CHAP. CIV. BEVULA‘CEX. BE/TULA. 1701 
not abound naturally, no British tree is more ornamental; and the common 
sort may there be introduced singly, and in groups and masses, along with all 
the different species and varieties of the genus. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder 
observes that some birch trees should always be planted near a house, for 
the very purpose of filling the air with their fragrance, which is given out in 
great abundance, particularly after rain or heavy dew; more especially in 
spring, when the resinous matter which produces this fragrance is most abun- 
dant on the buds and young leaves. 
Poetical Allusions. The birch does not appear to have been celebrated by 
any ancient writers, though it has been mentioned by most of the modern 
poets. Shenstone introduces it in his Schoolmistress, when alluding to the 
birchen rods :— 
** And all in sight doth rise a birchen tree, 
Which Learning near her little dome did stow ; 
Whilome a twig of small regard to see, 
Though now so wide its waving branches flow, 
And work the simple vassals mickle woe : 
For not a wind might curl the leaves that blew, 
But their limbs shudder’d, and their pulse beat low ; 
And, as they look’d, they found their horror grew, 
And shaped it into rods, and tingled at the view.” 
Pope has also immortalised birch rods in his Dunciad. The beauty of the birch 
tree, and the extreme gracefulness of its foliage, render it a fitting emblem 
of elegance. Coleridge calls it — 
“ Most beautiful 
Of forest trees —the Lady of the woods.”’ 
and Keats describes — 
——“‘ The silvery stems 
Of delicate birch trees.’ 
Professor Wilson, also, gives a beautiful description of a birch tree in his Js/e 
of Palms. 
— “ On the green slope 
Ofa romantic glade we sate us down, 
Amid the fragrance of the yellow broom ; 
While o’er our heads the weeping birch tree stream’d 
Its branches, arching like a fountain shower.” 
Many other modern poets have mentioned this tree, and described its various 
uses. Phillips says : — 
——** Even afflictive birch, 
Cursed by unletter’d idle youth, distils 
A limpid current from her wounded bark, 
Profuse of nursing sap.’’ 
and Leyden : — 
** Sweet bird of the meadow, soft be thy rest : 
Thy mother will wake thee at morn from thy nest; 
She has made a soft nest, little redbreast, for thee, 
Of the leaves of the birch, and the moss of the tree.” 
Numerous other instances might be given; but these may suffice to show the 
popularity of the tree among the observers and lovers of nature. 
Soil, Situation, Propagation, Culture, §c. In the beginning of the last 
century (see p. 102.), the Earl of Haddington, who was the greatest and most 
judicious planter of his time, called the birch an amphibious plant ; as it grows 
on rich or poor, wet or dry, sandy or rocky situations, nor refuses any 
soil or climate whatever, Though the birch is found in every kind of soil, as 
Sang observes, “from that of, a deep moist loam in a low bottom, to a poor 
sandy, gravelly, or moorish earth ;” or, according to Ray, “ in turfy soil over 
sand, ” alike in plains and in mountainous situations ; yet it “ luxuriates most 
in deep loams, lying on a porous subsoil, or in alluvial soil, by the sides of 
rivers, or smaller streams. Even in such situations,” Sang continues, “ though 
among stones and rocks, as on the River Dee, in Aberdeenshire, in particular, 
the birch flourishes most exuberantly. On the sides of hills, in dry soils, it 
grows slowly; but on such its timber is most durable.” (Plant. Kal., p. 54.) 
58 4 
