246 
TETRANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Betula. 
BET'ULA.* Barren and Fertile flowers on the same plant: 
Cal. one leaf, with three clefts. 
B. Cal . three-flowered. 
F. Cal . three-flowered : (Seeds compressed, solitary, 
with a membranous border. E.) 
B. ai/ba. Leaves ovato-deltoid, acute; smooth, doubly serrated. 
dea alnea , figured in Grev. Scot. Crypt. 146. 2. E.) Horses, cows, goats and sheep browse 
on Alder. Swine refuse it. (The leaves, when eaten by cows, are reputed to increase their 
milk. E.) If planted in a low meadow, 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. Mr. Woodward. (In Japan, the cones 
are used to dye black, and sold ready dried. Koempfer. The branches serve to make 
charcoal, and the knots of the trunk are beautifully veined, and used by cabinet-makers. 
Theophrastus mentions the uses of the bark for dying skins, as does Pliny the durability of 
the wood for piles and water-pipes. Mr. Gray asserts the inner bark to be purgative. 
Some of the largest trees of this description in England are reported by Gilpin to grow at 
Bishop’s-Aukland, Durham.—From their indestructibility in moisture, and natural 
situation, few trees are more frequently discovered beneath the surface of the earth than 
the Alder. The wonderful appearances of prostrate forests of different kinds of trees occa¬ 
sionally presented to view, have induced many interesting speculations relative to their 
history. Connected with this curious subject, the following brief account may be as much 
to the purpose as any we could select: the level of Hatfield-chase, in Yorkshire, a tract of 
above eighteen thousand acres, which was yearly overflowed, was reduced to arable and 
pasture land by one Sir Cornelius Vermusden, a Dutchman. At the bottom of this wide 
extent, are found millions of the roots and bodies of trees. The roots of all stand in their 
proper postures ; and by them, as thick as ever they could grow, the respective trunks of 
each, some above thirty yards long. The Oaks, some of which have been sold for fifteen 
pounds a piece, are as black as ebony, very lasting, and close-grained. The Ash-trees 
are as soft as earth, and are commonly cut in pieces by the workmen’s spades, and as soon 
as flung up into the open air, turn to dust. But all the rest, even the Willows themselves, 
which are softer than the Ash, preserve their substance and texture to this very day. Some 
of the Firs appear to have vegetated, even after they were fallen, and to have, from their 
branches, struck up large trees, as great as the parent trunk. It is observable that many 
of these trees have been burnt, some quite through, some on one side ; some have been 
found chopped and squared, others riven with great wooden wedges ; all sufficiently mani¬ 
festing that the country which was deluged, had formerly been inhabited. Near a great 
root of one tree, were found eight coins of the Roman Emperors ; and in some places £the 
marks of the ridge and furrow were plainly perceptible, which testified that the ground had 
formerly been patient of cultivation. The learned naturalist, (Phil. Tr. iv. 214), who has 
given this description, has clearly evinced, that this forest in particular must have been 
thus levelled by the Romans ; and that the falling of the trees must have contributed to the 
accumulation of the waters. The Romans, whenever the Britons were discomfited, always 
pursued them into the fastnesses of low woods and miry forests. In these the wild natives 
found shelter; and when opportunity offered, issued out and fell upon their invaders with¬ 
out mercy. In this manner the Romans were at length so harrassed, that orders were 
issued for destroying all the woods and forests in Britain. To effect this object the aid of 
fire was not withheld. The forest thus fallen, must necessa’ily have stopped up the cur¬ 
rents, and turned into great lakes what were before temporary streams. The earth, as it 
were, daily augmenting by the accumulation of decaying vegetable matter, by the sedi¬ 
ment of the waters, and by the new growth of substances of which it was composed, soon 
overtopped the waters by which this intumescence was at first effected ; and thus were the 
inundations, with some slight assistance from man, in a great degree dispersed, leaving 
only that state of putrefactive vegetation, of sufficient consistency to form what we term 
bogs. Vid. Goldsmith’s Hist. Earth. E.) 
* (Derived from the ancient Latin verb batuo , to beat, the Roman lictors having their 
fasces made of the branches; and also in reference to its more vulgar use. E.) 
