Part 20 (2/2)

COMMON USES: Spools, shoe lasts and pegs, turnery, bark for canoes.

REMARKS: Forms forests. Sap yields syrup. Bark yields starch. Valuable to woodsmen in many ways.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Radial Section, life size.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cross-section, magnified 37-1/2 diameters.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tangential Section, life size.]

36

RED BIRCH. RIVER BIRCH.

Red refers to color of bark; river, prefers river bottoms.

_Betula nigra_ Linnaeus.

_Betula_, the cla.s.sical Latin name.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Habitat.]

HABITAT: (See map); best in Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Leaf.]

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TREE: Height, 30'-80', and even higher; diameter, 1', even 5'; trunk, often divided low; bark, dark brown, marked by horizontal lenticels, peels into paper plates, curling back; leaves, doubly serrate, often almost lobed; fruit, p.u.b.escent, erect, strobiles.

APPEARANCE OF WOOD: Color, light brown, thick sap-wood, whitish; diffuse-porous; rings, not plain; grain, close, rather crooked; rays, numerous, obscure.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES: Weight, medium (36th in this list); 35 lbs. per cu. ft.; sp. gr. 0.5762; strong (22d in this list); very elastic (19th in this list); medium hard (37th in this list); shrinkage, 6 per cent.; warps, .......; not durable when exposed; hard to work, tough; splits with difficulty, nails well.

COMMON USES: Shoe lasts, yokes, furniture.

REMARKS: Prefers moist land.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Radial Section, life size.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cross-section, magnified 37-1/2 diameters.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tangential Section, life size.]

37

CHERRY BIRCH. SWEET BIRCH. BLACK BIRCH. MAHOGANY BIRCH.

Cherry, because bark resembles that of cherry tree; sweet, refers to the taste of the spicy bark.

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