THE BIRCH 7 



schoolboy will probably dispute the truth of his further 

 statement, that " the most virtuous uses to which it 

 is applied are brooms and wooden shoes." Neverthe- 

 less, Dr. Turner, the pugnacious Dean of Wells, is of 

 a different opinion; for in his " Herball " (1568) he 

 writes of it : "I have not red of any vertue it hath in 

 physick ; howbeit, it serveth for many good uses, and 

 for none better than for betynge of stubborn boys, 

 that either lye or will not learn." This, too, is the 

 only connection in which Shakespeare refers to this 

 beautiful tree. In Measure for Measure, he tells 

 how fond fathers, 



" Having bound up the threatening twigs of Birch, 

 Only to stick it in their children's sight 

 For terror, not to use, in time the rod 

 Becomes more mocked than feared." 



Owing to the beautiful arrangement of the cells in 

 the outer bark, to which reference has already been 

 made, the Birch is constantly shedding its rind in 

 strips that go right round the stems, and is thus, 

 together with the similarly constituted Plane, one of 

 the species best fitted to withstand the smoke of 

 London. 



This tree is, however, peculiarly liable to the 

 disease known as " Witch Knots " or " Witches' 

 Brooms," a confused mass of short twigs, like an 

 old rook's nest, produced by a fungus known as 

 E.roas'cus tur'gidus Sadeb., or by a very minute 

 gall-mite, Pltytop'tus rudis, which attack the 

 young buds. It is desirable to burn all parts so 

 affected, as the mites will otherwise be carried 

 from tree to tree by wind or birds. 



