210 BIRCH. 
both as food and physic. They are allowed to be 
eaten in fevers, and other inflammatory complaints. 
Their flesh or pulp is, in general, of reddish colour; one 
kind, however, called by the French pasteque, has a 
whitish green pulp. The latter are frequently pickled 
in vinegar, like gerkins ; and are eaten in fricassees, or 
baked in sweet wine. 
Both these varieties may be grown in our gardens, 
under hot-bed frames, in the same manner as cucum- 
bers. 
TETRANDRIA. 
228. The BIRCH (Betula alba) is a forest-tree, easily 
known by the smooth appearance and silvery colour of its barky 
by its leaves being somewhat triangular, but acute, their smaU- 
ness in comparison with those of other timber trees, and by the 
small branches being slender and flexible. 
Although the birch is by no means considered a 
valuable timber tree, yet its wood is used for numerous 
purposes. Being of white colour, and firm and tough 
in texture, it is variously employed by hoop-benders 
and wheel-wrights. Turners use it for trenchers, bowls, 
ladles, and other wooden ware. Ox yokes, small 
screws, women's shoe-heels, pattens, and, in France, 
wooden shoes are made of it. The North American 
Indians use the wood of the birch-tree for canoes, boxes, 
buckets, baskets, kettles, and dishes, curiously joining 
it together with threads made of roots of the cedar-tree. 
Birch-trees are not unfrequently planted with hazels, 
for the purpose of the wood being converted into char- 
coal for forges. This charcoal is much esteemed; and 
the soot which is formed on burning the wood consti- 
tutes a good black substance for printers' ink. 
Nearly all the other parts of the birch-tree are appli- 
cable to useful purposes. The inhabitants of Sweden 
employ the bark in the tanning of leather; and, after 
burning it to a certain degree, they also use it as a cement 
for broken china and earthen ware. The navigators of 
