YY. 1. THE YELLOW BIRCH. 207 
three large branches, near the top, at sixty or seventy feet from 
the ground. ‘The roots often swell out above the surface in a 
picturesque or sometimes fantastic manner. 
The Icaves, except on the growing shoots, are in twos, on 
short, curved, hairy footstalks. When they first come out, they 
are covered with hair. ‘They are oval or elliptic, or more or 
less egg-shaped, contracted towards the base and heart-shaped, 
tapering to a rather long point, more coarsely serrate than those 
of the black birch, the serratures prolonged, smooth or a little 
hairy above when mature, pale and hairy along the mid-rib 
beneath. On the green, hairy, growing shoots, the leaves are 
alternate, with short, taper, lance-shaped stipules, which soon 
fall off. In autumn, the leaves become of a soft, pale yellow. 
The catkins of the male flowers are two or three inches long, 
at the ends of the branches, somewhat larger and shorter than 
on the black birch, but, like them, hanging like golden and pur- 
ple tassels on the branches, just as the leaves are beginning to 
unfold. The scales are slightly fringed. ‘The aments of the 
fertile flowers are short and nearly erect, in the common axil of 
two leaves, on the sides or ends of the branchlets. When fully 
srown and mature, they form an egg-shaped cone, about an 
inch or an inch and a quarter long, and four or five eighths of 
an inch thick, nearly sessile, erect, and formed of stiff, tough, 
three-lobed scales, hairy without, and containing, within, three 
inversely kidney-shaped winged seeds, with the two brown 
styles in a notch at the top. 
The yellow birch has not often been cultivated for ornament, 
but it has great beauty. In travelling, we sometimes see it on 
the edge of a wood, with its abundant soft, green, often droop- 
ing foliage, between masses of which is seen the gleam of the 
light bronze trunk with its silver and pearly lustre,—showing 
what might be its effect introduced in ornamental woods. 
The wood of this tree is applied to numerous uses. Bending 
readily, it is particularly adapted to the making of the posts and 
bars of chairs. It is used for the staves of small and inferior 
casks, for boot-trees, and for joists and bedsteads. In Rich- 
mond, among the Shakers, floors are made of it, as also of the 
black birch. It is valuable as fuel. 
