BIRCH. 



219 



" Let fortune's gifts at random flee, 

 They ne'er shall draw a wish from me, 

 Supremely blest wi' love and thee, 

 In the birks of Aberfeldy." 



The pre-eminent beauty and utility of my silver bark has 

 originated the same name, with little variation, throughout 

 Europe. Derived from Urka, or birJce, it aptly recalls to 

 mind peculiarities which pertain to me ; for who has not 

 read concerning its beautiful laminse used by the ancients, 

 like papyrus, for writing-tablets, before the invention of 

 paper, and on which the works composed by Numa were 

 discovered in his tomb in a legible state, four hundred 

 years after his interment, according to the testimony of 

 Plutarch and of Pliny ? 



The latter historian makes allusion also to the fasces, or 

 bundles of birchen rods, that were carried by the Lictors 

 before Roman magistrates, with an axe bound up in their 

 middle and appearing on the top. 



I have spoken concerning my origin and the gradual 

 changes which time produced in the surrounding country ; 



