V. 1. THE WHITE BIRCH. 215 



valuable for timber and for fuel, that their cultivation should be 

 earnestly recommended. They flourish on all kinds of soil, 

 even the poorest, spring most readily from seed, and grow very 

 rapidly. I therefore give, from Loudon's Arboretum, two modes 

 of propagating them, as practised in England, and on the con- 

 tinent of Europe. The directions have reference to the Euro- 

 pean birch, betula alba, but from the intimate resemblance of 

 the trees of the same family, will doubtless apply to our native 

 birches. Indeed, Dr. Hooker says that, judging from the speci- 

 mens of the little white birch which have been sent to him 

 from this country, he cannot see how it differs, except in un- 

 important particulars, from the white birch of Europe. 



" Birch seed ripens in September and October; and maybe 

 either gathered and sown immediately, or preserved in a dry 

 loft, and sown in spring. Sang directs particular attention 

 to be paid to gathering the seeds only from weeping trees ; and 

 this we know to be the direction given to the collectors employed 

 by the nurserymen in the north of Scotland. If the seeds are 

 to be sown immediately, the catkins may be gathered wet ; but, 

 if they are to be kept till spring, they ought not to be gathered 

 except when quite dry ; and every day's gathering should be 

 carried to a dry loft and spread out thinly, as they are very apt 

 to heat when kept in sacks, or laid up in heaps. The seeds 

 should be sown in very fine, light, rich soil, in beds of the usual 

 width, and very slightly covered. Boutcher says : — ' Sow the 

 seeds and clap them into the ground with the back of the spade, 

 without any earth spread over them, and throw a little peas 

 haulm over the beds for three or four weeks, till the seeds begin 

 to vegetate. The peas haulm will keep the ground moist, ex- 

 clude frost, and prevent the birds from destroying the seeds.' 

 {Treat, on Forest Trees, p. 113.) 'It is scarcely possible,' 

 Sang observes, ' to cover birch seeds too little, if they be covered 

 at all.' The plants, if sown in autumn, will come up in the 

 March or April following. If sown in spring, they will come 

 up in May or June ; which, in very cold climates, is a prefer- 

 able season. If any danger is apprehended from moisture in 

 the soil during winter, the alleys between the beds may be deep- 

 ened, so as to act as drains. In the nursery lines, the plants 



