458 
The catkins dye green* The bark is used as a basis for blacks: an ounce of it dried and powdered, 
boiled in three quarters of a pint of water, with an equal quantity of logwood, with solution of 
copper tin and bismuth, six grains of each, and two drops of solution of martial vitriol, will dye a 
strong deep boue-de-Paris . The leaves have been sometimes employed in tanning leather. The 
Laplanders chew the bark, and dye their leathern garments red with their saliva. The whole tree 
is very astringent. The Alder makes good hedges by the sides of streams and ditches, and in all 
wet morassy soils; and serves to keep up the banks: but if it be planted in a low meadow, it is said 
that the ground surrounding it will become boggy; whereas if Ash be planted, the roots of which 
penetrate a great way, and run near the surface, the ground will become firm and dry. The shade 
of Alder seems to be no material impediment to the growth of grass. The boughs cut in summer, 
spread over the land, and left during the winter to rot, are found to answer as a manure, clearing 
the ground in March of the undecayed parts, and then ploughing it. The fresh gathered leaves are 
covered with a glutinous liquor, in which fleas are said to entangle themselves, as birds do in bird¬ 
lime. Linnaeus says, that horses, cows, sheep, and goats eat the Alder, but that swine refuse it. 
The tongues of horses feeding upon it are turned black, and it is supposed by some persons not 
to be wholesome for them.* 
0 
Species 5. Hoary Alder. (Betula Incana.) 
Native of the alpine and subalpine parts of Switzerland, Dauphine, in eastern Siberia, in the 
islands beyond Kamtschatka, &c. It was introduced here in 1780, by Mr. John Bush.f- 
Species 5. Long-leaved Turkey. (Betula Oblongata.) 
The leaves are longer, narrower, and not so glutinous as the common sorts; they are also not so 
rough, and are of a thinner consistence. It is very common in Austria and Hungary, whence Mr. 
Miller received the seeds, and cultivated it in 1759-J 
Species 6 . Notched-leaved Alder . (Betula Serrulata.) 
Native of Pennsylvania. Cultivated in 1759? by Peter Collinson, Esq.§ 
Species JL Curled-leaved Alder. (Betula Crispa.) 
Native of Newfoundland and Hudson's Bay. Introduced in 1782, by the Hudson's Bay 
Company. || 
CULTURE. 
Species 1. The best method to cultivate the Birch tree, is to furnish yourself with young plants 
from the woods where they naturally grow, and are generally found there in great plenty; but in 
places where there are no young plants to be procured near, they may be raised from seeds, which 
should be carefully gathered in the autumn, as soon as the scales under which they are lodged 
begin to open, otherwise they will soon fall out and be lost: the seeds being small, should not be 
buried deep in the ground; a quarter of an inch is sufficient. 
* Linn. Whithering, Lightf. Dambourney. 
t Ibid. § Ibid. 
j Hort. Kew. 
|| Ibid. 
