BIRCH (Betula populifolia, Marsh). 20 to 30 feet; rarely 40 feet. Narrow, pyramidal, pointed tree, short-lived, with contorted, often pendulous branches clothing the trunk to the ground. Bark chalky white or grayish, that does not rub off on clothing, with rough, triangular patches of black under the branches or scars of lost ones, elsewhere smooth, not easily separating into thin layers; orange-colored below surface, turning black in fissures. Branches brown; twigs yellow, shining. Wood brown, weak, close-grained, not durable, soft, used for shoe-pegs, spools, wood pulp, and fuel. Leaves triangular, long-pointed, irregularly lobed, saw-toothed, dark green, paler beneath, e to 3 inches long, on slim, twisted peti oles; yellow in autumn. Flowers monoecious, before leaves,
April, in catkins formed in the previous season; stamirtate 2 to 4 inches long, turnip yellow; pistillate 1 inch long, green, stiff. Fruit cylindrical cone, pubescent, blunt at both ends, hanging on short stalk; seeds heart-shaped, with thin border wing, each on a scaly bract, 3-lobed at top, downy. Dist.: Swamp borders or gravelly ridges, often in considerable areas of this tree alone, especially after forest fires; Nova Scotia to Lake Ontario; south to Delaware; abundant on coast region of New England, soon covering abandoned farms.