6 FAMILIAR TREES 



was at no late period in the history of civilisation that 

 man took to tapping the white trunks in the spring 

 for the sake of the copious flow of sugary sap, and to 

 fermenting this sap into a wine or spirit, as is still 

 done both in Sweden and in Leicestershire. Besides 

 a beer, prepared formerly from its young shoots, and 

 the wine just mentioned, the Birch yields a tea 

 prepared from the leaves, chiefly by the Finlanders. 

 The bark, moreover, contains enough starch to fur- 

 nish, when bruised, a bread-stuff to the Samoiedes 

 and Kamtschadales. It is also still used in the north 

 for roofing, being very durable and imperme- 

 able, and in Russia for the manufacture of jars, 

 boxes, and shoes, and for tanning. On distillation, 

 it yields a fragrant oil, which gives its pleasant 

 odour to Russian leather. The wood, though not 

 durable, is valued in Russia, where the Birch 

 forms the chief tree in vast forest areas, not only as 

 firewood and as a source of charcoal, but also, on 

 account of its toughness and tenacity, for carriage- 

 building, furniture, and turnery. A very extensive 

 domestic industry in that country is the manufacture 

 of wooden spoons, thirty millions, mostly of Birch- 

 wood, being made annually. The flexible branches 

 are largely utilised in the making of brooms, and it 

 is stated that the fasces carried by the lictors 

 before the magistrates of ancient Rome were made 

 up of Birch-rods. 



We may doubt the exact truth ot the statement 

 made by M. Alphonse Karr, in his charming 

 " Tour autour de mon Jardin," that " in London 

 they make champagne " from the Birch ; but no 



