VY. 1. THE CANOE BIRCH. 211 
scales three-lobed at base, and also slightly ciliate. The stig- 
mas are longer than in the white birch, and give the slender 
aments a rougher appearance. When mature, the fertile cat- 
kins are cylindrical, an inch and a quarter or half long, pendu- 
Jous on slender stalks half an inch in length. They are made 
up of imbricated, three-lobed scales, the middle lobe acute, the 
side lobes orbicular, enclosing three ovate seeds, with broad thin 
membranaceous wings and persistent stiles, resembling a winged 
insect with antenne. The fruit, like that of the other birches, 
is full grown in July, at which time the male catkins of the 
next year begin to show themselves at the ends of the branches. 
From the tough, incorruptible bark of the canoe birch, were 
formed the canoes of the former inhabitants of New England, 
models of ingenuity and taste, so admirably adapted, by their 
lightness and shape, to the interrupted navigation of the savage. 
Michaux has given an interesting account of the various uses 
of the bark :— 
‘In Canada, and in the District of Maine, the country peo- 
ple place large pieces of it immediately below the shingles of 
the roof, to form a more impenetrable covering for their houses; 
baskets, boxes and portfolios are made of it, which are some- 
times embroidered with silk of different colors; divided into 
very thin sheets, it forms a substitute for paper; and, placed 
between the soles of the shoes and in the crown of the hat, it is 
a defence against humidity. But the most important purpose 
to which it is applied, and one in which it is replaced by the 
bark of no other tree, is the construction of canoes. ‘To procure 
proper pieces, the largest and smoothest trunks are selected: in 
the spring, two circular incisions are made several feet apart, 
and two longitudinal ones on opposite sides of the tree; after 
which, by introducing a wooden wedge, the bark is easily de- 
tached. These plates are usually ten or twelve feet long, and 
two feet nine inches broad. 'T’o form the canoe, they are stitched 
together with fibrous roots of the white spruce, about the size 
ofa quill, which are deprived of the bark, split, and suppled 
in water. The seams are coated with resin of the Balm of Gil- 
ead. Great use is made of these canoes by the savages and by 
the French Canadians, in their long journeys into the interior of 
