The Birches 



cambium. A black band (of mourning) soon marks the doomed 

 tree, and it eventually snaps off in the wind. 



The strain of the growing wood breaks the bark here and 

 there and it curls back at the broken edges. Strips gradually 

 come off, on trunk and branches, leaving black bands. But this 

 is not a very shaggy birch. The pearly lustre of its clean white 

 bark and the density of its lustrous foliage make B. papyri jera one 

 of the most beautiful, as it is one of the largest, of our native 

 birches. 



Yellow Birch, Grey Birch (Betula lutea, Michx.) — Medium- 

 sized tree, 50 to 75 feet, rarely 100 feet high, with broad, round 

 top with slender, drooping branchlets ending in fine, leafy spray. 

 Bark aromatic, bitter, dark grey, rough, with deep, irregular 

 furrows, and thick plates; younger stems silvery yellow, peeling 

 horizontally in ribbons; remnants of this lustrous bark seen on 

 plates of old trunks; twigs pubescent the first season. Wood 

 reddish brown, pale, heavy, hard, strong, close grained, satiny. 

 Buds pointed, \ inch long, brown, shiny. Leaves ovate, 3 to 4 

 inches long, sharply and doubly serrate, pointed, oblique at base; 

 veins conspicuous, hairy beneath, midrib stout; petiole short, 

 hairy; colour dull dark green, with yellow-green lining; autumn, 

 pale yellow. Flowers before leaves in April; staminate catkins, 

 3 to 4 inches long, brown above, yellow below the middle; pistillate 

 catkins § inch long, reddish green, hairy. Fruits : cones oblong or 

 ovoid, stout, I inch long, erect, scales 3-lobed, narrow, tapering, 

 hairy; nut oval, with narrow wings. Preferred habitat, rich, moist 

 uplands. Distribution, Newfoundland south to Delaware, North 

 Carolina and Tennessee; west to Minnesota. Uses: A desirable 

 ornamental tree, but rarely planted. Wood valuable for imple- 

 ments, furniture, wheel hubs, button moulds, boxes, and for fuel. 



The bark again gives the name to a large birch that grows 

 here and there in the forests of the Northern States. The fringed 

 and tattered outer bark, dingy grey with pearly lustre, and 

 showing gleams of gold at every rent, is unlike the other birches. 

 The twigs are aromatic, but not to compare with the black birch. 

 In grace and lustiness the two trees are well matched. The 

 yellow birch leads in size, of its catkins, fruiting cones, and the tree 

 itself. The leaves are not larger, but they are more distinctly 

 toothed, the double serrations being regular and clear cut. 



The yellow birch is one of the best of timber trees. The 

 171 



\ 



