284 TREES IN WINTER 



RED BIRCH 

 River Birch. 



Betula nigra L. 



HABIT — A medium sized tree, 30-50 ft. in height with a trunk 

 diameter of l-l^^ ft., much larger southward; trunk often divided 

 relatively low down as shown in photographs into a few slightly 

 spreading limbs beset with numerous slender more or less pendulous 

 branchlets, forming a rather narrow oblong head, becoming irregular 

 and broader with age. 



BARK — On young trunks and branches, thin, shining, light reddish- 

 brown, peeling freely into thin papery layers of various shades of 

 red and brown which curl back and remain for several years as 

 ragged fringes and show the light pinkish tints of the freshly exposed 

 inner layers; at base of older trunks, dark reddish-brown, deeply 

 furrowed and broken into thick irregular plate-like scales. 



TAVIGS — Slender, dark red, for the most part smooth. LENTICELS — 

 pale, becoming horizontally elongated. 



L.EAF-SCARS — Alternate, 2-ranked. 



BUDS — Small, about 6 mm. long, shining, light chestnut brown 

 smooth or more or less hairy, ovate, pointed, more or less appressed. 



FRUIT — Ripening in late spring or summer, a stalked, downy, cylin- 

 drical, erect catkin, 2-5 cm. long; scales downy, with 3 narrow 

 lobes, seed-like nutlet about as wide as the downy margined wings. 



COMPARISONS — The Red Birch resembles the Yellow Birch in the 

 more or less persistent ragged fringes of papery layers into which the 

 outer bark peels. Its bark, however, is dark reddish to light cinnamon 

 color, and is rather less ragged in peeling than that of the Yellow Birch 

 w^hich, moreover, is of a dirty yellowish color.' The Black Birch with 

 its dark bark and the white barked species cannot be confused with 

 the tree under discussion. This tree is rare and local in New England 

 and except as planted for ornament is found along river banks. 



DISTRIBUTION — Along rivers, ponds and woodlands inundated a 

 part of the year. Doubtfully and indefinitely reported from Canada; 

 south, east of the Alleghany mountains, to Florida; west, locally 

 through the northern tier of states to Minnesota and along the Gulf 

 states to Texas; western limits, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and 

 Missouri. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Not reported in Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island or 

 Connecticut; New Hampshire — found sparingly along streams in the 

 southern part of the state; abundant along the banks of Beaver Brook, 

 Pelham; Massachusetts — along the Merrimac river and its tributaries, 

 bordering swamps in Methuen and ponds in North Andover. 



W^OOD — Light, rather hard, strong, close-grained, light brown with 

 pale sapwood of 40-50 layers of annual growth; used in the manufacture 

 of furniture, wooden ware, wooden shoes and in turnery. 



