BIRCH 133 



It is also suggested that the tree derives its name from the 

 Anglo-Saxon beorcan, to bark, to strip the bark from a 

 tree, since this bark of gleaming whiteness is the first feature 

 to catch the eye, and in early days was of great utility 

 in boat-building, roofing, and other necessary purposes. 



The books written by Numa, some seven hundred years 

 before the Christian era, were inscribed on birch-bark. He 

 ordered that at his death his body should not be cremated, 

 but interred, and that in his tomb should be placed with 

 him the books that he had written. On his tomb beinp; 

 opened four hundred years after, these writings were found 

 to be in perfect condition. They were carefully read, and as 

 it was found that they were not in harmony with the ideas, 

 religious and political, of the day, it was decreed that they 

 should be destroyed, and they were forthwith solemnly 

 consigned to the flames. If, instead of being discovered 

 some three hundred years before the Christian era, they 

 had been brought to light some nineteen hundred years 

 after it, what would not archsologists have given for such 

 a treasure .'' 



The trunk of the birch in ascending is often somewhat 

 sinuous ; it has not the stiff rigidity of the larch, for 

 instance, and at some little distance from the ground, 

 divides into numerous branches, more or less flexible and 

 pendant at their extremities. The tree would ordinarily 

 be about eighty feet in height, though exceptional specimens 

 considerably overtop this, while a Greenland or Lapp birch 

 is, under the stress of Arctic conditions, but three or four 

 feet, or even less, in height.^ 



' We recall walking at some considerable elevation in Switzerland through 

 a pine forest, the trees reaching to our knees. 



