326 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 
paper-like layers. The wood is ee for some kinds of cabinet work, 
though it is not very durable, when tat sed 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, mari, doubly serrate, entire at 
base, pubescent ben eath; scales of 
the a aments s villous, —the lobes 
sub-linear, obtuse. 
Brack full Black Birch. Red 
Birch.. 
du Pistillate aments a lon: 
anne, obtuse, on short gese te oy scales 
see Leriit gr ons of their length, —the ae 
equa 
Lo eams : 
chusetts, Southy. ard. FJ. A SHE Fr, Aug. 
The timber 1s close-grained and durable when not ex 
rate branches were famous scoleaecs n the gues 
of the olden time, in Ht tpn M eh or rat and a close saree: to 
rising 
Obs. posed to 
the weather. The wood is said to be hag valuable as fuel. The 
vi h hands of p 
* 
*«_____—» afflictive Birch 
Cursed by unlettered idle youth.’ 
But « the march 7 mind, ” in the present day, has rendered such — 
— nearly obsolete! The flexible sia of this roe ieee 
ng used to pare so idle boys to learn their lessons—are chiefly 
employed for making coarse brooms, to sino: streets and cura in 
i 
Fic. 226. The Black or Red Birch (Betula nigra), 
4 
: 
es 
