CHAP. CIV. 



/?etula x ce;e. z/e'tula 



1711 



marked than this, which appears, however, rarely to 

 have found a place in collections. Its leaves are nearly 

 as large as those of the canoe birch (/y. papyracea) ; 

 and they are remarkably angular. The stipules are 

 unusually large, and more resemble those of the pla- 

 tanus than the birch." (Penny CycW) 



The most northerly situation in which this tree 

 is found in the United States is in New Jersey, 

 about 10 miles from New York; but it is abundant 

 in Maryland, Virginia, the upper part of the Carolinas, 

 and in Georgia. It is not, like the other species, 

 found growing in the midst of the forest, but only on 

 the banks of rivers, accompanied by the Platanus 

 occidentalis, A^cer eriocarpum, and some species of 

 willow. It grows, with the greatest luxuriance, on the 

 sides of limpid streams which have a gravelly bed, and 

 the banks of which are not marshy. The wood of 

 the red birch is compact, and very nearly white; and 

 the colour of the sap wood and the heart wood is very nearly the same. 

 Like that of the juneberry (Amcldnchier Botryapium), it is longitudinally 

 marked by red vessels, which intersect each other in different directions. The 

 negroes make bowls and trays of it, when they cannot procure poplar. The 

 hoops for rice casks are made of its young shoots, and of branches not 

 exceeding 1 in. in diameter; and the spray makes better brooms than that 

 of any other species of American birch. " Among all the birches," says 

 Michaux, " this is the only species, the growth of which is invigorated by 

 intense heat." For this reason, he recommends it for cultivation in Italy, 

 and, we may add, for the temperate regions of Australia. In the climate of 

 London, it scarcely attains a timber-like size ; but there is a tree of it at Syon, 

 of which we have given a portrait in our last volume, which is 47 ft. high ; one 

 in the Fulham Nursery, which died in 1834, was 30 ft. high ; and one at Croome, 

 40 years planted, is 45 ft. high. In all these places it is known as B. 

 papyracea ; which name it has obtained from the paper-like laminae of its 

 epidermis, which separate and curl up for the whole length of the trunk ; 

 and this not only in old trees, but in plants of three or four years' growth. 

 From this circumstance, it can never be mistaken for any other species of 

 birch, either in winter or summer. The bark which comes nearest to it is 

 that of B. daurica, as represented in the engraving of the trunk of an old 

 tree of that species in Pallas's Flora Rossica. There are plants at Messrs. 

 Loddiges's, and in several of the London nurseries. They are generally 

 raised from imported seeds ; but seeds ripen in this country, when the tree 

 has attained the age of six or eight years. Plants, in the London nurseries, 

 are from 1?. to Is. 6d. each ; and seeds ]s. per quart. At New York, plants 

 are 25 cents each, and seeds 1 dollar and 50 cents per pound, 50 cents per 

 quart, or 8 dollars per bushel. 



¥ 10. B. exce'lsa //. Kew. The tall Birch. 



Identification. Ait. Hort. Kew., 3. p. 337- ; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 4G4., Baum., p. 60. ; Pursh Fl. 



Amer. Sept., 2. p. 261. ; N. Du Hani., 3. p. 203. 

 Synonymes. B. lutea Michx. Arb., 2. p. 152. ; ? B. nigra Du Boi Herb. Baum., 1. p. 148. ; yellow 



Birch, Amer. 

 Engravings. Michx. Arb., 2. t. 5. ; Wats. Dend. Brit., t. 95. ; N. Du Ham., 3. t. 52. ; Willd. Baum., 



t. 1. f. 2. ; and our fig. 1564. from Michaux, and fig. 1565. from the Nouv. Du Ham. 



Spec. Char., eye. Leaves ovate, acute, serrated ; petioles pubescent, shorter 

 than the peduncles. Scales of the strobiles having the side lobes roundish. 

 (Willd. Sp. Pl./iv. p. 464.) A tree, from 70 ft. to 80ft. high, in North 

 America; and flowering there in May and June. Introduced about 1767. 

 Description, eye. The specific name of excelsa, Michaux observes, is in- 

 judiciously applied to this species, as it leads to an erroneous opinion that it 

 surpasses every other in height. It is a beautiful tree, and its trunk is of 



5t 



