in these districts. The Swedes, the Norwegians, 
and the Finlanders find it quite as valuable as 
the Scottish Highlanders, and use its timber, its 
bark, its leaves, and its sap for a great variety of 
purposes,—the timber in particular, for imple- 
ments of husbandry, for articles of furniture, for 
bowls, for plates, and for spoons,—and the bark 
for boxes, baskets, and sandals. 
The pendulous, weeping, or lady birch, Be‘ula 
pendula, is regarded by some botanists as a vari- 
ety of the common birch, and by others as a separ- 
ate species. It grows wild in Great Britain and 
the comparatively cool parts of Continental Ku- 
rope; and has similar phytological habits and a 
similar height to the common birch. But its 
spray is longer and more slender; its foliage and 
lower branches are pensile like those of the 
weeping willow, and are put in motion by the 
gentlest breeze; its young branches are perfectly 
smooth, and have little pearly specks; its leaves 
are ovate, acute, and sometimes hairy; its cat- 
kins are pendulous; and altogether it is far more 
picturesque than the common birch, and “ when 
agitated, is well adapted to characterize a storm, 
or to perform any office in landscape which is ex- 
pected from the weeping willow.”’—The Pontic 
birch, Betula pontica, is also regarded by some 
botanists as a variety of the common birch, and 
by others as a distinct species. It was introduced 
to Great Britain from Turkey, and never attains 
a greater height than that of a tall shrub or low 
tree; but in other respects, it differs from the 
common birch only in having a few straggling 
hairs on its leaves and petioles, and in possessing 
a portion of the drooping habit of Betula pendula. 
—Three varieties of the common birch are well-es- 
tablished, and usually attain the same height as 
the normal tree,—the warty birch, Betula alba 
verrucosa,—the Dalecarlian birch, B. a. dalecarli- 
ca,—and the long-fruited birch, B. a. macrocarpa; 
but the second and the third of these do not 
grow wild in Great Britain. 
The poplar-leaved or American white birch, 
Betula populifolia, is a native of the portions of 
North America which extend from New Jersey 
to Canada, and was introduced to Great Britain 
about the middle of last century. It somewhat 
closely resembles the weeping birch, yet possesses 
distinct characteristics, and seldom attains a 
height of 30 feet. It is of very small value for 
its timber, and recommends itself only by the pe- 
culiar character of its foliage. Its branches are 
free from hairs; its stem is very much marked 
with resinous warts; its bark cannot be divided 
into lamine like that of the common birch ; its 
leaves are triangular, and doubly serrated, and 
stand on long petioles; and its catkins and spray 
are pendulous. 
The tall birch, Betula excelsa, abounds on cool 
rich soils in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, 
and neighbouring districts, and was introduced 
to Great Britain in 1767. Its stem is straight, 
of nearly uniform girth, and unbranched to a 
height of 80 or 40 feet; its extreme altitude is 
usually about 60 or 70 feet, and the girth of its 
stem about 6 feet; its bark has a bright golden 
yellow colour, and often divides into very fine 
stripes, which remain attached to the middle, 
and roll themselves backward at the ends; its 
young shoots and newly unfolded leaves are 
downy ; its full-grown leaves are smooth, point- 
edly-ovate, sharply and irregularly serrated, and 
about 34 inches long and 23 inches broad; and 
its catkins are short, thick, erect, and nearly ses- 
sile. It exhibits a nearer resemblance to Betula 
nigra than to any other species, but is distin- 
guished by its simply serrated leaves, and its 
thicker and more hairy catkins. Its young 
shoots, its bark, and its leaves, have an agree- 
able taste and odour, but lose them by drying. 
Its timber is inferior in both appearance and 
quality to that of the black birch, and is lighter 
coloured and less serviceable than that of the 
soft birch; yet.it possesses considerable strength, 
and, when well polished, makes handsome furni- 
ture.—The yellow birch, Betula lutea, is very 
generally confounded with the tall birch; but 
though a native of the same regions, and closely 
resembling it in the remarkable and very beauti- 
ful colour of its bark, it possesses distinct char- 
acteristics, and usually attains a height of only 
about 20 feet. 
The black birch, Betula nigra, is a native of 
the southern states of North America, and par- 
ticularly abounds in Virginia ; and it was intro- 
duced to Great Britain in 1736. It usually at- 
tains a height of about 60 feet. Its branches are 
spotted, and less numerous than those of the other 
species; and its leaves are comparatively broad, 
and grow on long footstalks, and give a sort of 
dignity to the appearance of the tree. Marshall, 
writing about 50 years ago, says, “ As the black 
Virginian birch is naturally of upright and swift 
growth, and arrives at so great a magnitude, 
Hanbury thinks it ought to have a share among 
our forest trees, and to be planted for standards 
in open places, as well as to be joined with other 
trees of its own growth in plantations more imme- 
diately designed for relaxationand pleasure.” This 
species has been very generally confounded with 
the woolly, the red, the paper, the pliant, and the 
poplar-leaved species; and in some instances, has 
been pronounced a species including these as 
varieties. In fact, the species most commonly 
sold in the nurseries of Great Britain under the 
name of black birch or Betula nigra is the paper 
birch or Betula papyracea. 
The woolly birch, Betula lanulosa, abounds in 
Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas, 
and was introduced to Great Britain in 1817. It 
grows only on the banks of rivers, and frequently 
attains a height of 70 feet, with a stem-girth of 
from 6 to 9 feet. The shoots and branches of 
not more than two years old are covered with a 
short thick down; and the bark of the young 
stem and branches has a reddish or cinnamon 
| BIRCH. 423 
