DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 133 



quented portions of British America, — whohave to pass over 

 rapids, and make their way through the wilderness from river 

 to river, — find the canoe made of the birch bark, the lightest, 

 the most durable, and convenient vessel for these purposes in 

 the world.* 



The wood of our Black birch is by far the finest; and as 

 it assumes a beautiful rosy colour when polished, and is next 

 in texture to the wild Cherry tree, it is considerably esteemed 

 among cabinet-makers in the eastern states, for chairs, tables 

 and bedsteads. 



In Europe, the sap of the birch is collected in the spring in 

 the same manner as that of the maple in this country, boiled 

 with sugar, and hops, and fermented with the aid of yeast. 

 The product of the fermentation is called hirch wine, and is 

 described as being a remarkably pleasant and healthy bever- 

 age. 



Though perhaps too common in some districts of our coun- 

 try to be regarded as an ornamental tree, yet in others where it 

 is less so, the birch will doubtless be esteeemed as it deserves. 

 With us it is a great favourite ; and we regard it as a very 



* The following interesting description of their manufacture, we copy from Mi- 

 chaux. "The most important purpose to which the Canoe birch is applied, and 

 one in which its place is supplied by no other tree, is the construction of ca- 

 noes. To procure proper pieces, the largest and smoothest trunks are selected; 

 in the spring two circular incisions are made several feet apart, and two longi- 

 tudinal ones, on opposite sides of the tree ; after which, by introducing a wedge, 

 the bark is easily detached. These plates are usually ten or twelve feet long, 

 and two feet nine inches broad. To form the canoes, they are stitched together 

 with fibrous roots of the white spruce, about the size of a quill, which are de- 

 prived of the bark, split, and suppled in water. The seams are coated with resin 

 of the Balm of Gilead. Great use is made of these canoes by the savages, and 

 the French Canadian in their long journies through the interior of the country; 

 they are light, and are very easily transported on the shoulders from one lake to 

 another, which is called the portage. A canoe calculated for four persons, with 

 their baggage, weighs from forty to fifty pounds ; and some of them are made 

 to carry fifteen passengers. 



