52 
COMMON EUROPEAN BIRCH. 
teen passengers. Such are the ordinary uses of the bark and of the wood 
of this tree. 
The Canoe Birch flourishes in the vicinity of Paris, *where it is known 
in the nurseries by the name of Betula nigra , Black Birch. If it is found 
to grow with success upon poor lands, it will prove a valuable acquisition 
to the European forests, as it surpasses our native Birch in stature and in 
the quality of its wood. 
PLATE LXIX. 
A branch ivith leaves and fertile aments of the natural size. Fig. 1 , A seed. 
Fig. 2, The scale which covers the seeds. 
[See Nuttall’s Supplement, Vol. 1, p. 25.] 
COMMON EUROPEAN BIRCH. 
Betüla alba. B. foliis deltoidibus, acutis, duplicato-serratis , glabris ; strobilo- 
rum squamis lobis lateralibus rotundatis ; petiolis glabris , pedunculis longio- 
ribus. 
Of all the leafy trees of the Old Continent, the Birch is found in the 
highest latitude ; it grows as far north as the 70th degree, though its vege- 
tation is so much repressed by the excessive cold of the winter, that it is 
reduced to the size of a shrub. A few degrees further south, it attains its 
fullest development, and it is the most common, the tallest, and most 
robust of the leafy trees which compose the forests between the 65th and 
55th degrees of latitude ; in which interval are comprised Lapland, Nor- 
way, Sweden, and a great part of Russia. Proceeding still further south, 
the Birch is observed to become less common in the forests in proportion 
as the Maples, the Beeches, the Elms and the Oaks become more abundant. 
In France, between the 48th and 45th degrees, it appears to suffer from 
the influence of too dry and too warm an atmosphere ; for it is inferior, in 
size and in the quality of its wood, to the same species in the North of 
