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B E TULA nana.
Dwarf Birch.
MONOECIA Tetrandria.
Gen. Char, Male, Cal. scale o f a catkin, o f 1 leaf
3-flowered. Cor. none. Stam. 10— 12. Female,
Cal. scale obscurely 3-cleft, 3-flowered. Cor. none.
Styles 2. Seeds compressed, winged.
Spec. Char. Leaves orbicular, crenate.
Syn. Betula nana. Linn. Sp. PI. 1394. Fl. Lapp.
ed. 2. 274. t. 6 .f . 4. Sm. Fl. Frit. 1012. Huds.
416. With. 207. Hull. ed. 2. 281. Light/. 575.
t. 25. Pallas. Ross, v. l.p . 1. G3. t. 40. f . D— G.
Dicks. H. Sicc./asc. 18. 16.
A CONSIDERABLE degree of celebrity is attached to this
shrub, from its frequent mention in the Flora Lapponica, and
Tour to Lapland recently published, of Linnaeus, as well as
from its being the subject of his first dissertation in the Amce-
nitates Academicce. It is by no means rare in Scotland, from
whence our wild specimen came, yet it was not known to British
botanists till Sir James Nasmyth made the discovery about
40 years ago.
The shrubby, rigid, much branched stem is about a yard
high, with a blackish bark, slightly downy on the young
twigs. Leaves alternate, on short stalks, of a circular form,
sometimes abrupt and kidney-shaped, strongly and unequally
crenate, rigid, smooth, reticulated with veins, deciduous.
Buds with concave fringed scales. The male catkins grow
from lateral leafless buds, and are sessile, cylindrical, dark
brown, one third of an inch in length, appearing in May when
the young leaves are beginning to expand. The female ones terminate
little short shoots, with two leaves at the base, and are
ovate, shorter, and green, with red styles. However valuable
in the domestic oeconomy of the poor Laplander, this shrub
is scarcely known out of the most northern parts of Europe.