This tree can boast of no utility which should entitle it to be introduced 
into the forests of Europe, or to be preserved in those of America. 
PLATE LXXI. 
A branch with leaves and aments of the natural size. Fig. 1 , A seed. Fig. 2, 
A scale. 
[See Nuttall’s Supplement, vol. 1, p. 25.] 
RED BIRCH. 
Betula hubea. B. foliis rhombeo-ovatis, acummatis, duplicato-serratis ; petiolo 
brevi. 
Betula nigra, Willd. Betula lanulosa, A. Mich. Flor. Bor. Am. 
The banks of a small river near Kouacknack, in New Jersey, about 10 
miles from New York, may be assumed as the most northern point at which 
this species of Birch is found. I have never seen it in the Eastern, but it is 
abundant in the Middle and Southern States, particularly in Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, and the upper part of the Carolinas and of Georgia. 
In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the name of Red Birch is given to the 
Betula rubra , to distinguish it from the White Birch ; but further south, 
where the White Birch does not exist, or is comparatively rare, this species 
is simply called Birch. 
The Red Birch is not, like the other species of this genus, seen grow- 
ing in the midst of the forest, but is found only on the banks of rivers, 
accompanied by the Buttonwood, the White Maple and the Willow. It 
expands with the greatest luxuriance on the sides of limpid streams which 
have a gravelly bed, and whose banks are not marshy like those of the 
rivers in the maritime parts of the Carolinas and of Georgia. On the 
Delaware, 30 miles from Philadelphia, along the road that leads to New 
York by New Hope and Somerset, I have seen several Red Birches which 
were 70 feet in height, and 2 or 3 feet in diameter. They rarely exceed 
these dimensions in Virginia and North Carolina, where, from the milder 
temperature of the climate, they are more abundant. 
On the trunk and on the largest limbs of a lofty Red Birch, the bark is 
thick, deeply furrowed, and of a greenish color. On trees not exceeding 
