178 ULMtlS. BETULA. 



bark of which is very bitter. — The inner bark of the Elm, for a 

 certain pleasant clamminess, is chewed by children, and hence the 

 tree is called Ci)tSi)barfe. A decoction of it is said to be a good 

 remedy to remove the retained cleansings of cows after calving. 



17. Ulmuscaiiipestris=U.suberosa. (SiXQliSi) <£lm. lu plantations, 

 common. A tree at Blackadder is 10 feet 2 inches in girth, and 

 abont 70 feet in height. 



30. liippophae rhamnoides. Sea Buckthorn. B. Sea-banks at 

 the mouth of Dunglass burn. Rev. A. Baird. 



512. Myrica gale. &nle. Trans. Berw. N. Club, i. 101. 

 — Abundant on the moors above Ford and Doddington ; and 

 between Belford and Wooler. Has not been found in Berwickshire. 

 — If sheep, from hunger, are necessitated to browse on this shrub, 

 they get the disease called the "Yellows." Walker in Essays, p. 525. 

 — The venerable and reverend W. Kirby characterizes it as " one of 

 the most spicy of English plants," both foliage and fructification. 

 Sutton observed that the male plants are in general taller than the 

 female, probably for the purpose of impregnating the germens of the 

 latter with the prolific dust of the anthers." Life, p. 153. 



513. Betula alba. JSirti) or JSirfe. Copses formed of Birch 

 occur on the moors of our district in many places ; and small trees, 

 sown by nature, are frequent on the banks of the various waters that 

 flow through the valleys and deans of the Cheviots and the Lammer- 

 muirs. Mr. Babington would refer most of our Birch in these places 

 to his B. glutinosa ; and the variety in plantations to B. alba. The 

 weeping Birch occurs only in the grounds around seats, and is not 

 common. — Dr. Turner, our Northumberland herbalist, gives a curious 

 account of the uses of the Birch. " I have not red of any vertue y' 

 it hath in physik : Howe be it serveth for many good uses, and for 

 none better then for betynge of stubborne boyes, that either lye or 

 wyll not learne. flechers make prykke shaftes of byrche, because it 

 is hevier then espe is. byrders take bowes of this tre and lyme the 

 twygges and go a bat folynge with them, fyssheres in Northumber- 

 lande pyll of the uttermoste barke and put it in the clyft of a styke 

 and set it in fyre and hold it at the water syde and make fyshe cum 

 thytehr, which if they se, they stryke with their leysters or sammon 

 speres. Other use of the byrche tree knowe I none." The modern 

 reader may be interested in comparing this with Mr. Selby's descrip- 

 tion in his beautiful work on 'British Forest Trees,' p. 225. — In 

 spring, hive-bees often labour upon the unexpanded buds of the 

 Birch, which, at that period, are clammy with gum. The " stick 

 and rice dyke," or " dead hedge " of the farmer is made with the 

 branches where the thorn is deficient. It supplies also net stobs, and 

 some of the materials for constructing a whin-shade. The "Birk 

 knots," which so frequently deform the tree, are often mistaken by 

 the unskilled in bird-nesting for the nest of the Cushat. Shoemakers 

 make their pins and clog soles of Birch. The catkins furnish a 

 winter food to the Linnet and the long-tailed Titmouse. 



