[ 56 
WHITE BIRCH. 
Betula populifolia. B. foliis longé, acuminatis, incequaliter serratis, glaberri- 
mis. 
This species, like the Canoe Birch, grows in Canada and in the northern 
extremity of the United States : it is found also in the lower parts of New 
York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In Virginia it is more rare, and I 
venture to assert that it does not exist in the remaining Southern States. 
In the environs of New York and of Philadelphia it is called White Birch, 
and this name is habitually used in the district of Maine, where that of 
Old Field Birch is also frequently employed, to distinguish the White Birch 
from the Canoe Birch. 
The White Birch is most frequently found in places scantily furnished 
■with woods, where the soil is dry and meager; in these situations it com- 
monly rises to the height of 20 or 25 feet. Single trees, which grow acci- 
dentally in moist places, expand to an ampler size,, and are sometimes 30 
or 35 feet high, and 8 or 9 inches in diameter. 
The White Birch appears to be less multiplied than the other trees of 
this genus; it is rarely found in groups, and single trees are met with only 
at considerable intervals. It is more common in the District of Maine ; 
but, even here, it is seen only by the side of the highways, and in sandy 
soils that have been exhausted by cultivation. 
On trees that are fully grown, the branches are numerous, slender, and 
generally drooping. The leaves are smooth on both' surfaces, heart-shaped 
at the base, very acuminate, and doubly and irregularly toothed. The 
petioles are slightly twisted, and the leaves are thus rendered more tremul- 
ous than those of trees on which this dispositon is not observed. I have 
also remarked that the buds, a few days after their development, are slight- 
ly coated with a yellowish, odoriferous substance. The trunk of this spe- 
cies is clad in a bark of as pure white as that of the Canoe Birch and of 
the European Birch: but its epidermis, when separated from the cellular 
tissue, is incapable of being divided, like that of the two proceeding spe- 
cies, into thin sheets ; which constitutes an essential difference. 
The wood of the White Birch is very soft, brilliant when polished, and 
perfectly white. From its speedy decay, and from the inferor size of the 
tree, it is employed for no use, not even for fuel. The twigs are too brittle 
for common brooms. 
