THE SOFTWOODS 181 
times spontaneously produce it in abundance 
whether the place be high, or low, and nothing 
comes amiss to it.’ 
One lingers fondly over gentle John Evelyn’s 
words. Even for ‘this despicable tree’ he has 
a good word: ‘For though Birch be of all 
other the worst of Timber ; yet has it its various 
uses, as for the Husband-mans Ox-yoaks; also 
for Hoops, Paniers, Brooms, Wands, Bavin and 
Fuel; great and small-coal, which last is made 
by charking the slenderest brush, and summities 
of the twigs; as of the tops and loppings M. 
Howards new Tanne: Lastly, of the whitest part 
of the o/d wood, found commonly in doating 
Birches, is made the grounds of our Gallants 
Sweet-powder ; to say nothing here of the Magis- 
terial Fasces, for which antiently the Cudgels 
were us’d by the Lictor ; as now the gentler Rods 
by our tyrannical Pedagogues.’ 
To-day the wood is not yet in good repute, 
as it is not durable. Like alder, it is used for 
gunpowder and as staves for herring-barrels, but 
perhaps its most important use is for making 
reels or bobbins for thread factories, for which 
purposes branches down to one inch in diameter 
