AMENTIFERA. 187 
Var. 6, pubescens. 
B. pubescens, Wallr. Sched. Crit. p. 499. 
Sterile branches and sometimes the fertile ones, and often the leaves, 
at least those on the sterile shoots, pubescent. 
In woods, thickets, &e. Common, and generally distributed. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Tree or Shrub. Late Spring. 
Very similar to B. verrucosa, but usually not so tall a tree, often in 
the Scotch Highlands a mere shrub or even bush not more than 5 or 
6 feet high. The principal point of difference lies in the scales of the 
female catkin, which have the 2 lateral lobes ascending, and all the 
3 lobes oval. The leaves are generally more ovate than in B. verrucosa, 
the buds oval-ovoid, the stipules shorter in proportion to their breadth, 
and there is a tendency in the leaves and young shoots to be more or 
less pubescent; the leaves are also on shorter stalks, and the twigs are 
less frequently pendulous. 
Common Birch. 
French, Bouleaw pubescent. German, Weichhaarige Birke. 
This species is distinguished by botanists from the preceding as less elegant, some- 
times not more than a bush, with the leaves always more or less ovate, and the catkin- 
scales ovate and rounded, instead of elongated and tapering. When full-grown, the 
birch is subject to a curious morbid affection, which causes dense tufts of twigs to 
grow out every here and there upon the branches, sometimes to the number of fifty 
or more on a single tree. During the summer these tufts are concealed by the 
foliage ; but im winter, when the tree is leafless, they show conspicuously, and look 
like obsolete rooks’ nests. In Scotland they are termed “‘ witches’ knots.’ That the 
birch is one of the earliest inhabitants of our island is shown in a very interesting 
manner, mentioned by Dr. Grindon of Manchester, who says that it is found exten- 
sively in the peat-bogs near that city. When the peat is removed during the process 
of drainage, immense quantities of fragments of branches and twigs are found 
embedded in the lower strata, with the silvery bark still adhering, and as bright 
as when it grew, though the age must be 1,500 or 2,000. Besides the fragments of 
branches at Lindow, there are found great pieces of the main trunks. 
SPECIES U—BETULA NANA. Linn. 
Piate MCCXCVII. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ et Helv. Vol. XII. Tab. 
Leaves very shortly stalked or subsessile, suborbicular, obtuse, 
deeply crenate. Catkin-scales of the female catkin deeply 3-cleft, the 
sinus between the lobes extending more than half-way down. Fruit 
with a narrow margin, but without a distinct wing, suborbicular. 
BB2 
