OLASS XXI. ORDER VII. | BETULAs Loz 
. 
A tree of graceful appearance, with white smooth shining bark 
when young, but deeply cleft as it becomes older. Branches long, 
slender, the ultimate divisions very slender, and more or less droop- 
ing, quite smooth, or more or less warty. Leaves ovate, triangular, 
with an acuminated point, the margins unequally and doubly 
serrated, smooth, rather dark green above, paler beneath, with pro- 
minent mid-rib and veins, and smooth, or somewhat downy, petiolate. 
Flowers in cylindrical catkins, on slender stalks, terminating the 
buds and branches, fertile ones short, thick, with three lobed mem- 
branous scales, three flowered, barren catkins long, pendulous, with 
ternate scales, the middle scale largest, ovate, acute, often ciliated on 
the margin, and bearing at the base about twelve stamens, with short 
filaments, and roundish two celled yellow anthers. Fruit an oblong 
compressed nut, with a broad thin membranous lobe on each side, 
much larger than the nut. 
Habitat.—W oods, especially in a mountainous district. 
Tree ; flowering in April and May. 
There are several varieties of the Birch, which appear to be caused 
by the situation in which they have grown. The more remarkable 
ones are the 8. pendula, or Weeping Birch, which is known by its 
having its shoots and branches more slender, smoother, and pen- 
dulous, while the main stem and branches are higher than is usual, 
The variety y. pubescens is distinguished by its leaves being more 
heart-shaped than rhomboidal, often downy beneath, and the fruit is 
somewhat broader. It does not usually attain so great a height ; nor 
is it so graceful a tree as the pendulous variety. 
The common Birch is a native of cold regions, requiring, according 
to Von Buch, the mean temperature of 26° Fahrenheit ; its boundary 
line of growth being, according to the same author, 1,937 feet below 
the line of perpetual snow, and 802 feet above that of the Scotch 
Pine. According to M. A. De Candolle, it is never found in Switzer- 
land above the height of 4,400 feet. It is found in all parts of the 
old Continent in its cooler regions; the higher parts of Asia and 
Siberia; and in most parts of North America. It is one of the most 
frequent trees in Russia, forming immense woods in some parts, and 
used as an ornamental tree in pleasure grounds in others. The Birch 
is one of our most beautiful and graceful forest trees ; its long slender 
branches waving with every passing breeze give it an elegant ap- 
pearance; it is with true poetic feeling called by Coleridge “ The Lady 
of the Woods;” and Professor Wilson, in his Isle of Palms, thus 
speaks of the Birch— 
“ On the green slope 
Of a romantic glen we sat us down, 
Amid the fragrance of the yellow broom ; 
While o’er our heads the weeping birch tree stream’d, 
Its branches arching like a fountain shower.” 
