446 



CUPULfFER^ 



ovary compressed, 2-chambered, 2-ovuled : fruit small, winged, 

 i -seeded. (Name, the Classical Latin name of the tree.) 



i. B. pendula ^White Birch). — A beautiful forest tree which has 

 been styled "the Lady of the Woods," with smooth, silvery-white 

 bark, scaling off in transverse strips ; copper-brown branches with 

 resinous tubercles, often weeping ; rhomboid, irregularly serrate 

 leaves on long stalks, truncate at their base, and with raised veins 

 on the upper surface ; staminate catkins 1 — 2 in. long, pendulous ; 



Xlnus rotundifolia {Common Alder). 



fruiting catkins sub-erect at first, deciduous. — Woods; common. 

 — Fl. April, May. Perennial. 



2. B. alba (Common Birch). — Often only a bush ; twigs, and 

 sometimes leaves, downy ; leaves always rounded at the base with 

 the veins prominent on the under surface. — Woods ; common. — 

 Fl. April, May. Perennial. 



3. B. intermedia, a small tree with leaves smaller, more orbicular, 

 and more bluntly toothed than the preceding, and catkins only 



