BIRCH FAMILY 57 
Bark scaling off in white strips and layers, but not in nearly as 
large sheets as that of the rarer canoe birch (B. papyrifera). ‘The 
commonest birch of New England. 
5. B. alba L. European Wuire Baten, Cur-Leavep Biren. 
A tree 50-60 ft. high, often with drooping branches. Leaves 
triangular-ovate, truncate, rounded or somewhat heart-shaped at 
Fic. 1 
A, catkins, natural size: s, staminate; p, pistillate. B, gluster of ripened 
fruits; C, bract with three staminate flowers: J, bract with three pistil- 
late flowers; FE, fruit. (B, C, D, £, somewhat magnified) 
Gray birch (Betula populifolia) 
the base, not strongly taper-pointed except in the cut-leaved form. 
Commonly cultivated from Europe. Resembles No. 4, but has whiter 
bark and (the weeping form) much more slender branches. 
Var. papyrifera. Canoe Bircn, Paper Biren. A large tree, 
often 60-70 ft. high, with chalky-white papery bark, peeling off in 
large thin sheets. Leaves ovate, acute or taper-pointed, coarsely 
serrate or dentate, but entire at the base, dark green and usually 
without glands on the upper surface, on the lower surface light 
yellowish-green and nearly smooth, but with tufts of hairs in the 
