1706

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

Canada, of high mountainsin New York and Penn-sylvania, where it does notgrow above 2 ft. or 3 ft. high,and flowers in May and June.The root is red, and is usedfor inlaying. It was intro-duced in 1762; and thereare plants at Messrs. Lod-diges’s. It appears but littledifferent from the precedingsort, and both are probablyonly stunted varieties of B.alba.

* 5. B. na'na L. The dwarf Birch.

Identification. Lin. Sp. P]., 1394. ; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 465. ; FI. Br., 1012. ; Eng. FI., 4. p. 154. ;Hook. Scot., p. 274. ; Dicks. II. Sicc., fasc. 8. 16. ; Ehrh. Arb., 18. ; Gagneb. Act. Helvet., 1.p. 58. ; Lind. Wicksb., 5.; Hayne Dend., p. 168. ; Pursh FI. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 262. ; Lodd. Cat.,ed. 1836.

Synonymes. B. n&na Suecbrum Bromel. Oil. Goth., 11., J.inn. Act. Suec., 1735, 15. ; B. "No. 1629.,Hall. Hist., 2. p. 300.; B. No. 259., Amm. Ruth ., 180. ; B. palustris pumila, &c., Cels. Act. Suec.,1732, 3.

Engravings. Am. Acad., 1. t. 1. ; Eng. Bot., t. 2326.; FI. Lapp., cd. 2., t. 6. f. 4. ; Light!., t. 25. ;Pall. Ross., 1. t. 40. f. D. G. ; FI. Dan., t. 91. ; and our fig. 1559.

Spec. Char., fyc. Leaves orbicular, crenate, reticulated with veins beneath.(Eng. FI., iv. p. 154.) A bushy shrub, seldom exceeding 2 ft. or 3 ft. inheight; with numerous branches, slightly downy when young, and beset withnumerous, little, round, firm, smooth, sharply crenatedleaves, beautifully reticulated with veins, especiallybeneath; and furnished with short footstalks, havinga pair of brown lanceolate stipules at their base. Cat-kins erect, stalked, cylindrical, obtuse; the barren oneslateral, and the fertile ones terminal. Scales of thelatter 3-lobed, 3-flowered, permanent. Stigmas red.

(Smith’s Eng. FI., vol. iv. p. 155.) A native of Lap-land, Sweden, Russia, and Scotland, in Europe; and ofHudson’s Bay, and other parts of Canada, in America;on mountains, but almost always in boggy places. Ac-cording to Pallas, it is common in the whole of thenorth of Russia and Siberia; but not on the moun-tains of Altai or Caucasus. In wet situations, he says,the shoots grow to the length of 6 ft.; and, in a state ofcultivation, they grow as high as 9 ft., and assume an erect form. This shrubis of singular use in the domestic economy of the inhabitants of Lapland.Its branches furnish them with their beds, and their chief fuel; its leaves,with a better yellow dye than that obtained from the common birch; itsseeds afford nourishment to the ptarmigan, or white partridge (TetraoLagopus L.~), which supplies a considerable portion of their food, and alsoforms an important article of commerce; and, for their medicine, it producesthe fungus Polyporus fomentarius Mich., respecting which some details willbe found under the head of Quercus, sect. Sbbur, from which the moxa, oramadou, is prepared, and which the Laplanders consider an efficaciousremedy in all painful diseases. Such is the wonderful power of adaptationof man, in a country possessing few natural resources. B. nana has beenin cultivation in Britain since the days of Miller, and is by no means un-frequent in collections. Price of plants, in the London nurseries, is 2s.each; and of seeds, 6d. per packet. At New York, plants are 25 cents each.

Varieties.

ai B. n. 2 stricta Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836, is somewhat more erect in habitthan the species. There are plants at Messrs. Loddiges’s. Pallas men-

'S 1559