306 BIRCH FAMILY. 



1. MYRiCA, BAYBERRY, SWEET GALE. (Ancient name of some 

 aromatic shrub. ) El. spring, witli or earlier tliau the leaves. 



M. G^e, Sweet Gale. Cold bogs N. : l°-4° high^ with pale wodgc- 

 lanceolate leaves, serrate towards the sipex ; little nuts crowded, and as if 

 winged by a pair of scales. 



M. oerifera, Baybeery, Wax-Myrtle. Along the coast ; shnib 2° -8° 

 high, with fragrant lance-oblong or lanceolate mostly entire leaves, becoming 

 glossy above, the scattered bony nuts thickly incrusted with greenish or white 

 wax and appearing like berries. 



2. r-rt-iYi-pgiriTg-iA. SWEET-FERN . (Named for Henry Compton, a 

 t bishop of London.) h RWM's fatnerTater than the leaves, in spring. 



— ' C. asplenif61ia, the only species, in sterile rocky soil, chiefly E. : l°-2° 

 high, with linear-lanceolate downy leaves pinnatifid into many short and roundef 

 Jobes, resembling a Fern, and sweet-aromatic. 



% 



108. BETULACE-ffi, BIRCH FAMILY. 



Trees or shrubs, often resinous-sprinkled and aromatic, with al- 

 ternate, simple, mostly straight-veined leaves, commonly deciduous 

 stipules, and monoecious flowers, both kinds in scaly catkins, and 2 

 or 3 under each bract. Ovary 2-celled and 2-ovuled, but the fruit 

 (a little nut or akene often surrounded by a "wing like a samara) 

 1 -celled and 1-seeded. Stigmas 2, thread-like. 



1. BETULA. Sterile catkins long and hanging: 3 flowers under each shield- 



shaped scaly braet,each with a scale beai-ing 4 ^ort stamens with 1-celled 

 anthers. . Fertile catkins stout : 2 or 3 flowers under each 3-lobed bract, each 

 of a naked ovary ripening into a rounded broadly winged seaje-hke little key- 

 fruit, tipped with the 2 stigmas. 



2. ALNUS. flowers muoh as m Betula ; but usually a distinct 3 - 5-parted calyx j 



anthers 2-celled; oval fertile catkins composed of thick and at length 

 woody persistent scales ; and the' little nntlets less winged or wingless. 



1. BETULA, BIRCH. (The ancient Latin name.) Trees with slender 

 spray (or .a few low shrubs), more or less spicy-aromatic twigs, sessile scaly 

 buds, flowers in early spring along with the leaves ; the sterile catkins golden 

 yellow ; the fertile ones mostly terminating very short 2-leaved branches of 

 the season. The following are all native trees. 



* Trniilc with brown or i/ellow-grai/ burk, the inner and the twigs and thin straight- 



veined leaves spicy-aromatic : petioles short : thick Suiting catkins with 

 their thin scales rather persistent ; fruit with narrow wing. 



B. 16llta, Sweet, Black, or Cheery Birch. Moist woods mostly N. ; 

 a rather large tree, with fine-grained valuable wood, dark brown close bark on 

 the trunk (not peeling in thin layers) and bronze-reddish twigs, very aromatic ; 

 leaves oblong-ovate and somewhat heart-shaped, sharply doubly serrate all round, 

 soon glossy above and almost smooth ; fruiting catkins oblong-cylindrical. 



B. mtea, Yellow or Gray B. With the other and more northward ; 

 less aromatic ; bark of trunk yellowish-gray and somewhat silvery, separating 

 in filmy layers ; leaves duller, more dowiiy, and rarely at all heart-shaped ; 

 fruiting catkins short-oblong. 



# * Trunk with chalky-white bark peehng honsontally m thin sheets : leaves and 



nairow cylindrical smooth catkins slender-stalked : bracts falling with the 

 broadrWinged fruit. 

 B. &lba, var. populifoIiajAMERicAN AVhite Birch. Small tree in low 

 or sterile soil, from Penn. N. E., 15°- 25° high, with tri.ingiilar verv taper- 

 pointed smooth and glossy leaves. 



B. papyrS,oea, Paper or Canoe Birch. Large tree, from upper part of 

 1 enn. N., mostly far N. ; with more ovate and even heart-shaped leaves (dull 



