48 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



A T^ine is made from the sap of the Bh'ch-tree. from 

 which a spmt is extracted. The notable English liouse- 

 wife was formerly skilled in making Birch wine : 



And though she boasts no charms divine^, 

 Yet she can carve^ and make Birch wine/' 



T. Wartox. 



even afflictive Birch^ 



Cm-sed by unlettered idle youth^ distils 

 A Hmpid current from her wounded bark^ 

 Profuse of nursing sap." 



Thus it appears that the Birch-tree supplies to the 

 northern peasant his house ; his bread, his wine, and the 

 vessels to put them in ; and some part of his clothing ; 

 the seeds too ai'e the food of the ptarmigan, upon wliich, 

 in a great measure, he subsists; and the leaves some- 

 times furnish his bed. From the Birch, also, is prepared 

 the j\Ioxa, v/hich he considers an efficacious remedy in 

 all painful diseases. 



Even its leaves," says Tvlr. Drunmiond, " are not 

 unimportant, being empioved bv the Finland women in 

 forming a soft elastic couch for the cradle of infancv. 

 Acerbi has given a specimen of a wild lullabv song in 

 which tliis is alluded to, and which seems to have been 

 copied in these lines of Leyden : 



" Sweet bird of the meadow,, soft be thy rest ! 



Thy mother will wake thee at morn from thy nest ; 

 She has made a soft nest^, little red-breast, for thee. 

 Of the leaves of the Birch, and the moss of the tree*." 



Birch-wood is thought to make the best charcoal, and 

 its soot is a good lamp-black for printers' ink. The 

 leaves are good fodder for horses, kine, sheep, and goats ; 



* Drummond's First Steps to Botany, p. 328. 



