82 
BETULA 
B. alba is indigenous and locally abundant in woods, though very rarely a dominant element ; 
commonest on dry sandy or gravelly soils ; locally abundant on lowland peat — both fen peat (as 
in Huntingdonshire) and moor peat (as in north Lancashire), on limestone (as on the Malvern 
Hills), and on clay (as in the Weald). Much more generally distributed in the eastern and 
southern parts of Great Britain than in the northern and western. In hilly districts it fails to 
ascend to such high altitudes as some of the varieties of B. pubescens\ in the Highlands, for 
example, it occurs only up to about 300 m. In Great Britain, from Cornwall and Kent to 
Orkney, but absent from large tracts in the west. In Ireland, it is apparently absent north of 
counties Leitrim, Cavan, and Meath : elsewhere it is native, generally round the edges of the peat- 
moors and on the margins of lakes and rivers in the limestone plain. Frequently planted, but 
less so than B. pubescens. 
Europe, northwards to 65° N. in Sweden, and ascending to 1830 m. in the Tyrol ; Asia, 
eastwards to Japan; North America (locally southwards to Illinois). 
Betula alb CL X pubescevis E. S. Marshall in Moss Camb. Brit. FI. ii, 82; B. pubescens x verrucosa 
Winkler in Engler Pflanzenr. iv, pt. 61, 94 (1904); Ascherson und Graebner Syn. iv, 403 (1911). 
leones: — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 2198, as B. alba ; Reichenbach Icon, xii, t. 623, fig. 1282, as B. alba\ t. 625, 
fig. 1287, as B. pendula\ Syme Eng. Bot. viii, t. 1296, excluding the upper branch, the bract, and the fruit, as 
B. glutinosa. 
Camb. Brit. FI. ii. Plate 84. (a) Shoot with ripening pistillate catkins, (b) Leaf, lower surface, (c) Leaf- 
margin (enlarged). ( d ) Leaf-base (enlarged). Ross-shire (E. W. H.) (e) Terminal portion of twig (enlarged). 
(f) Winged achenes (one enlarged), (g) Fruiting bracts (one enlarged). (/) and (g) drawn from dried specimens. 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 464, as B. pubescens ; herb. Marshall, 3381, 3382; Herb. FI. Ingric., 584, as B. alba var. 
pendula. 
Trees, in habit usually approaching B. alba. Young branches with small peltate glands (as in 
B. alba), and often with hairs (as in B. pubescens). Laminae less acuminate than in B. alba, and 
with the marginal serrations less unequal in size and often less acute. Bracts of the fruit with 
lateral lobes usually less falcate than in B. alba. Very variable, all stages occurring between 
the putative parents. 
Common wherever B. alba and B. pubescens grow together, as on the dry, gravelly and sandy soils of southern 
and eastern England and on the lower slopes of the siliceous hills of northern and western Great Britain ; as far 
northwards at least as Ross-shire ; not yet recorded for Wales or Ireland, but it doubtless occurs there. Commonly 
planted. 
Scandinavia, Germany, central Europe, and doubtless elsewhere. 
2. BETULA PUBESCENS. Common Birch. Plates 85, 86; 84, 87 
Betula Gerard Herball 1295 (1597); Ray Syn. ed. 3, 443 (1724). 
Betula pubescens Ehrhart Beitr. vi, 98 ( 1 79 1 ) ; Winkler in Pflanzenr. iv, pt. 61, 81 (1904); Ascherson 
und Graebner Syn. iv, 398 (1910); Rouy FI. France xii, 254 (1910); B. alba L. Sp. PI. 982 (1753) partim ; B. 
tomentosa Reiter und Abel Abbild. 17, t. 15 (1803) partim 1 ; B. alba var. pubescens Hartman Skand. FI. 341 (1820); 
Loudon Arboret. iii, 1691 (1838); B. glutinosa Babington Man. 282 (1843); B. alba subsp. glutinosa Syme Eng. 
Bot. viii, 187 (1868). 
leones : — Camb. Brit. FI. ii. Plate 8g. (a) Coppiced shoot. (b) Leaf, lower side. ( c ) Portion of leaf 
(enlarged). Huntingdonshire (E. W. H.). Plate 86. (a) Shoot with ripening pistillate catkins, (b) Shoot 
with staminate and pistillate catkins. ( c ) Pistillate catkin (rather older than the one in (b)). Huntingdonshire 
(E. W. H.). (d) Fruiting bracts (one enlarged), (e) Fruits (one enlarged), a — <e = var. vestita. ( f ) Fruiting 
bracts of var. glabrata (one enlarged), {g) Winged achenes of var. glabrata (one enlarged). ( h ) Fruiting bracts 
of var. microphylla (one enlarged), (i) Winged achenes of var. microphylla (one enlarged), {j) Fruiting bracts 
of var. sudetica (one enlarged), (k) Winged achenes of var. sudetica (one enlarged), (d) to ( k ) inclusive drawn 
from dried specimens. 
Tree, usually rather less tall than B. alba, and often a mere shrub in its more exposed, 
northern, and sub-Alpine stations. Bark flaky, whitish or brown and smooth and shining. Young 
branches usually more or less hairy, often densely pubescent, not infrequently with small or 
rudimentary verrucosities, suberect or spreading, rarely pendulous, dark brown in colour ; of the 
1 The plate here cited is partly an illustration of B. alba x pubescens. 
