=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England, growing in every kind of soil, finest specimens in deep, rich loam. Were this tree not so common, its graceful habit and attractive bark would be more appreciated for landscape gardening; only occasionally grown by nurserymen, best secured through collectors; young collected plants, if properly selected, will nearly all live. [Illustration: PLATE XXXIII.--Betula populifolia.] 1. Branch with sterile and fertile catkins. 2. Sterile flower, back view. 3. Fertile flower. 4. Scale of fertile flower. 5. Fruiting branch. 6. Fruit. =Betula papyrifera, Marsh.= CANOE BIRCH. WHITE BIRCH. PAPER BIRCH. =Habitat and Range.=--Deep, rich woods, river banks, mountain slopes. Canada, Atlantic to Pacific, northward to Labrador and Alaska, to the limit of deciduous trees. Maine,--abundant; New Hampshire,--in all sections, most common on highlands up to the alpine area of the White mountains, above the range of the yellow birch; Vermont,--common; Massachusetts,--common in the western and central sections, rare towards the coast; Rhode Island,--not reported; Connecticut,--occasional in the southern sections, frequent northward. South to Pennsylvania and Illinois; west to the Rocky mountains and Washington on the Pacific coast. Var. _minor_, Tuckerman, is a dwarf form found upon the higher mountain summits of northern New England. =Habit.=--A large tree, 50-75 feet high, with a diameter of 1-3 feet; occasionally of greater dimensions. The trunk develops a broad-spreading, open head, composed of a few large limbs ascending at an acute angle, with nearly horizontal secondary branches and a slender, flexible spray without any marked tendency to droop. Characterized by the dark metallic lustre of the branchlets, the dark green foliage, deep yellow in autumn, and the chalky whiteness of the trunk and large branches; a singularly picturesque tree, whether standing alone or grouped in forests. =Bark.=--Easily detachable in broad sheets and separable into thin, delicately colored, paper-like layers, impenetrable by water, outlasting the wood it covers. Bark of trunk and large branches chalky-white when fully exposed to the sun, lustreless, smooth or ragged-frayed, in very old forest trees encrusted with huge lichens, and splitting into broad plates; young trunks and smaller branches smooth, reddish or grayish brown, with numerous roundish buff dots which enlarge from year to year into more and more conspicuous horizontal lines. The white of the bark readily rubs off upon clothing.