=Bark.=--Bark of trunk on old trees very dark, separating and cleaving off in large, thickish plates; on young trees and on branches a dark reddish-brown, not separating into thin layers, smooth, with numerous horizontal lines 1-3 inches long; branchlets reddish-brown, shining, with shorter lateral lines; season's shoots with small, pale dots. Inner bark very aromatic, having a strong checkerberry flavor,--hence the common name, "checkerberry birch"; called also "cherry birch," from the resemblance of its bark to that of the garden cherry. =Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds reddish-brown, oblong or conical, pointed, inner scales whitish, elongating as the bud opens. Leaves simple, in alternate pairs, 3-4 inches long and one-half as wide, shining green above and downy when young, paler beneath and silvery-downy along the prominent, straight veins; outline ovate-oval, ovate-oblong, or oval; sharply serrate to doubly serrate; apex acute to acuminate; base heart-shaped to obtuse; leafstalk short, often curved, hairy when young; stipules soon falling. =Inflorescence.=--April to May. Sterile catkins 3-4 inches long, slender, purplish-yellow; scales fringed: fertile catkins erect or suberect, sessile or nearly so, 1/2-1 inch long, oblong-cylindrical; bracts pubescent; lateral lobes wider than in _B. lutea._ =Fruit.=--Fruiting catkins oblong-cylindrical, nearly erect; bracts with 3 short, nearly equal diverging lobes: nut obovate-oblong, wider than its wings; upper part of seed-body usually appressed-pubescent. =Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows everywhere from swamps to hilltops, but prefers moist rocky slopes and a loamy or gravelly soil; occasionally offered by nurserymen; both nursery and collected plants are moved without serious difficulty; apt to grow rather unevenly. [Illustration: PLATE XXX.--Betula lenta.] 1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3. Sterile flower, back view. 4. Sterile flower, front view. 5. Fertile flower. 6. Fruiting branch. 7. Fruit. 8. Mature leaf. =Betula lutea, Michx. f.= YELLOW BIRCH. GRAY BIRCH. =Habitat and Range.=--Low, rich woodlands, mountain slopes. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to Rainy river. New England,--abundant northward; common throughout, from borders of lowland swamps to 1000 feet above the sea level; more common at considerable altitudes, where it often occurs in extensive patches or belts. South to the middle states, and along the mountains to Tennessee and North Carolina; west to Minnesota.