210 THE BIRCH. 



He directs that it should be boiled for an hour, with a 

 quart of honey to every gallon of juice, a few cloves, some 

 lemon-peel, and a small proportion of cinnamon and mace. 

 It should then be fermented with yeast, and bottled. This 

 process, according to the same author, does not injure the 

 tree, for he mentions having observed a Birch which was 

 so treated for very many years, and nevertheless grew to 

 an unusual size. 



The wood of the Birch is white shaded with red, and, 

 if grown in a very cold climate, lasts a long while. It is 

 used for packing-cases, turnery, wooden shoes, and the 

 felloes of wheels, but is inferior to other kinds of timber 

 for all these purposes. A piece of birch-wood was once 

 found in Siberia, changed entirely into stone, while the 

 cuticle, or outer coating of the bark, of a satiny whiteness, 

 was exactly in its natural state, perfectly well-preserved. 

 This proves what was before said of the durability of the 

 bark. Thin pieces of the cuticle are sometimes placed 

 between the soles of shoes, and are found to resist wet. 

 The bark is even wrapped round the lower end of posts 

 which are inserted in the ground, to prevent the moisture 

 from penetrating them. The bark of large trees is used 

 by the Laplanders as a kind of cloak, a hole being made 

 in the centre to admit the head. From smaller trees, 

 about the size of a man's leg, they make boots by removing 

 the wood and leaving a seamless tube of bark. In seasons 

 of scarcity, the inner bark is sometimes ground with corn, 

 and made into bread ; but this, we must hope, happens 

 but rarely. 



From the leaves a yellow dye may be prepared. The 

 wood makes excellent charcoal for gunpowder and crayons ; 

 and in northern countries, other parts of the tree are 

 applied to various uses, not, indeed, from any particular 

 fitness of the Birch, but from the absence of trees of any 

 other kind : " The Highlanders of Scotland make every- 

 thing of it ; they build their houses, make their beds, 

 chairs, tables, dishes, and spoons ; construct their mills ; 



