BET 
alfo is prepared from it, which they confider as an effi¬ 
cacious remedy in all painful difeafes. The leaves, ac¬ 
cording to Linnaeus, dye a better yellow than the com¬ 
mon birch. 
5. Betula pumiia, or American or hairy dwarf birch : 
leaves obovate, crenate. This refembles the foregoing, 
but feems.diftindt in having leaves not orbiculate- but obo¬ 
vate, and more deeply notched. Native of North America. 
6 . Betula aitnis, or common alder: peduncles branched ; 
leaves roiindifh-wedge-form, very obtule, glutinous ; axils 
of tlie veins villofe underneath. The common alder ap¬ 
pears generally as a Ihrub ; it will however grow to a con- 
liderable tree, thirty-five or forty feet in height. The 
bark is black'd!), in old trees full of clefts. The wood is 
red and brittle. The leaves are of a dark green colour, 
and a roundifh figure, refembling thofe of the hafel, cre¬ 
nate, fmooth, in the common fort vifcid to. the touch; the 
nerves on the under fide have fpongy balls at the angles 
of their ramifications, as in the leaves of the lime-tree. 
Many botanifts, and among others Linnteus himfelf, have 
feparated the alder from the birch ; but Linnaeus, in his 
later vvoiksy has joined them in the fame genus; convinced, 
as he fays, by the fecond and third fpecies, that nature has 
placed no limits between them. Gaertner however keeps 
them diffincl, and fays that they differ not only in the 
fruit, but in the flower. Native of Europe from'Lapland 
to Gibraltar, and of Afia from the White Sea to mount 
Caucafus, in wet and boggy grounds, and on the banks of 
rivers; flowering with us in March and April. Mr. Miller, 
probably intending to remove the article alnus to that of 
betula, has entirely omitted the former in the eighth folio 
edition of his dictionary. In the feventh edition he makes 
three fpecies of the alder. There is alio a long-leaved 
alder from America, which grows to thirty feet in height, 
and merits a place in all plantations. The branches ate 
(lender, fmooth, numerous, and dark brown or purple. 
The leaves are long, and free from the clainminefs of the 
common fort; they fometimes continue on the tree even 
in December, and it has then the appearance of an ever¬ 
green. The moll common names of the alder are, in La¬ 
tin, alnus ; in German, erle, erlenbaum, or eller ; in Dutch, 
els , elzeboom ; in Danifh, ell, elle, elletrcee, eln-, in Svvedifh, 
al, a/ll-, in Englifh, alder, aller, oiler, owler ; in Scotch, cl- 
ler ; in Italian, ontano, alno ; in Spanifh, alij'o, alamo negro, 
negrillo ; in Portuguefe, alemo ; in Ruffian, oleha ; in Po- 
lifh, olfza. 
The wood of the alder is valuable for piles, pipes, pumps, 
fluices, and in general for all works intended to be conftant- 
ly under-water, it is faid to have been ufed under the 
Rialto at Venice; and we are told that the morafles about 
Ravenna were piled with it, in order to lay the foundations 
for building upon. In Flanders and Holland it is raifed 
in abundance for this purpofe. It i'erves alfo many do- 
meftic and rural ufes, as for cart-wheels, fpinning-vvheels, 
milk-veffels, bowls, fpoons, final 1 trays, trenchers, and 
other turnery ware, troughs, handles of tools_, clogs, pat¬ 
tens, wooden heels. The roots and knots furnifh a beau¬ 
tiful veined wood for cabinets. The Scotch highlanders 
often make chairs of it, which are very handfome, and the 
colour of mahogany. The wood which has lain in bogs is 
black like ebony. It is very generally planted for coppice 
wood, to be cut down every ninth or tenth year for poles. 
And the branches make good charcoal. The bark is ufed 
by dyers, tanners, and leather-dreffers ; alfo by fifhermen 
for their nets. Both this and the young flioots dye yellow, 
and with a' little copperas a yellowiffi grey, very ufeful in- 
the demi-tints and fhadows of flelli in tapeftry. The (hoots 
cut in March will dye a cinnamon colour ; and a fine tawny, 
if they be dried and powdered. The frefli wood yields a 
dye the colour of rappee fnufF. The catkins dye green. 
The bark is ufed as a bafis 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 a folution of cop¬ 
per, tin, and bifnnith, fix grains of each, and two drops of 
folution of iron vitriol, will dye a ftrong d$ep boue-de» 
Vol. II. No. 112 . 
U L -A. 937 
Paris. The leaves have been fometimes employed in tan¬ 
ning leather. The, Laplanders chew the bark, and dye 
their leathern garments red with their faiiva. The. whole 
tree is very aflringent. The alder makes good hedges by 
the Tides of dreams and ditches, ar.d in all wet morally foils, 
and ferves to keep up the banks : but, if it be planted in 
a low meadow, it is faid that the ground furrounding it 
will become boggy ; whereas, if afh be planted, the roots 
of which penetrate a great way, and run near the furface, 
the ground will become firm and dry.. The fhade of alder 
feems to be no materia! impediment to the growth of grafs. 
The boughs cut in fummer, fpread over the land, and, left 
during the winter to rot, are found to anfwer as a manure, 
clearing the ground in March of the undecayed parts, and 
then ploughing it. The frelfi-gathered leaves are covered 
witla a glutinous liquor, in which fleas are faid to entangle 
themfelves, as birds do in birdlime. Linnaeus fays, that 
horfes, cows, fheep, and goats, eat it ; but that fwine re- 
fufe it. The tongues of horfes feeding upon it are turned 
black; and it is fuppofed by fome p'erfons not to be whole, 
home for them. , , 
7. Betula incana, or hoary alder : peduncles branched ; 
leaves roundifh, elliptic, acute, pubefeent underneath ; 
axils of the veins naked ; (tipules lanceolate. The hoary 
or (liver-leaved alder is totally diftinft from the common 
fort, botli in the ftruCture of its parts, and its eeconoinical 
ufes. It never attains the fize of that, and is commonly 
fhrubby; the trunk is fcarcely thicker than the human 
arm ; the wood is white, and of a clofer texture. Branches 
and twigs even, teflaceous, hoary, diverging at half a right 
angle. Leaves not round, but ovate, drawn out at the 
end. Native of the alpine and fubalpine parts of Switzer, 
land, Dauphine, in eaflern Siberia, in the iilands beyond 
Kamtfehatka, &c. It was introduced here in 1780, by 
Mr. John Bufh. 
8. Betula populifolia, or poplar-leaved birch: leaves 
deltoid, drawn out to a long point, unequally ferrate, very 
fmooth ; the feales of the ftrobiles having roundifh fide 
lobes; petioles fmooth. 9. Betula papyracea, or paper 
birch : leaves ovate, acuminate, doubly ferrate ; veins 
hirfute underneath. 10. Betula excelfa, or tall birch: 
leaves ovate, acute, ferrate - ; feales of the ftrobiles having 
the fide lobes rounded; petioles pubefeent, fhorter than 
the peduncle. Natives of North America. 
11. Betula oblongata, or Turkey alder: peduncles 
branched; leaves oval, obtufifh, glutinous; the axils of 
the veins naked underneath. The leaves are longer, nar¬ 
rower, and not fo glutinous as the common fort; they are 
alfo not fo rough, and are of a thinner confiftence. It is 
very common in Auftria and Hungary. 
12. Betula ferrulata, or notch-leaved alder: peduncles 
branched; leaves obovate, acute; veins and their axils 
villofe underneath ; flipules oval, obtufe. Native of Penn- 
fylvania. 
13. Betula crifpa, or curled-leaved alder: peduncles 
branched ; leaves ovate, acute, fomewhat waved ; veins 
hairy underneath ; axils naked ; flipules roundifh, ovate. 
Native of Newfoundland and Hudfon’s Bay. 
14. Betula daurica: leaves ovate, acuminate, ferrate, 
hairy on the nerve. This fpecies, when young, is fcarcely 
to be diftinguifhed from our common birch, but by the 
leaves. It does not grow fo tall, and the trunk does not 
exceed a foot in diameter. The leaves are harder, and 
commonly fmaller. The wood is ufed for making char¬ 
coal. Native of Dauria. 
15. Beuila fruticofa: leaves rhomboid-ovate, equally 
ferrate, fmooth. This is always Ilirubby, riling with fe- 
veral (terns from the fame root, in boggy places not an 
inch thick, nor higher than a man; but on mountains it 
attains the thicknefs of the human arm, and grows to a 
much loftier ftature ; it is however much branched from 
top to bottom, and of a very different habit from the com¬ 
mon birch. It is found abundantly in marlhes and on 
rocky mountains, and in the cold fubalpine regions of 
eaflern Siberia, efpecially towards the lake Baikal. 
11 F Propagation 
