424 
colour. The head or general mass of the full- 
grown tree is large, but, in consequence of the 
branches being remarkably thick, it has not a 
tufted appearance; the old stem and the largest 
branches are covered with a thick, greenish, 
deeply-furrowed bark; the middle-aged branches 
are covered with a brown, white-spotted, slightly 
uneven bark; the twigs which terminate the 
branches are long, flexible, pendulous, smooth, 
and glossy; the leaf-stalks are short and covered 
with down; the leaves are greenish above, whit- 
ish beneath, remarkably angular, and about three 
inches long and two inches broad; and the fertile 
catkins are straight, nearly cylindrical, and five 
or six inches in length. The shoots of the tree, 
when about an inch in diameter, are used for the 
manufacture of hoops ; its twigs are made into ex- 
cellent street brooms; and its timber is compact, 
nearly white, and longitudinally streaked with 
mutually intersecting seed vessels, and is useful 
for various economical purposes. This species 
has a nobler appearance than most of the other 
birches, but has not yet obtained extensive favour 
with planters. It has frequently been called Be- 
tula angulata, and seems to be generally identified 
with Betula rubra, or the red birch. The latter, 
however, though closely resembling it, does not 
grow quite so high, and is a native of Canada. 
The paper or canoe birch, Betula papyracea, is 
a native of various parts of North America, par- 
ticularly Vermont, New Hampshire, New Bruns- 
wick, Maine, and Lower Canada, and was intro- 
duced to Great Britain about the middle of last 
century. It usually grows to the height of about 
50 feet, yet frequently attains a height of 70 feet, 
with a stem-girth of 9 feet; and it always ac- 
quires its maximum of both height and bulk, 
either on the declivities of hills or in the bottoms 
of fertile valleys. Its branches are slender, flex- 
ible, and covered with a shining, brown, white- 
dotted bark; its leaves are middle-sized, ovate, 
occasionally heart-shaped, smooth, dark green, 
and serrated ; and its catkins are pendulous and 
about an inch in length. This is the most valuable 
of all the birches, and comprises several varieties, 
—principally Betula papyracea platyphylla, distin- 
guished by its very broad leaves,—and B. p. tri- 
choclada, distinguished by the excessive hairiness 
of its branches. Its duramen or heartwood, when 
first laid open, is of a reddish colour ; and its al- 
burnum or sapwood is pure white. Its timber 
has considerable strength and a fine glossy grain; 
and the portions of it immediately below the first 
ramification of the stem, are cut into slices, 
which display undulations of fibre like bunches 
of feathers or sheaves of corn, and are used in 
the inlaying of mahogany. Its bark isso durable 
as to remain entire after the alburnum and the 
duramen have rotted away, and is used for the 
manufacture of hats, boxes, cases, and other ar- 
ticles, for the thatching of log-houses, and espe- 
cially for the constructing of canoes. When a 
canoe is to be built, some trees of the largest size 
BIRCH. 
and with the smoothest bark are selected, large 
sections of the bark are peeled off, nearly in 
the manner in which the bark of oaks is peeled 
in Great Britain, and these pieces are sewed to- 
gether over a light wooden frame-work with the 
radical fibres of the white-spruce, and made 
water-tight along their lines of junction with a 
caulking of the resin of the Balm of Gilead fir. A 
canoe of this kind, capacious and buoyant enough 
to carry four persons and their baggage, weighs 
only from forty to fifty pounds. 
The soft, pliant, sweet or cherry birch, or moun- 
tain mahogany, Betula lenta, is a native of Nova 
Scotia, Maine, Vermont, and the middle eastern 
states of America, and was introduced to Great 
Britain in 1759. It is the most interesting of 
the American birches, for both the beauty of its 
foliage and the value of its timber. It loves a 
deep, cool, loose soil, and usually grows to the 
height of about 50 feet, but frequently attains a 
height of 70 feet, with a stem-girth of from 6 to 
9 feet. The bark of young trees is smooth, grey- 
ish, and exceedingly similar in appearance to that 
of the cherry-tree ; and that of old trees sponta- | 
neously peels off in detached, hard, woody-looking 
plates, of six or eight inches in breadth. The 
leaves, for about a fortnight after their develop- 
ment, are covered with a thick silvery down, 
which they afterwards throw off; and they are 
serrated in the edge, heart-shaped at the base, | 
pointed at the top, of fine tint and texture, not 
unlike those of the cherry, and emitting, when | 
bruised in either their green or their dried condi- 
tion, a very sweet odour, suitable for flavouring any 
culinary infusion. The barren catkins are flex- 
ible, and about four inches in length; and the 
fertile catkins are produced at the extremity of 
the young spray, and measure from 10 to 12 lines 
in length, and from five to six lines in diameter. 
The timber, when fresh cut, has a rosy tint, and 
afterwards deepens in colour by exposure; it has 
a fine, close grain, and is susceptible of a very 
high polish; and it is used for sofas, arm-chairs, 
the frames of coach panels, and various other 
purposes. 
most suitable for planting in British soils; but it 
has, as yet, obtained very little favour or notice. 
Michaux says respecting it, “I recommend it to 
the lovers of foreign vegetables, as eminently 
adapted, by the beauty of its foliage, and by the 
agreeable odour of its flowers, to figure in their 
parks and gardens.” It is readily distinguished 
from most other species by the thinness and the 
oblong form of its leaves, 
The hornbeam-leaved birch, Petula carpini- 
folia, though sometimes treated as a separate 
species, may be more properly considered as a 
variety of Detula lenta; it has indeed been often 
identified with that species; and it grows wild in 
the same countries, and usually attains the same 
height.—The Daurian birch, Betwla dawrica, is a 
native of Siberia, and was introduced to Great 
Britain in 1786. It usually grows to the height 
This species is probably one of the | 
—— 
