XLIV.— THE BIRCH. 
Betu/a alba Linne. 
T HE ancient idea of sex in plants, which Ruskin proposed to revive in 
nomenclature, was based upon the mere external appearance of vigour. 
Thus, in recognition, it would seem, of some affinity between Hornbeam and Birch, 
the masculine name Betulus was given to the former, while the feminine Betula was 
obviously appropriate to the elegant tree which Coleridge named “ the Lady of the 
Woods.” Whether it veils its black-banded silver stem, its coppery branches, and 
purple haze of twigs with emerald leaves and young catkins in April, or is hung 
with “ patines of pure gold ” in chill October, there is no gainsaying its pre- 
eminence in grace and beauty. 
The name calls up many uses of former times and other lands, though now the 
tree is despised by the forester as a “ weed,” and is valued chiefly in this country by 
the lover of the picturesque. The very name Birch, in its connection with “bark,” 
“ barque,” and “ barge,” suggests the age when its silver rind formed such canoes 
of our early British ancestors as have been found in the gravels of the Clyde, just 
as B. papyracea Aiton serves the Canadian Indian. At that period, no doubt, as 
now in Northern Russia, it served an infinity of other purposes. Its durable and 
impermeable bark is used for roofing and in the making of jars and boxes, or for 
tanning, a fragrant oil distilled from it giving its pleasant odour to Russian leather : 
its fibre furnishes cordage : the twigs are used throughout its area of distribution 
for brooms ; and its wood for carriage-building, furniture, turnery, and fuel. 
Birch-wood spoons are used throughout Russia. The bark contains enough starch 
to furnish, when ground, a bread-stuff used by Kamtschadales and Samoiedes : 
the leaves are made into tea in Finland ; and the copious sugar in the spring 
sap is fermented into wine in Leicestershire and distilled for spirit in Sweden. 
Salicylic acid is now obtained from an allied species ; but this is a modern discovery, 
so that Turner can write in his “ Herball ” (i 568) : — 
“I have not red of any vertue it hath in physick ; howbeit, it serveth for many good uses, and for none better than for 
betynge of stubborn boys, that either lye or will not learn.” 
A few years ago, a friend of the writer observed that the sugary sap flowing 
from a broken Birch bough in a Continental forest had by some air-borne germ 
been caused to ferment, so that some butterflies attracted to it had become helplessly 
intoxicated. 
The genus Betula includes some thirty-five species, mainly confined to 
Northern Temperate and Arctic latitudes. No European tree extends so far north 
as does Betula alba , and it flourishes at an altitude of 2,500 feet in the Highlands of 
Scotland. Another species of the genus grows at 9,000 feet in the Himalaya. 
At these extreme limits of their range, such trees often dwindle to mere shrubs. In 
soil the Birch is not exacting : it flourishes in dry heaths, but is equally tolerant of 
