YELLOW BIRCH 
This birch is named from its golden bark. On an old 
trunk, the bark simply suggests the color, it is rather a silver 
gray with a yellow flush ; and in extreme old age the surface 
is shaggy with light gray plates the size of a hand. On 
young trees, when the yellow inner bark is covered by an un- 
broken, thin, brown, outer layer the result is a dull yellowish 
brown. But, now and then, in the leafless woods one comes 
upon a young tree six or eight inches in diameter upon whose 
trunk the thin outer bark has been loosened and frayed by 
the wind until it clings a mass of silvery shreds and patches, 
revealing in the March and April sunshine an inner bark of 
the most exquisite golden yellow. This disheveled wood- 
nymph of the forest is rare, but once found its beauty is never 
forgotten. 
SWEET BIRCH, BLACK BIRCH, MAHOGANY BIRCH 
Bétula lénta. 
Generally distributed, most abundant northward, but reaches its 
greatest size on the mountains of Tennessee. Usually seventy to 
eighty feet high with a round-topped, open head. Prefers moist 
situations, mountain slopes and borders of streams. 
Bark.—Spicy aromatic. Dark brown with a reddish tinge. On 
old trunks deeply furrowed and broken into thick irregular plates ; 
on young stems and on branches close, smooth, Justrous and marked 
with pale horizontal lenticels. Does not separate into thin layers as 
the paper birch. Branchlets at first pale green, slightly viscid, later 
they change from dark orange brown to bright red brown and finally 
to dark reddish brown. 
Wood.—Dark brown tinged with red, sapwood light brown or yel- 
low ; heavy, very strong, hard, close-grained, satiny and capable of 
receiving a fine polish. Used largely in the manufacture of furni- 
ture, hubs of wheels, small articles and fuel. Sp. gr., 0.7617 ; weight 
of cu. ft., 47.47 lbs. 
Winter Buds.—Pale chestnut brown, slender, acute, one-fourth 
of an inch long. 
Leaves.—Alternate, two and one-half to six inches long, one and 
a half to three inches wide, ovate or oblong-ovate, heart-shaped or 
rounded, often unequal at base, doubly serrate, acute or acuminate. 
They come out of the bud plicate, pale green, downy; when full 
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