(io8) 



Paper Birch Betula papyrifera 



The familiar birch-bark canoe of the Indian was made 

 from the impervious bark of this paper- or canoe-birch, as 

 it is often called. As in the gray birch the bark is white, 

 but often the lower part of the trunk of the paper birch 

 becomes darker colored, particularly when the tree is old. 

 In the Hudson Valley the tree is seldom over 80 feet in 

 height. 



The oval-shaped leaf-blades with the margin irregularly 

 but not coarsely toothed, serve to distinguish this tree from 

 the preceding. From 2-4 inches is the usual length of the 

 leaf-blade, and the top sometimes runs out into a fine point. 

 In April and May the flowers open, either with or before 

 the leaves. The sterile, non-fruiting catkins are usually 

 clustered in twos or threes, but the fruit producing catkins are 

 mostly solitary. The fruits are somewhat similar to those 

 of the gray birch. 



From Labrador to Alaska, southward to New Jersey and 

 northern Montana is the natural range of the paper birch. 

 It occurs sparingly southward and is known to grow along 

 the Hudson Valley near the Catskills. (Plate 137.) 



River Birch Betula nigra 



From all the other birches of the Hudson Valley that 

 have dark colored bark the river birch may be distinguished 

 by its lack of an aromatic sap. The other dusky-barked 

 birches all have the characteristic odor of birch-beer and 

 other derivatives of their wintergreen-flavored sap. Under 

 favorable conditions the river birch attains a height of 80 or 

 90 feet, and if growing in the open it develops into a freely 

 branching, oblong-outlined tree. The reddish-brown bark is 

 thick and irregularly segregated into small scales. The leaf- 

 blades are sharp-pointed at the tip, oval in outline, and either 

 wedge-shaped or blunt at the base. They are dark green 

 and shining above and woolly on the veins beneath. In April 

 and May the catkin-like flowers bloom, followed in June by 

 the fruits. 



