Cherry Birch
CHERRY BIRCH
(Betula lenta)
Shape pyramidal in youth, broad topped in age; up to 80 ft. tall. Bark on young parts lustrous red brown, on old brown and cracked. Branches ultimately wide spreading, drooping at the ends. Twigs slender, lustrous red brown. Leaves fragrant, like the bark, 2½-6 in. long with yellow midrib, the undersides veiny and downy in the axils. Range: Me. to the mts. of Ala., w. to Ohio. The wood is heavy, strong, dark and satiny. It is used for ships and furniture. It yields birch oil which is employed medicinally and as a flavoring. Birch beer is made from the sugary sap. Very beautiful in spring, when the golden catkins clothe the tree, this is the most valuable timber tree among our birches. YELLOW BIRCH (Betula lutea) is similar, but the bark is gray and flaky and the twigs are downy. Newf. to Man., s. to the mts. of Ga. The wood is valued for agricultural implements.
American Beech
AMERICAN BEECH
(Fagus grandifolia)
Shape broad topped; up to 100 ft. tall. Trunk massive. Bark smooth, bluish gray. Branches greatly forked, terminating in many delicate pale gray twigs. Leaves thin and filmy or becoming thicker and darker in the South, turning a soft gold in autumn. Fruit a small brown edible nut enclosed in a box-like rusty, knobby husk which splits, after frost, by 4 valves. Range: N.B. to e. Wis., s. to e. Tex. and n. Fla. The wood is strong, tough and handsome but warping and not durable. The bark is an ingredient in skin ointments and the nuts are gathered for the market, but fruiting is scarce except far North. Beech woods, formerly of great extent on limestones of the Middle West, were the gathering place of the passenger pigeon which subsisted largely on beech nuts. The beech forms open and airy but cool and emerald forest glades.
Hop Hornbeam