WHITE, OR COMMON BIRCH. 229 



and we have likewise observed it, though sparingly, upon 

 the young shoots of Bet. nigra and Bet. papyracea. 



In general estimation, as well as in the writings of many 

 arboriculturists, the Birch is usually considered as a tree 

 of a very inferior grade, almost worthless as timber,* and 

 fit only to be grown upon land of too poor a quality to 

 produce wood of a superior kind. Allowing its inferiority 

 to several of our forest-trees, we think its useful properties 

 are greatly underrated, and that, treated with a portion 

 of that care and attention bestowed upon other species, 

 it is equally if not better qualified to make a profitable 

 return to the planter, than many trees we have been accus- 

 tomed to admit into our mixed plantations. As a nurse 

 or secondary to other trees, more particularly to the oak,-f* 

 it is, with the exception of the larch, and perhaps upon 

 good land of the gean, or wild cherry (Cerasus sylvestris), 

 one of the best that can be used, as it not only occupies 

 less room from its upright and semifastigiate growth, but 

 from the smallness and lightness of its leaves, and the 

 delicate nature of its spray, it is less liable to injure the 

 trees it is designed to nurse and protect, either by over- 

 shadowing, or by lashing them in violent winds, than many 

 other kinds that have been more freely introduced into 

 mixed plantations, such as the wych-elm, the ash, the 

 beech, &c. 



The profit or return it affords in the way of thinnings, 

 is also, in many situations, quite equal to, or even superior 

 to that afforded by many other kinds of hard wood, as 

 it becomes fit for certain uses some years before the others 



* Evelyn speaks of it as the worst of timber. 



T The Birch was extensively used as a nurse to the oak in the Duke of Port- 

 land's extensive plantations in Nottinghamshire. 



