TETRANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Betlla. 
247 
(E. Bot. 2198. E.)— Hunt. Evel. 225; i. 218. Ed. ii.— Kniph. 12— Gars. 
172. 1 —Bod. 839. 2 —Ger. Em. 1478— Lob. Obs. 607. 2; Ic. ii. 190. 2— 
Park. 1400. 8 —Matth. 142— Blackw. 240— Ger. 12 95—J. B. i. b. 149— 
Trag. 1113. 
(Bark snowy (or silvery. E.) white, with a papyraceous epidermis, (peel¬ 
ing off in thin lamince. E.) Leaves alternate, having leaf-stalks, egg- 
trowel-shaped, unequally serrated, rather pubescent underneath, in 
autumn changing to a gdfden colour. Seeds winged. FI. Brit. E.) 
Branches, the lesser deep chesnut-coloured. Barren Catkins, scale tipped 
with brown, with smaller scales fixed to the centre. Blossom egg- 
shaped, concave, green. 
Var. 1. Branches upright, stiff, straight. 
Var. 2. Branches pliable, elegantly pendent; leaves smooth; (branches 
more warty. E.) 
(Weeping or Drooping Birch. E.) B. pendula. Roth. Gmel.* * 
Birch Tree. (Scotch: Birk. Irish: Beihe. Welsh: Bedwen gyffredin. 
Gaelic: Am. beatha. E.)t Woods and moist hedges. T. April—May.t 
B. na'na. Leaves circular, scolloped. 
* (A taller tree, and of more rapid growth, than the common kind, therefore sometimes 
preferred for planting. E.) 
*f* (Throughout Europe the same name, with little variation, is bestowed on this tree ; 
and that derived from Birka or Birke , in reference to the pre-eminent beauty and utility 
of its bark. E.) 
t (The beautiful laminae of the silken bark were used by the ancients as a papyrus for 
writing tablets before the invention of paper; and, according to Pliny and Plutarch, the 
works composed by Numa, (who had forbidden his body to be burnt,) were discovered in 
the tomb in a legible state, four hundred years after his interment. E.) The Birch is liable 
to a disease, which causes it to send out a great number of shoots in the middle of a branch, 
and matted together, at a distance resembling a rook’s nes^ ; the leaves upon those shoots 
are downy and soft. It grows in all kinds of soil, but best in shady places. It bears 
cropping. It is hurtful to pasturage. The wood is firm, tough, and white : women’s 
shoe heels, and packing boxes, are made of it. (In France it is generally used for making 
wooden shoes. E.) It is planted along with hazel to make charcoal for forges. In the 
northern parts of Lancashire, the slender twigs are formed into besoms for exportation. 
Penn. Tour. The leaves afford a yellow dye. The bark appears indestructible, (from its 
resinous quality,) and is extremely useful to the inhabitants of the north of Europe. In 
Kamscliatka hats and drinking cups are formed of it. The Swedish fishermen manufacture 
shoes of it. (Dr. Clarke assures us that in Lapland he found Birch bark among the miser¬ 
able ingredients of the household loaf. E.) The Norwegians cover their houses with it, 
and upon this cover they lay turf three or four inches thick. (That the bark is even more 
durable than the wood it invests, appears from the following singular fact stated by Mau- 
perluis, who, travelling in Lapland, found as many trees blown down as standing. On 
examining several, he was surprised to find that in such as had lain long, the substance of 
the wood was entirely gone, while the bark remained a hollow trunk without any signs of 
decay. E.) Torches are made of it? sliced and twisted together, it being highly 
inflammable. (In Northumberland, fishermen put this bituminous bark into a cleft stick, 
and lighting it, use it for fishing in the night, and spear the fish attracted by the light. 
The portable canoes of the North American Indians are commonly constructed with this 
material, and on the banks of the lakes of the north of Europe are produced those enor¬ 
mous Birch trees, the bark of a single one of which is sufficient to form a large canoe. E.) 
If a hole be bored into the tree when the sap rises in the spring, a sweet liquor distils from 
it, which, properly fermented, with the addition of sugar, makes a pleasant wine. (This 
process is performed in March, and four or five punctures may be made in a large tree, 
which has been ascertained to yield nearly its own weight of sap, and that without mate¬ 
rial injury. When the weather changes from warm to cold, Birch trees cease to bleed, 
and on returning warmth, begin again. The contrary obtains in Walnut* With these sweet 
