* 



132 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



have been grubbed up, the value of these 

 plantations have been advanced in proportion. 

 For this reason, those persons who are pos- 

 sessed of such poor land, cannot employ it 

 better than by planting it with these trees, es- 

 pecially as the expense of doing it is not great. 

 1 The wood is used for packing-cases, turners' 

 ware, wooden shoes, and clogs ; also for gates 

 and rails. It likewise makes excellent char- 

 coal. The branches are woven into hurdles 

 for the shepherd, and the twigs are bound 

 into besoms for the housewife. The bark is 

 of great use in dyeing wool yellow, and par- 

 ticularly in fixing fugacious colours. The 

 Highlanders use it for making ropes for their 

 wells, whilst their tanners use it for tanning 

 leather ; and they sometimes burn the outer 

 rind instead of candles. The leaves afford 

 good fodder to horses, kine, sheep, and goats. 

 The seeds of the birch- tree are the favourite 

 food of the siskin, or fringilla spinus of Lin- 

 naeus, a bird of passage commonly called 

 Barley-bird in Sussex, because it visits that 

 county in the barley seed-time. 



Old medical writers tell us that the leaves 

 of the birch- tree are good for the dropsy; 

 and that next to the juniper, the wood was 

 esteemed the best to burn in times of pesti- 

 lence and eontagious distempers. 



