75 high, with reddish bronze-colored spray; wood rose-colored, fine- 

 grained, valuable for cabinet-work. 



2. B. lutea, Michx. f. (YELLOW or GRAY BIRCH.) Bark of trunk yel- 

 lowish- or silvery-gray, detaching in very thin filmy layers, within and the twigs 

 much less aromatic ; leaves (3 - 5' long) slightly or not at all heart-shaped and 

 often narrowish toward the base, duller-green above and usually more downy 

 on the veins beneath ; fruiting catkins oblong-ovoid (V or less in length, 6-9" 

 thick), the thinner scales (5-6" long) twice as large as in n. 1, and with nar- 

 rower barely spreading lobes. Rich moist woodlands, Canada and N. Eng. to 

 Del., west to Minn. ; also along high peaks to Tenn. and N. C. Often 60-90 

 high at the north ; wood whiter and less valuable. 



* # Trees, with chalky-white bark separable in thin sheets, ovate or triangular 



leaves of firmer texture, on long slender petioles ; fruiting catkins cylindrical, 

 usually hanging on rather slender peduncles ; their scales glabrous, with 

 short diverging lobes, freely deciduous ; wing of the fruit much broader than 

 its body. 



3. B. populif61ia, Ait. (AMERICAN WHITE BIRCH. GRAY BIRCH.) 



Trunk usually ascending (15-30 high) ; leaves triangular (deltoid), very taper- 

 pointed (usually abruptly), truncate or nearly so at the broad base, smooth and 

 shining both sides, except the resinous glands when young. (B. alba, var. 



