Western Red Birch 



253 



glandular, reddish brown, shining, becoming gray-brown; the winter buds are 

 ovoid, pointed, 5 or 6 mm. long. 

 The leaves are ovate, mostly broadly 

 ovate, 6 cm. long or less, and often 

 nearly as wide as long, a little hairy 

 when very young, smooth when old; 

 the upper surface dark green, not 

 shining, the under side paler green; 

 they are pointed at the apex, obtuse 

 or nearly truncate at the base, 

 sharply and rather coarsely irregu- 

 larly toothed, their slender stalks 

 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long. The stami- 

 nate catkins are borne 2 or 3 to- 

 gether; they are about 2.5 cm. long, 

 their scales ovate and pointed; the 

 pistillate catkins are glandular- 

 stalked and shorter, in fruit becom- 

 ing about 2 cm. long and 5 mm. in 

 diameter, their scales about 3 mm. 

 long, hairy-margined, the middle 

 tooth pointed, rather narrower than 



the lateral ones but about as long; the thin oblong nut is about 2 mm. 

 about as wide as its membranous wing. 



Fig. 209. — Kenai Birch. 



long and 



8. WESTERN RED BIRCH — 

 Betula fontinalis Sargent 



This birch is a tree sometimes 14 me- 

 ters high, with a trunk 4 to 5 dm. in 

 diameter, and grows principally along 

 rivers, especially in canons, ranging from 

 British Columbia to Saskatchewan, south 

 to California, Utah, New Mexico, western 

 Nebraska, and South Dakota. It often 

 forms very dense thickets, growing as a 

 shrub, and flowering when only a few 

 meters high. The species was formerly 

 confused with Betula occidentalis Hooker, 

 and it has recently been argued that it 

 is identical with B. microphylla Bunge, 



Fig. 210. — Western Red Birch. . , ., .,, . . %, • 



of the Altai Mountams m Russia. 



The bark is smooth, dark bronze in color, shining, and about 7 mm. thick. 



