BETULA PAPYRIFERA, MARSH. 69 



secondary branches and a slender, flexible spray without any 

 marked tendency to droop. Characterized by the dark metallic 

 lustre of the branchlets, the dark green foliage, deep yellow 

 in autumn, and the chalky whiteness of the trunk and large 

 branches ; a singularly picturesque tree, whether standing 

 alone or grouped in forests. 



Bark. Easily detachable in broad sheets and separable 

 into thin, delicately colored, paper-like layers, impenetrable 

 by water, outlasting the wood it covers. Bark of trunk 

 and large branches chalky-white when fully exposed to the 

 sun, lustreless, smooth or ragged-frayed, in very old forest 

 trees encrusted with huge lichens, and splitting into broad 

 plates ; young trunks and smaller branches smooth, reddish 

 or grayish brown, with numerous roundish buff dots which 

 enlarge from year to year into more and more conspicuous 

 horizontal lines. The white of the bark readily rubs off upon 

 clothing. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds small, ovate, flattish, acute 

 to rounded. Leaves simple, alternate, 3-5 inches long, two- 

 thirds as wide, dark green and smooth above, beneath pale, 

 hairy along the veins, sometimes in young trees thickly glan- 

 dular-dotted on both sides ; outline ovate, ovate-oblong, or 

 ovate-orbicular, more or less doubly serrate ; apex acute to 

 acuminate ; base somewhat heart-shaped, truncate or obtuse ; 

 leafstalk 1-2 inches long, grooved above, downy ; stipules 

 falling early. 



Inflorescence. April to May. Sterile catkins mostly in 

 threes, 3-4 inches long : fertile catkins 1-1-J-, inches long, 

 cylindrical, slender-peduncled, erect or spreading ; bracts 

 puberulent. 



Fruit. Fruiting catkins 1-2 inches long, cylindrical, short- 

 stalked, spreading or drooping : nut obovate to oval, narrower 

 than its wings ; combined wings butterfly-shaped, nearly twice 

 as wide as long. 



Horticultural Value. Hardy throughout New England; 

 prefers a well-drained loam or gravelly soil, but does fairly 

 well in almost any situation ; young trees rapid growing and 

 vigorous, but with the same tendency to grow irregularly that 



