EUEOPEAN TIMBEE 
55 
level. It attains a height of 30 or 40 ft., and produces a 
tough and elastic wood, but can only be got in small sizes. 
It is much used for crates and walking-sticks. The tree is 
intimately bound up with Norse folklore. 
Hungarian ash is often richly figured, but varies a good 
deal in grain, and when used as veneer the glue is apt to 
discolour it. 
Common Birch {Betida alha), Fig. 12, is a beautiful and 
rapid growing tree which attains a height of 50 to 60 ft., but 
only about 1^ ft. in diameter. It is very straight, gets 
less in size towards the Arctic regions, where it becomes a 
mere shrub. It is the last tree to disappear as we go 
northward. The wood is whitish or light brown in colour, 
firm and tough, easily worked, cannot be considered 
durable, but is moderately hard and even in grain, rather 
coarse, but works up to a satiny lustre ; is excellent wood 
for turners, wheelwrights, and coopers, and is used for 
suites of bedroom furniture, largely in chair-making, and a 
good deal is made into charcoal. English-grown wood is 
often used for handrails, stairheads, etc. ; the twigs are 
made into besoms, and on account of their fragrant smoke 
are used for smoking herrings, bacon, etc. The wood is 
also used for box-making in the tinplate trade, and any 
shortage made good by English elm. Occasionally used as 
veneer in cabin fittings, it has a nice effect when stained ; it 
is also used for chair seats, and in Eussia tea chests for 
India are made up of two thicknesses glued back to back, 
with their grain crossways ; and a good deal is used for 
" venesta " panelling. Birch comes from Sweden, where 
it is made into furniture, and Prussia to Britain, but the 
greater quantity is brought from the United States and 
Canada. The wood is, as a rule, softer and rather darker 
than beech ; medullary rays are scarcely noticeable. It is 
