184 



found only in the Mullen Trail of tbe Bitter Eoot 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, etc. 



Description. — Leaves, ovate to broadly ovate, 2 to 3^ inches long, li to 2i inches 

 inches wide, with a ratlier long, narrow point, mostly abrupt or heart-shaped at the 

 base (sometimes sliglitly wedge-shaped), smooth and dark green above, paler and 

 with few hairs on the veins below. Seed small, with two thin wings, borne in a 

 cylindrical scaly catkin 1 to H- inches long. Yonng branchlets often with unmerons 

 dots. Bark of the trunk chalky- white. 



74.— Black Btech. •• WESTEE^' Pogue-Birch." [Befula ncciflenfalis. 



Hooker.) 



Usually a small tree, 20 to 30 (exceptionally GO; feet in height and J 

 to 1 foot in diameter, growing abundantly in moist soil of mountain 

 canyons and along streams in the Rocky Mountains from northern Xew 

 Mexico to Montana (also on the Pacific coast from the Sierra 2s"eva- 

 das of central California to TTashiugton Territory and north of the 

 boundary). It ofren 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 long and 1 to 

 li inches wide, ovate-lance-shaped to broadly ovate — sometimes orbicular — with an 

 acute, rounded, abrux^t, or wedge-shaped base, and with a short or sometimes rather 

 long point; margin cut (occasionally lobed) with glandular-pointed, teeth; mostly 

 smooth, or with few close hairs below ; young leaves hairy : leaf stems slender, i inch 

 long. Fertile catkins oblong or cylindrical, f 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 xVlder." *• California Aldee.*' {Ahius rhnmhi/olia. 



Xuttall.) 



A small tree, seldom more than 30 feet in height and 1 foot in diame- 

 ter, or reduced to a shrub. It is found in northern Idalio and along 

 the valley of the Flathead River, northwestern Montana, growing mostly 

 on the banks of .-streams (westward it ranges along the Pacific coast 

 from southern California to British Columbia). The wood is light, soft, 

 and brittle. 



