B42 ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 
A very graceful tree, with rather broader 
Jeaves than the common birch. The wood is 
very soft, brilliant when polished, and perfectly 
white ; but it speedily decays, and, in America, 
is employed for no purpose, not even for fuel. 
The twigs are too brittle for common brooms. 
When the plants are raised from seed, they 
make very handsome trees; ard, as seed is 
freely produced, this mode ought always to be 
adopted ; but plants from layers seldom attain 
any magnitude. 
¥ 8. B. papyra‘cea Ait. The Paper Birch. 
Identification. Ait. Hort. Kew., 3. p. 337.; N. Du Ham. 
3. p. 205.; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 621. 
Synonymes. B. papyrifera Michx. Fl. Bor. Amer. 2. p. 180.5 
B. lanceolata Hort.; B. rubra Lodd. Cat. ed. 1836; B. 
canadénsis Lodd. Cat.; B. nigra of the Paris nurseries ; 
Canoe Birch, white Birch, Amer. ; Betula da carta, Ital. 
Engravings. Michx. N. Amer. Syl., 2. t.35.; the plate of 
this tree in Arb. Brit., Ist edit., vol. vii. ; and our figs. 1535. 
and 1536. 
Spec. Char., 5c. Leaves ovate, acuminate, 
doubly serrate; veins hairy beneath ; petiole 
glabrous. ' Female catkins on long footstalks, 
drooping; scales having the side lobes short, somewhat orbiculate. ( Willd.) 
A deciduous tree. North America. Height 60 ft. to 70 ft. Introduced in 
1750. Flowers greenish white; May and June. Fruit brown; ripe in 
October. Decaying leaves greenish yellow. 
Varieties. 
* B. p. 2 fusca. B. fasca Bosc. — Leaves smaller than those of the spe- 
cies, and less downy. : 
£ B. p. 3 trichéclada Hort. — Branches extremely hairy, and twigs in 
threes ; leaves heart-shaped. Horticultural Society’s Garden. 
¥ B. p. 4 platyphilla Hort. — Leaves very broad. Hort. Soc. Garden. 
The branches are much less flexible than those 
of the common birch, and are more ascending in 
direction. The bark, in Canada and the district 
of Maine, is em- 
ployed for many 
purposes. It is 
placed in large 
pieces immediately 
under the shingles 
of the roof, toa 
prevent the water 
from _ penetrating 
through it. Bas- 
kets, boxes, and 
portfolios are made 
of it, which are 
sometimes embroi- 
dered with silk of 
different colours. 
Divided into very 
thin sheets, it forms f 
1555. B. papyrhcea. a substitute for 1536. B. papyracea. 
paper ; and, placed 
between the soles of the shoes, and in the crown of the hat (as the bark of 
the birch of Europe is in Lapland), it is a defence against humidity. But the 
most important purpose to which it is applied, and one in which it is replaced 
1534. B. populifolia. 
ie (ls a 
