Betula (Birch). 



This is a true hardy mountaineer, loving the rugged mountain side 

 and hixuriating in the wild savage glens of the cold north. It is the 

 last tree seen on approaching that hitherto inaccessible spot, the 

 North Pole, disappearing entirely at the 70tli parallel. 



The ancient Caledonians made canoes of birch branches and bark, 

 covering the outside with skins. From birch they made every imagin- 

 able kind of implement and vessel. The writer has seen in the 

 remote parts of the Highlands, cottages in which every utensil was 

 made of birch, all being cut out of the solid timber in the most 

 primitive fashion. Fancy, if ye can, ye elite of the modern tea-drink- 

 ing world, your cups and saucers composed of wood ! Yet such was 

 once the fashion, and our glorious ancestors' "punch-bowl" and 

 "bicker" were made of such primitive material. In some parts of 

 Inverness-shire the sap is collected in early spring, when it flows 

 freely, and brewed into a delicious beverage, which is believed to be an 

 effectual antidote for consumption. It is recorded that during the 

 years 272 — 300, and 310, years of great famine, the inhabitants of 

 Britain were compelled to eat birch bark. In Sweden it has been 

 used to mix with corn for food. In Russia and Poland this tree enters 

 largely into the constructive arts, from the fittings and furnishings of the 

 palace to the manufacture of the tobacco pipe. Russian birch emits a 

 very sweet perfume. Nunia, who lived 700 years B.C., wrote on bark, 

 and the book lay 400 years in his tomb. Of the varieties the weeping 

 Bdula iiendula is the most graceful. Near Kingachie, Strathspey, 

 N.B., stands a beautiful specimen of the tufted, or horsetail weepino- 

 birch, from which the writer has cut a tuft of drooping spray, 12 feet 

 in length. This particular tree is mentioned here, as in all our pere- 

 grinations we never saw its equal. The Scotch bards appear to have 

 all been greatly enamoured with the birch, rendering it famous in 

 song and story. The " Birks of Aberfeldy " are immortalized by 

 Burns, but to-day the enthusiastic sojourner will look long and in 

 vain for the " fragrant spreading boughs " which adorned the Falls 

 of Moness in the poet's time. In one particular this tree stands 

 supremely forward in our vivid recollection, and most schoolboys 

 will acquiesce in the parenthesis, when reminded of its formidable 

 appearance when wielded ominously by a stalwart rural pedagogue. 

 — Jottings from Loii.FitCs Scrap-hooh. 



