BETULACE.E 



lobes rather shorter than the 4 stamens; pistillate aments in short racemes usually in- 

 closed during the winter in buds formed during the early summer and opening in the early 

 spring, 3' I' long, about T V thick, with dark red acute scales; styles bright red. Fruit: 

 strobiles raised on stout orange-colored peduncles sometimes \' in length, ovoid or oblong, 

 '-!' long, \'-\' thick, with truncate scales much thickened toward the apex; nut orbicular 

 to obovoid, surrounded by a membranaceous wing. 



A tree, usually 40-50, occasionally 90 high, with a trunk sometimes 3 in diameter, 

 slender somewhat pendulous branches forming a narrow pyramidal head, and slender 

 branchlets marked by minute scattered pale lenticels, light green and coated at first with 

 hoary tomentum sometimes persistent until their second year, becoming during the first 

 winter bright red and lustrous and ultimately ashy gray. Winter-buds about \' long, 

 dark red, covered with pale scurfy pubescence. Bark rarely more than f thick, close, 

 roughened by minute wart-like excrescences, pale gray or nearly white, with a thin outer 

 layer, and bright red-brown inner bark. Wood light, soft, brittle, not strong, close- 

 grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sap wood; in Washington and 

 Oregon largely used in the manufacture of furniture and for smoking salmon; by the Indians 

 of Alaska the trunks are hollowed into canoes. 



Distribution. Shores of Yakutat Bay, southeastern Alaska, southward near the coast 

 to the canons of the Santa Inez Mountains, Santa Barbara County, California; common 

 along the banks of streams, and of its largest size near the shores of Puget Sound; in 

 California most abundant in Mendocino, Humbolt and Marin Counties, forming groves on 

 bottom-lands near the coast; often ranging inland for 20 or 30 miles, and occasionally 

 ascending to altitudes of 2000 above the sea. 



3. Alnus tenuifolia Nutt. Alder. 



Leaves ovate-oblong, acute or acuminate, broad and rounded or cordate or occasionally 

 abruptly narrowed and cuneate at base, usually acutely laciniately lobed and doubly ser- 



Fig. 211 



rate, when they unfold light green often tinged with red, pilose on the upper surface and 

 coated on the lower with pale tomentum, at maturity thin and firm, dark green and glabrous 

 above, pale yellow-green and glabrous or puberulous below, 2'-4' long, l^'-2^' wide, with a 

 stout orange-colored midrib impressed on the upper side, and slender primary veins running 

 to the points of the lobes; petioles stout, slightly grooved, orange-colored, f '-!' in length; 

 stipules ovate, acute, thin, and scarious, \' long, about \' wide, covered with pale pubes- 

 cence. Flowers: staminate aments 3 or 4 in number in slender-stemmed racemes, nearly 

 sessile or raised on stout peduncles often \' long, during the winter light purple, f '-!' long 



