BIRCH FAMILY 



Our two low birches undoubtedly owe their hum- 

 ble position in an arborescent genus to their environ- 

 ment. One is a denizen of storm-swept mountain 

 tops; the other dwells in the bogs. Both are excel- 

 lent shrubs in cultivation, clean cut, slender-stemmed ; 

 bright-foliaged. 



The birch fruit is an exceedingly interesting form, 

 It appears as a cone made up of a large number of 

 three-lobed scales closely packed one above another, 

 all attached to a central axis. Lying above each 

 one, in fact fitting into a little hollow prepared for it, 

 is a small winged nut, which as the cone matures is re- 

 leased from its protecting scale and permitted to sail 

 away as the wind directs. One has to reconstruct 

 one's idea of a nut to make this minute winged seed 

 seem to be one, but so the botanists call it. 



DWARF BIRCH. GLANDULAR BIRCH 



Bctula glandulbsa. 



A shrub,, one to four feet high ; twigs brown, glandular-dotted, 

 not pubescent ; found in wet meadows and on mountain sides. 

 Ranges from Newfoundland to Alaska, the higher mountains of 

 New England and northern New York, west to Michigan, Min- 

 nesota and in the Rocky Mountains to Colorado ; also in Asia. 



Leaves. Alternate, simple, pinnately veined, three-fourths to 

 an inch long, orbicular, oval or obovate, rounded or slightly 

 cordate at base, irregularly clentulate-serrate, rounded at apex. 

 When full grown are very reticulate. Thick, bright green, 

 glabrous above, pale and glandular-dotted beneath. Autumnal 

 tint clear bright yellow. Petioles short. Stipules fugacious. 



Flowers. June, July. Monoecious. Staminate aments soli- 

 tary, about half an inch long ; the flowers, about three together 

 in the axil of each bract, consisting of a membranous four- 



453 



