MOUNTAIN ALDER. 
31 
Betula incana , g. Lamarck, Diet., vol. 1. p. 455. 
Mnus Alpina minor , Bauhin’s Pinax, p. 428. 
Labrador, the elevated summits of the White Moun- 
tains of New Hampshire, f and the tops of the high 
mountains of North Carolina;}: are the only localities on 
this continent where the Mountain Alder has yet been 
found. It occurs, likewise, in the Alps of Switzerland, 
at an elevation of between 4 and 5000 feet above the 
level of the sea, where it frequently forms a small tree 
about 6 feet in height. In the White Mountains its 
stature is much more depressed, and it is of rare ocur- 
rence. It grows likewise in the barren and cold climate 
of Kamtschatka. 
The wood is white, and the branches are covered 
with a cinereous smooth bark. The leaf is near 2 inches 
long and wide, nearly smooth on both sides, but 
generally somewhat hairy along the veins beneath, 
rather acute, with numerous sharp small and irregular 
serratures, but not doubly serrate. The male catkins 
are long, and grow 2 or 3 together at the extremities of 
the twigs; each scale contains 3 tetrandrous flowers, as 
usual in the genus. The fertile aments are roundish 
and elliptic, about 3 together and terminal, the scales 
are truncated and obscurely lobed at the extremities; 
the fruit, like that of the Birch, is furnished with a broad, 
thin, conspicuous winged margin. 
f A specimen in the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sci- 
ences in Philadelphia, was discovered on the White Mountains 
by my friend Charles Pickering, at an elevation of 4000 feet 
above the level of the sea. 
t Recently discovered by Dr. Gray and Mr. Curtis. 
