BET 
BIB 
purge violently. This plant dies wool of a 
very fine dark yellow colour. 
BETULA, the birch-tree, in botany, a 
genus of plants of the Monoecia Tetran- 
dria class. The male flower is amentaceous, 
formed of a number of monopetalous flos- 
cules, each of which is divided into four 
parts. In the female flower the calyx is 
lightly divided into three segments : the 
fruit is a cylindrfc cone, and the seeds are on 
each side edged with a membrane. The 
alder, B. alniis, as well as the B.alba, belongs 
to this genus ; but of all the species we 
shall notice only the latter or common 
birch-tree, which is known at first sight by 
tlie silvery colour of its bark, the smallness 
of the leaves, and the lightness and airiness 
of the whole appearance. It is of rather an 
inferior size among the forest trees. The 
branches are alternate, subdivided, very 
pliant, and flexible, covered with a reddish 
brown or russet, smooth back, generally 
dotted with white. Leaves are alternate, 
bright green, smooth, shining beneath, witli 
veins crossing like the meshes of a net ; the 
petioles are half an inch or more in length, 
smooth, grooved above, and at the base are 
ovate green glands. The birch is a native 
of Europe, from Lapland to Italy, and of 
Asia, chiefly in mountainous situations, 
flowering with us in April and May. The 
twigs are erect in young trees, but being 
slender and pliant, they are apt to become 
pendent in old ones : hence there is a va- 
riety B. pendula, as beautiful as the weeping 
willow. Another variety, named from Da- 
lecarlia, where it is found, has leaves,almost 
palmate, with segments toothed. 
The B. alba, though the worst of timber, 
is highly useful for articles of small manu- 
factures, as ox-yokes, bowls, dishes, ladles, 
and divers other domestic utensils. In 
America they make their canoes, boxes, 
buckets, dishes, &c. from the birch : from 
an excrescence or fqngus they form excellent 
touch-wood, and being reduced to powder, it 
is reckoned a specific for the piles. It is used 
as fuel, and will bear being burnt into ex- 
cellent charcoal. The inner silken bark, 
which strips off of itself almost annually, 
was formerly used for writing before the in- 
vention of paper. In Russia and Poland 
the coarser bark is used instead of tiles or 
slates for the covering of houses ; and in al- 
most all countries the twigs have been used 
by pedagogues to keep their pupils in or- 
der, and to maintain diligence and disci- 
pline in the schools : and also for brooms 
used in domestic economy. The bark is 
used in processes of dying : and in Scot- 
land for tanning leather and making ropes. 
In Kamtschatka they form the bark into 
hats and drinking-cups. 
The vernal sap of the— birch-tree is made' 
into wine. In the beginning of March, 
while the sap is rising, holes must be bored 
in the body of the tree, and fossets made of 
elder placed in them to convey away the 
liquid. If the tree be large, it may be 
tapped in several places at a time, and thus 
according to the number of trees, the quan- 
tity of liquid is obtained. The sap is to be 
boiled with sugar in the proportion of four 
pounds to a gallon, and treated in the same 
way as other made wines. One great ad- 
vantage attaching to the birch is, that it will 
grow on almost any barren ground : upon 
ground, says Martyn, that produced nothing 
but moss, birch-trees have succeeded, so as 
to produce at least 20s. per acre per ann. 
The broom-makers are constant customers 
for birch, in all places within 20 miles of the 
metropolis, or where water carriage is con- 
venient ; in other parts the hoop-benders 
are the purchasers ; but the larger trees are 
consumed by turners, and the manufac- 
turers ofinstruments ofhusbandry. 
BEVEL, among masons, carpenters, 
joiners, and bricklayers, a kind of square, 
one leg whereof is fiequently crooked, ac- 
cording to the sweep of an arch or vault. 
It is moveable on a centre, and may be set 
to any angle. ■ 
The make and use of this instrument is 
pretty much the same as those of the com- 
mon square and mitre, except that those 
are fixed, the first at an angle of ninety 
degrees, and the second at forty-five ; 
whereas the bevel being moveable, it may 
in some measure supply the place of both, 
which it is chiefly intended for, serving 
to set off or transfer angles, either greater or 
less than ninety or forty -five degrees. 
BEVILE,in heraldry, a thing broken or 
opening like a carpenter’s rule : thus we 
say, he beareth argent, a chief bevile, vert, 
by the name of beverlis. 
BIBLE, the book, a name given by Chris- 
tians, by way of eminence, to a collection 
of the sacred writings. 
This collection of the sacred writings, 
containing those of the Old and New Tes- 
tament, is justly looked upon as the founda- 
tion of the Jewish as well as the Christian 
religion. The Jews, it is true, acknowledge 
only the scriptures of the Old Testament, 
the- correcting and publishing of which are 
unanimously ascribed, both by the Jews and 
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