BETULACEJE 209 



doubly serrate lobes, when they unfold light yellow-green and pilose above and coated 

 below, especially on the midrib and petioles, with thick white tomentum, at maturity 

 thin and tough, l'-3' long, l'-2' wide, deep green and lustrous above, glabrescent, pu- 

 bescent or ultimately glabrous below, except on the stout midrib and remote primary 

 veins; turning dull yellow in the autumn; petioles slender, slightly flattened, tomentose, 

 about \' long; stipules ovate, rounded or acute at apex, pale green, covered below with 

 white hairs. Flowers: staminate aments clustered, during the winter about \' long and 

 T *g thick, with ovate rounded dull chestnut-brown lustrous scales, becoming 2'-3' long 

 and ' thick; pistillate aments about \ ' long, with bright green ovate scales pubescent on 

 the back, rounded or acute at apex, and ciliate with long white hairs. Fruit ripening 

 in May and June; strobiles cylindric, pubescent, \'-\\' long, \' thick, erect on stout tomen- 





Fig. 196 



tose peduncles \* long; nut ovoid to ellipsoidal, \' in length, pubescent or puberulous at 

 apex, about as broad as its thin puberulous wing, ciliate on the margin. 



A tree, 80-90 high, with a trunk often divided 15-20 above the ground into 2 or 

 3 slightly diverging limbs, and sometimes 5 in diameter, slender branches forming in old 

 age a narrow irregular picturesque crown, and branchlets coated at first with thick pale 

 or slightly rufous tomentum gradually disappearing before winter, becoming dark red and 

 lustrous, dull red-brown in their second year, and then gradually growing slightly darker 

 until the bark separates into the thin flakes of the older branches; or often sending up from 

 the ground a clump of several small spreading stems forming a low bushy tree. Winter- 

 buds ovoid, acute, about \' long, covered in summer with thick pale tomentum, glabrous 

 or slightly puberulous, lustrous and bright chestnut-brown in winter, the inner scales 

 strap-shaped, light brown tinged with red, and coated with pale hairs. Bark on young 

 stems and large branches thin, lustrous, light reddish brown or silvery gray, marked by 

 narrow slightly darker longitudinal lenticels, separating freely into large thin papery scales 

 persistent for several years, and turning back and showing the light pink-brown tints of 

 the freshly exposed inner layers, becoming at the base of old trunks from f '-!' thick, dark 

 red-brown, deeply furrowed and broken on the surface into thick closely appressed scales. 

 Wood light, rather hard, strong, close-grained, light brown, with pale sapwood of 40-50 lay- 

 ers of annual growth; used in the manufacture of furniture, woodenware, wooden shoes, 

 and in turnery. 



Distribution. Banks of streams, ponds, and swamps, in deep rich soil often inundated 

 for several weeks at a time; near Manchester, Hillsboro County, New Hampshire, north- 

 eastern Massachusetts, Long Island, New York, southward to northern Florida through 

 the region east of the Alleghany Mountains except in the immediate neighborhood of the 



