BIRCH FAMILY 



Petioles stout, vellow, co\ered with black glands, enlarged at base, 

 slightly groo\ed. Stipules ovate, acute, light green, caducous. 



J-'/oruf/s. — April, monrecious, before the leaves. Staminate cat- 

 kins clustered or in pairs, when mature become three to four inches 

 long. PisiiUate catkins one inch to one and a half inches long, 

 peduncles bibracteolate, three-fourths to one inch in length. Scales 

 lanceolate, pale green ; styles bright red. 



Fruit. — Strobiles, cylindrical, elongated, pendulous, long-stalked. 

 Scales glabrous, wedge-sliaped at base, rather longer than broad, 

 with short, wide-spreading, rounded lobes. Nut o\-al, small, nar- 

 rower tlian its wings. 



Give me of your bark, O Birch-tree ! 

 Of your yellow bark, O Birch-tree 1 

 Gro\ving b\- the rushing river 

 Tall and stately in the valley.' 

 I a light canoe will buikl me. 

 Build a swift Cheematm for sailing, 

 That shall float upon the river, 

 Like a yellow leaf in Autumn, 

 Like a )cllow- water-lily ! 



— HenrvW. Lon'gfellow. 



The great tritimph of the birch is the bark canoe. The design ofasa\-age, 

 it yet looks like the thought of a poet and its grace and fitness haunt the imagina- 

 tion. I suppose its production was the ine\'itable result of the Indians' wants 

 and surroundings, but that does not detract troni its beauty. It is, indeed, one 

 of the tairest flowers the tliorn)' plant of necessit\' ever bore. 



— JOII.N BL'RROUGHS. 



The Paper Birch possesses the most wonderful bark of any 

 of our native trees. In outward color it is a lustrous creamy 

 white, so brilliant that its gieam can be seen in the 

 forest as far as the eye can reach. Beneath the siitooth 

 white skin are the paper-like layers which readily separate 

 into tliin sheets and varv in color from cream to light tan. 

 Tins Liark is the jov antl pride of everv woodsman whether 

 he be tourist, guide, or hunter. It makes his canoe, it roofs 

 his cabin, it becomes for the time Ins dinner-service, it is a 

 cup, a pail, a cloak, an umbrella. The thin papery layers 

 into which the bark separates are of so firm a texture that it 

 is possible both to write and paint upon them. Curious 

 traditions gather about this natural paper. Pliny and Plu- 

 tarch agree that the famous books of Numa Pompilius, written 



304 



