326 t WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



paper-like layers. The wood is valuable for some kinds of cabinet work, 

 though it is not very durable, when exposed to the weather ; that of 

 the heart is reddish; the sap-wood white. 



** Bark of the trunk reddish-brown or yellowish : petioles short : fertile 

 catkins ovoid oblong, scarcely peduncled. 



3. B, ni'gra, L. Leaves rhomboid- 

 ovate, acute, doubly serrate, entire at 

 base, pubescent beneath ; scales of 

 the fertile aments villous, the lobes 

 sub-linear, obtuse. 



BLACK BETULA. Black Birch. Red 

 Birch. 



Stem 40 - 60 or 70 feet high, and 1-2 feet in 

 diameter, the young trees and branches with 

 a smoothish cinnamon-colored bark, the outer 

 layers of old bark exfoliating in thin revolute 

 laminae or sheets. Leaves 1-4 inches -long ; 

 petioles 1 fourth to 3 fourths of an inch in 

 length ; stipules small, oblong-lanceolate. Stam- 

 inate aments 2-3 inches long, flexible and pen- 

 dulous. Pistillate aments about an inch long, 

 oblong, obtuse, on short peduncles ; scales 

 3-cleft two-thirds of their length, the seg- 

 ments equal, linear or spatulatc-linear, obtuse. 

 Nut. compressed, ovate, with a membranace- 

 ous margin which is widest towards the base. 



Low grounds ; banks of streams : Massa- 

 chusetts, Southward. Fl. April. Fr. Aug. 



Obs. The timber is close-grained*and durable when not exposed to 

 the weather. The wood is said to be highly valuable as fuel. The 

 virgate branches were famous instruments in the hands of pedagogues, 

 of the olden time, in promoting good order and a close attention to 

 study, among the rising generation, to which the poet PHILLIPS refers, 

 when he sings of 



" afflictive Birch 



Cursed by unlettered idle youth." 



But " the march of mind," in the present day, has rendered such auxili- 

 aries nearly obsolete ! The flexible twigs of this species, instead of 

 being used to stimulate idle boys to learn their lessons are chiefly 

 employed for making coarse brooms, to sweep streets and court-yards, in 

 our cities. 



FIG. 226. The Black or Red Birch (Betula nigra). 



