184 
found only in the Mallen Trail of the Bitter Root Mountains and in the 
region of Flathead Lake, Montana (eastward it ranges through the 
northern tier of States to the Atlantic coast, and far north of the United 
States boundary from the Atlantic to the Pacific). Sixty feet or more 
in height, with a trunk 2 to 3 feet in diameter. The wood is very close- 
grained, hard, and strong, being employed quite extensively in turnery, 
in the manufacture of paper-pulp, and for fuel. The tough durable bark 
separates readily into layers, and is often used for making canoes, ete. 
Description.—Leaves, ovate to broadly ovate, 2 to 34 inches long, 13 to 24 inches 
inches wide, with a rather long, narrow point, mostly abrupt or heart-shaped at the 
base (sometimes slightly wedge-shaped), smooth and dark green above, paler and , 
with few hairs on the veins below. Seed small, with two thin wings, borne ina 
cylindrical scaly catkin 1 to 14 inches long. Young branchlets often with namerous 
dots. Bark of the trunk chalky-white. 
74.—BLACK BrrcH. ‘* WESTERN POGUE-BIRCcH.” (Betula occidentalis, 
Hooker.) 
Usually a small tree, 20 to 30 (exceptionally 60) feet in height and $ 
to 1 foot in diameter, growing abundantly in moist soil of mountain _ 
canyons and along streams in the Rocky Mountains from northern New 
Mexico to Montana. (also on the Pacific coast from the Sierra Neva- 
das of central California to Washington Territory and north of the 
boundary). It often forms dense thickets, a number of stems growing 
close together, and producing a useful local supply of straight timber 
for fencing, as well as for fuel. The wood is rather soft, but strong. 
The bark separates readily into layers, and is sometimes used for canoes. 
Description.—Leaves generally quite small and thin, 1 to 1} inches Igng and 1 to 
14 inches wide, ovate-lauce-shaped to broadly ovate—sometimes orbicular—with ap 
acute, rounded, abrupt, or wedge-shaped base, and with a short or sometimes rather 
Jong point; margin cut (occasionally lobed) with glandular-pointed teeth ; mostly 
smooth, or with few close hairs below; young leaves hairy; leaf stems slender, } inch 
long. Fertile catkins oblong or evlindrical, # to 1 inch long, with hairy three-pointed 
scales (bracts); seeds with thin broad wing on two sides. Branches thickly dotted 
with resinous spots, especially on the recent wood. Bark close, dark to light brown; 
when newly parted, pale copper-yellow. 
ALDERS. 
75.—% WHITE ALDER.” “CALIFORNIA ALDER.” (Alnus rhombifolia, 
Nuttall.) 
A small tree, seldom more than 30 feet in height and 1 foot in diame- 
ter, or reduced toashrub. It is found in northern Idaho and along 
the valley of the Flathead River, northwestern Montana, growing mostly 
on the banks of streams (westward if ranges along the Pacific coast 
from southern California to British Columbia). The wood is light, soft, 
and brittle. 

