SHRUBS 527 



125. Glandular or Scrub Birch 



B . glandulhsa is a Northern species, found in the mountains 

 of New England, New York, and far to the northward. It is 

 a low shrub i to 4 feet high, with erect, smooth branches, 

 dotted with resinous, wart-like glands. Leaves roundish, less 

 than an inch long, crenately toothed, petioled. 



126. Smooth Alder 



AInus rugbsa or serrulata. — Family, Birch. Color, green- 

 ish. Leaves, oval or inversely ovate, narrowed at base, rounded 

 at apex, rather thick, very finely serrulate, 3 to 5 inches long, 

 short-petioled, straight, regularly veined. Time, April. 



The flowers of this shrub come in clustered catkins earlier 

 than the leaves ; sterile catkins elongated, drooping ; fertile, 

 short and thick. These are formed one summer, remain un- 

 covered through the winter, and are developed the next. 



The shrub grows on hillsides and in wet places, as borders of 

 streams, where it makes close thickets. Farther south it attains 

 the size of a small tree, usually 5 to 20 feet high. 



127. Green or Mountain Alder 



A. Alnobitula, 2 to 10 feet high, has oval or ovate, finely 

 serrulate leaves, 2 to 5 inches long, softly downy on the veins, 

 short-petioled. Catkins appearing with the leaves, the pis- 

 tillate from scaly buds, slender -peduncled, short, crowded; 

 staminate slender, naked, i to 2 inches long. 



Newfoundland to Massachusetts, and westward. 



128. Speckled or Hoary Alder 



A. inchna sometimes becomes a small tree, but is usually a 

 shrub from 8 to 20 feet high. Leaves finely serrulate, with 

 some of the teeth larger than the others, pale green, whitish, 

 downy or dotted beneath, with the veins prominent on the 

 lower surface, dark green above. Catkins appearing from the 



