389 
then put it into an open tub to cool, and when cold turn it into the cask; 
when it has done working, bung it up close, and keep it three months; then 
either bottle it off, or draw it out of the cask when it is a year old.* 
The Birch, says our ancient Gerard, serveth well to the decking up of 
houses and banquetting rooms, and for beautifying of streets in the Crosse 
or Gangweek, and such like. 
If this tree serves such purposes no longer, it deserves however to be 
planted in parks and ornamental w r oods, to increase the variety; and its fra¬ 
grant smell after rain justly entitles it to a place in the wilderness.^ The 
stem being straight, the bark smooth and white, and the foliage neat, the 
Birch has a picturesque appearance when properly placed in ornamental 
plantations; either in the openings here and there, to show the foliage and 
hanging down of the twigs, or within to display its silvery bark through 
• 
the gloom.t 
But from what has been said, the Birch, though in the lowest esteem as 
a timber tree, may yet deserve to be cultivated, not merely as an ornament, 
but for its various uses; especially when it will grow to advantage upon the 
barren land, where better trees will not thrive: it will flourish in moist 
springy land, or in dry gravel and sand, where there is but little surface: 
upon ground which produced nothing but moss, these trees have succeeded 
so well as to be lit to cut in ten years after planting, when they have been 
sold for near ten pounds the acre standing, and the after produce has been 
considerably increased; and as the woods near London have been grubbed 
up, the value of these plantations has advanced in proportion: therefore those 
persons who are possessed of such poor land, cannot employ it better, than by 
planting it with these trees, especially as the expense of doing it is not great. 
The leaves of the Canada Birch are smooth, very finely and sharply ser¬ 
rate, The female catkins are ovate, sessile, with acuminate entire § scales. 
It grows sixty feet and more in height. The liquor flowing from its wounds 
is used by the inhabitants of Kamtschatka without previous fermentation; 
with the wood they build sledges and canoes; and they convert the bark 
into food by stripping it off when green, and cutting it into long narrow 
pieces, like Vermicelli, drying it, and strewing it with their Caviar.|| It was 
cultivated in 1/50, by Mr. Miller. 
f Gilpin’s for. seen. 1. 66. 
% Hort. Kew. 
5 F 
* Lightfoot. 
•f Boucher. 
|| Hunter. 
§ Linn. 
