CANOE Braces; PAPER BIRCH (Betula papyrifera, Marsh). 60 to 80 feet. Large tree with broad, open head of few, erect large limbs, with numerous horizontal branches ending in flexible twigs. Bark dull, chalky white, stripping horizon tally into thin, curling sheets, cut by slit-like lenticels, and curling at the edges; under layers brownish, parting into great numbers of thin sheets, used for writing paper. White sur face rubs off on clothing. Wood brown, reddish, light, hard, close-grained, tough, used for shoe lasts, pegs, spools, wood pulp, and fuel. Leaves ovate, 2 to 3 inches long, finely and irregularly saw-toothed, dull, dark green above, paler beneath, yellow in autumn. Petioles grooved, hairy, slender. Flowers
moncecious, in catkins: staminate in 3's, terminal, 3 to 4 inches long; pistillate solitary, 3 to 14 inches long. Fruit smooth, cylindrical cones of overlapping, 3-lobed bracts, each with a single oval, broad-winged seed. Dist.: Canada and Alaska; south to Long Island, Pennsylvania, Central Michigan, and Minnesota, northern Nebraska, Black Hills, northern Mon tana and Washington; north to Arctic Circle. Furnishes Indians bark for canoes, and innumerable camp utensils to trappers. Inner bark is a starchy food. Used as an orna mental and shade tree.