50 WHITE BIRCH. 



and the seeds, which are furnished with little 

 wings, are often carried by the wind to the tops 

 of buildings, and of high rocks, where they take 

 root and grow. The sap or juice, obtained from 

 the trunk in spring, with the addition of sugar, is 

 said to make a pleasant wine ; and in the northern 

 parts of Lancashire, the young twigs are made 

 into brooms, which are exported to different coun- 

 tries. The bark is much more firm and durable 

 than the wood itself. A French traveller*, in 

 passing through Lapland, where there are vast 

 forests of birch, observed, upon examining the 

 trees which had been blown down by the storms, 

 that in several instances the wood was entirely 

 gone ; the trunks, though to all appearance solid, 

 consisting only of an empty shell of bark. In 

 Norway, Sweden, and Russia, this bark is cut into 

 square pieces like tiles, to cover the roofs of the 

 houses ; the Swedish fishermen make shoes of it ; 

 the inhabitants of Kamschatka, hats and drinking 

 cups ; and the people of Canada, canoes. An es- 

 sential oil is extracted from the bark of the birch 

 in Russia, which is used in preparing Russia 

 leather, and gives the peculiar scent to it. The 

 inner silky bark of this tree was used for writing 

 on, before the invention of paper. 



The catkins and seeds of the dwarf Birch, Bet'ula 



* M. Maupertuis. 



