184 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



ploughs, han'ows, and gates of it ; and even manufacture ropes of it. The branelies 

 arc employed as fuel in the distillation of -whiskey, and are found to contribute 

 a pleasant flavour to it. Birch spray is also used for smoking hams and herrings, 

 for which last purpose it is much preferred. The bark is used for tanning leather, 

 dyeing yellow, making ropes, and sometimes, as in Lapland, instead of candles. 

 In tanning, the erapyreumatic oil obtained by distillation from the birch is said to 

 give the peculiar scent and durable qualities peculiar to Russia leather. A decoc- 

 tion of the bark is found to preserve nets and cordage immersed in it better than 

 any other preparation. In Russia it is applied to the same pui-poses for which that 

 of the canoe birch is used in North America, boats being formed of it that are nearly 

 as light and portable as those made by the Red Indians of Canada. So little is the 

 wood of the birch disposed to decay, that in many submerged forests the remains of 

 the birch trees are often discovered with the bark entire, and retaining its white hue, 

 though the wood within has for ages been converted into a carbonaceous mass. In 

 many places where the birch tree grows abundantly, the sap is converted into an 

 agreeable liquid known as birch wine, and we know that in the district of Balmoral 

 in the Highlands of Scotland a certain quantity of this wine is annually prepared 

 very carefully for the royal owner of the estate, who is said to prefer it to more 

 costly beverages. The house belonging to the Prince of Wales at Balmoral, and for- 

 merly inhabited by the Queen's physician, is known as Birk or Birch Hall, and is so 

 called on account of the number of birch trees near it. 



When the sap rises in the tree in the spring it contains about two per cent, of 

 sugar, and is obtained by incisions into the bark, and the introduction of a pipe, 

 through which it flows into a vessel below. It is then boiled with sugar or honey, 

 and, when bottled, becomes bright and efiervescent. That made in Russia sparkles 

 like champagne. The frequent abstraction of the sap of course soon destroys the 

 trees, and many birches were thus killed near Hamburgh in 1814 by the Russian 

 soldiers, who tapped all the trees they could find, and made themselves intoxicated 

 with the fermented juice. From a flourishing tree of moderate size from four to six 

 quarts of sap may be obtained in a single day, and, if the hole be then carefully filled 

 up with resin or some similar substance to stop any fui'ther exudation, bnt little injury 

 will be done to the tree, though its growth is in all cases checked for a time. A 

 variety of the birch is very common in the Highland woods, called the " Drooping 

 Birch," having its branches very slender and pendulous, and justifying, by its pecu- 

 liarly graceful appearance, Coleridge's epithet of " Lady of the Woods." Birch buds 

 exhale a delicious fragrance after spring showers, as remarked by Sir Walter Scott in 

 one of his happy Highland sketches : — 



" The birch trees wept in fragi'ant showers." 



The quantity of oil contained in the birch is considerable, and in Norway the bark 

 is twisted and made into torches. Oil is obtained from the bark by distillation, which 

 is used, as Ave before noticed, in the tanning of Russian leather, and also in medicine, 

 both internally and externally. Innumerable are the uses to which the wood of the 

 birch, both in its very young and its mature state, are applied. On the Continent 

 many kinds of furniture are made of it. Sabots, cups, and bowls, and many other 

 articles are formed out of it. The buds and catkins afford a kind of wax ; the ashes 

 yield potash, and the spray is used for thatching houses, and as a rnaterial for sleeping 

 upon. 



In landscape gardening the birch is an interesting tree, from its form and the white- 

 ness of its' bark, which renders it more conspicuous in winter than in suminer. Its 



