188 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
In heathy places. Rare, but widely distributed on the higher hills 
in Scotland. 
Scotland. Shrub. Early Summer. 
A small shrub, with ascending branches, rarely above 2 or 3 feet 
high. Leaves } to } inch long, and generally rather broader, rounded 
or subcordate at the base, reticulated, dark green. The male catkins I 
have not seen. The female catkins are shortly stalked, } to § inch 
long. Catkin-scales brown, very deeply cleft. ruit bordered, but not 
evidently winged. Leaves glabrous, the young shoots pubescent. 
Dwarf Birch. 
French, Bouleau nain. German, Zwerg Birke. 
This species is little more than a bushy shrub, with many little downy branches. 
Tt is a native of Lapland, Sweden, Russia, and Scotland. According to Pallas, it is 
common in the whole of the north of Russia and Siberia. In wet situations, he says, 
the shoots grow to the length of six feet, and in a state of cultivation they grow as 
high as nine feet, and assume an erect form. This shrub is of singular use in the 
domestic economy of the Laplanders. Its branches furnish them with their beds and 
their chief fuel; its leaves, with a better yellow dye than that obtained from the com- 
mon birch; its seed affords nourishment to the ptarmigan or white partridge, which 
supplies a considerable portion of their food, and also forms an important article of 
commerce; and for their medicine it produces the fungus Polyporus fomentarius, fom 
which the mosa or amadow is prepared, which Laplanders consider an efficacious 
remedy in all painful diseases. To make this preparation, the outer covering of the 
fungus is peeled off, and the interior part, which is soft and full of fibres, is boiled in 
a lye of wood-ashes. It is then dried, and beaten with a hammer till it becomes flat; 
after which it 1s again boiled in a solution of saltpetre. In this state it makes ex- 
cellent tinder, igniting with the slightest spark. It is the agaric de chéne or agaric 
des chirurgiens of the French druggists. The Laplanders are said to cure a violent pain 
in any part of the body by laying a piece of P. fomentarius on the part, and igniting 
it—much after the manner of a mustard plaister, we imagine, by counter-irritation. 
Sus-Orper IJ.—MYRICEX. 
Leaves alternate, simple, pinnately veined. Stipules caducous or 
absent. Flowers diccious, rarely monecious, both the male and female 
flowers in catkins. Catkin-scales of the male catkins often accompanied 
by 2 lateral floral-scales, and covering 1 flower, which is without an 
evident perianth : stamens 2 to 6, or very rarely 8. Female catkins 
with entire scales, each catkin covering 1 flower, which is surrounded 
by 2 to 6 scales (perianth?), which adhere to the base of the ovary, 
and increase and become somewhat fleshy after flowering : ovary sessile, 
1-celled, with 1 erect ovule, style very short, with 2 long stigmas. 
Fruit a small dry indehiscent 1-celled and 1-seeded nut, enclosed in 
the enlarged and more or less fleshy scales, which have resinous or 
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