long, slender, pliant, and flexible, covered, when young, with a 
short, close down. Leaves alternate, egg-shaped, or slightly tri- 
angular, pointed, unequally, or rather doubly, serrated, smooth 
above, a little downy beneath ; assuming a golden colour in Autumn. 
Catkins terminal, stalked, pendulous; the barren flowered ones 
appear in the Autumn at the ends of the twigs, but do not expand 
their flowers till the fertile ones appear in the Spring, these fall all 
to pieces when ripe, and scatter the numerous winged seeds. 
There is a variety of this tree in which the branches are elegantly pendent, 
and being a taller tree, and of more rapid growth than the common kind, is 
sometimes preferred for planting. — An excellent portrait of a full-grown Tree of 
this pendulous variety is given by Mr. Loudon, in the 2133rd plate of his incom- 
parable work, the ‘‘ Arboretum et Kruticetum Britannicum.” 
The common Birch is a native of Europe, from Lapland to the snbalpine parts 
of Italy. It is found also in Asia, in Siberia, as far as the Altaic Mountains ; 
and also in the Himalayas; but not in Africa. In some parts of Russia, Mr. 
Loudon informs us, immense tracts are covered with this tree alone ; and in the 
neighbourhood of Moscow, it forms the prevailing tree in all the woods belong- 
ing to the country residences of the nobles. 
The wood of the Birch is firm, tough, and white, and is useful for many pur- 
poses. The Scots Highlanders are said to make eveiy thing of it; they build 
their houses of it ; make their beds, chairs, tables, dishes, and spoons of it ; con- 
struct their mills of it ; make their carts, ploughs, harrows, gates and fences, of 
it. It is also used in many other parts of the country in machinery, turnery, 
wheel-work, and for lasts, pattens, woodden shoes, and such purposes. It is 
likewise much used in collieries for props and waggon-road sleepers. It is an 
excellent fuel, burning very clear, and emitting less smoke than most other 
woods. In the smoking of hertings, in particular, Bitch is preferred to all other 
kinds of wood. It makes the best charcoal, and its soet is a good lamp-black 
for printers’ ink. The young pliant twigs make excellent besoms, and rods. 
The birchen-rod has been used as an instrument of correction at schools from the 
earliest ages, but its use, both in schools and private families, is now fast passing 
away, together with many other barbarous practices of our ancestors. The bark 
appears indestructible, (from its resinous quality,) and is extremely useful to the 
inhabitants of the north of Europe. In Kamschatka hats and drinking cups are 
formed of it. The Swedish fishermen manufacture shoes of it. The Norwegians 
cover their houses with it. Torches are made of it, sliced and twisted together, 
it being highly inflammable. The portable canoes of the North American In- 
dians are commonly constructed with this material. The inner bark (some say 
the cuticle or outer batk) was one of the ntalerials on which the ancients wrote 
before the invention of paper; and, according to Pliny and Plutarch, the 
works composed by Nujia, (who had forbidden his body to be burnt,) wete dis- 
covered in the tomb in a legible state, 400 >ears after his interment. The sap 
of the Biiclt is made into liter, wine, and vinegar ; and a sugar is exliacted, and 
a spirit distilled from it. A pyrogenous oil is procured f>om the baik by distil- 
lation, to which Russia leather, dressed with it, is said to owe its remaikable 
odour. — I have observed the following fungi on i lie leaves of the birch in the 
vicinity of Oxford : Dothidea betulina ; Erineum betulinum ; E. tortuosum ; 
and Uredo ovata. 
The Natural Order, Betuli'nea?, is composed of dicotyledonous 
trees or shrubs, the leaves of which are simple, with their primary 
veins running straight from the midrib to the margin ; their stipulce 
are deciduous. Their flowers unisexual, monoecious, and amenta- 
ceous ; the barren ones sometimes having a membranous calyx. 
The stamens are distinct, scarcely ever united. The ovary supe- 
rior, of 2 cells ; the ovxdes definite, and pendulous ; with 2 stigmas. 
The fruit is membranous, indehiscent, and 1-celled. The seeds 
pendulous, naked, and without albumen ; with a straight embryo ; 
and a superior radicle. 
