The Birch. 



150. The Beech is always felled in the winter, at least 

 when the leaf is off. The uses of the wood are, boards, 

 parts of wheels, bowls, the wooden part of carpenters* 

 planes, and (when farmers fed their servants in their houses, 

 and when the labourer's cottage knew nothing of the 

 accursed tea and crockery- ware) trenchers. This wood is, 

 by cleanly people, generally chosen for dressers, and for 

 shelves in milk-houses; for churns, cheese-vats, and the 

 like, it being white as deal, without its disagreeable smell, 

 and without its inconvenient softness. 



151. AMERICAN BEECHES.— There are two of these: 

 1. The Red Beech {Fagns Ferrugina) 2. The White 

 Beech {Fagns Sylvestris), These differ from each other 

 in the colour of the bark, and in the size, and a little in the 

 shape, of the leaf. I have seen trees of both sorts very 

 lofty and big ; but I have always understood, that the 

 grain of the wood is not so fine as that of our own Beech. 



THIS 



In Latin, Betula; in French, Bouleau. 



152. The Botanical characters are the same, in all respects, as those of 



The Alder, -which see in paragraph 93. 



153. Of American Birches there are no less than five 

 distinct varieties ; but, as the instructions applicable to the 

 English Birch apply equally well to all these, 1 shall, under 

 tliis first head, give all the instructions that 1 think neces- 

 sary, relative to this kind of tree. 



154. The Birch is, in this country, seldom a large tree. 



