1910] Fernald,— Plants of Wineland the Good 31 
When we turn to the writings of Scandinavian botanists, we find 
the name mósurr or masur applied only to the Birch. ‘Thus the im- 
mortal Linnaeus, writing in 1737 of the Birch trees of Lapland, says: 
“ Knobs, tuffs, protuberances or prominences are often put forth in old 
birches from the middle of the trunk, which are firmer than the rest 
of the wood, since they consist of fibres twisted and entwined (Masur- 
lupne). From these they [the Laplanders] make their small vessels 
for foods and drink, generally carved into a roundish form, with only 
a quarter part removed above, and with a handle affixed." ! Later, 
in his Flora Suecica, Linnaeus speaks of one of the forms of Betula 
as Masurbiórk? More recently, Areschoug in his Skånes Flora tells 
us that Betula verrucosa [pendula] is called Masurbjórk? In Livonia 
“The bunches on the lower part of the trunk of the Birch we call 
Birken-masern.” * Other northern botanists tell us of the Masur- 
birch, but the fullest discussion, apparently, is that given in the 
Pflanzenwelt Norwegens by Schübeler, who, after discussing other 
modifications and uses of the Birch, says: “We find very often, like- 
wise, the Maser-formation (old Norse: mósurr, Swedish: masur), 
which, so far as I have observed, appears in two different forms, 
either as Maser-knobs or even in such a manner that practically the 
whole wood-mass of the trunk consists, for a length of several feet, 
of a peculiar distorted and as it were curled formation of the annual 
rings. Although this formation is not conspicuously noticeable upon 
the outside of the trunk, yet everyone who has once carefully observed 
such a tree, can detect the same easily among hundreds by the peculiar 
knotty, crackled bark. The Maser-knobs are apt to have a more or 
less well marked hemispherical form, and may reach a diameter of 1-2 
feet (31-62 cm.). These seem to arise ordinarily as a result of the 
massing together (perhaps produced through outward injury) of 
neighboring buds; which, not reaching perfect development and 
consequently retarding and later checking the normal formation of the 
annual rings, take on the form of extremely peculiar wave-like curl- 
ings. The Maser-knobs were in olden times used here in Norway for 
1 “ Tubera, tophi, tubercula seu prominentiae saepe exseruntur in antiquus Betulis ex 
medio caudice, quae tenaciora sunt reliquo ligno, cum fibris constent intortis & impli- 
catis (Marsurlupne). Ex hisce conficiunt vascula sua pro ferculis & potu, communiter 
in formam subglobosam excauata, demta vnica quarta parte superius, cum adfixo manu- 
brio."— Linnaeus, Flora Lapponica, 264 (1737). 
? Linnaeus, Flora Suecica, 283 (1745). 
3 Areschoug, Skánes Flora, 143 (1866). 
* J. B. Fischer, Versuch einer Naturgeschichte von Livland, 623 (1791). 
