Betula 985 



The young branchlets have a minute, dense, erect pubescence, interspersed with long 

 hairs and a few scattered glands. The fruiting-catkins are like those of the type, 

 with slightly thinner scales, the middle lobe of which is triangular and elongated. 



This splendid tree, which attains a height of 100 or 120 feet, and a diameter of 

 3 or 4 feet, on the alluvial banks of the lower Fraser River, appears to be confined 

 to the lower basin of that river in south-western British Columbia and north-western 

 Washington. It was first collected by Lyall in 1859, " in woods by river banks, 

 on the Sumas and Chilukeveyuh prairies and other low grounds to the westward of 

 the Cascade Mountains " ; and his specimens preserved in the Kew Herbarium are 

 identical with my own collected near New Westminster. 



Piper ^ recognises the typical variety as occurring in north-western Washington, 

 where he says that it is a tree with dark grey bark, occasionally 3 feet in diameter. 

 He mentions a similar tree, smaller in size and often white-barked, which grows in 

 Stevens County and the Blue Mountains of Washington State. This smaller tree, 

 which also occurs in Idaho, is a connecting link between var. Lyalliana and the 

 form of the species which occurs in the Rocky Mountains. 



I collected seeds of var. Lyalliana on October 20, 1 906, from two trees, about 

 60 feet in height, which I found growing near New Burnaby, on the electric tram- 

 line between Vancouver and New Westminster. The virgin forest had been cut 

 down in this neighbourhood, and the few trees which I saw were young and thriving, 

 and growing in open spaces amidst second-growth Thuya and Douglas. I had no 

 time to descend to the alluvial flats of the Fraser River, where Sargent reports the 

 existence of trees of large size. At the large lumber mills of Vancouver and New 

 Westminster, where I made inquiries, the tree is unknown at the present time ; but 

 I was informed that some years ago a small quantity of furniture had been made 

 from large trees cut down near New Westminster. 



The seed which I collected has been distributed to various places in Great 

 Britain, and has germinated well. Seedlings raised in a nursery bed at Case- 

 wick, Lincolnshire, by Lord Kesteven, are now (August 1908) 12 to 22 

 inches in height, and for so far have been healthy and vigorous in growth. 

 Some of the seed did not germinate till the following year. At Brocklesby, Mr. 

 Havelock has raised a few plants in a frame, which are 24 to 30 inches high, with 

 fine, large foliage. At Pollokshaws, near Glasgow, Sir John Stirling Maxwell reports 

 that they did better when sown in the open than when grown in a frame, and 

 average 15 inches in height, the tallest being 29 inches.* He adds that this variety 

 shows every sign of being a thriving tree. 



Elwes has also raised from seeds sent to him from Kaslo, on Lake Kootenay, 

 British Columbia, in 1904, a few young trees which appear to belong to this variety, 

 and others from seed given him by Professor Sargent, and said to be from the 

 lower Fraser Valley. These are growing vigorously at Colesborne. 



4. Betula Andrewsii, Nelson, in Bot. Gazette, xliii. 279, with figure of the tree 

 (1907), is a peculiar form with many branching stems from the base, which has been 

 found in Colorado. 



1 Contra. U.S. Nat. Herb. xi. 218 (1906). 

 IV 2 N 



