DCHP-2

white birch † DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1a

  a species of birch, Betula papyrifera, found in many parts of Canada.

  See also: canoe birch  paper birch  

  • 1793  (1801)  The trees are spruce, red-pine, cypress, poplar, white birch. . . .
  • 1863  One woman was stripping a large white birch of its bark with a sharp knife. . . .
  • 1966  The white birch is a lady of the forest . . . always dignified and serene.

• 1b

  the heavy, straight-grained wood of this tree.

  • 1774  This town . . . affords great store of fine timber . . . birch, white yellow and black. . . .
  • 1908  The principal kinds of timber are spruce, balsam, fir, white birch, cypress and pine

• 2

  a small species of birch, Betula populifolia, native to the Maritimes, southern Quebec and eastern Ontario.

  See also: wire birch  

  • 1853  [The] "white birch" (B. populifolia) [is] a worthless tree of some twenty feet in height, and less than six inches in diameter. The bark of this species is useless. . . .
  • 1956  Wire Birch [is also called] white birch. . . .