250 
TETRANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Myrica. 
Dwarf Birch. Mountains and wet heaths in Scotland. S. May.* * 
MYRI'CA.f Flowers in catkins, on different plants. Cal. 
two-leaved : Bloss . none. 
Fert. FI. Drupa one-celled, superior : seed one. 
M. ga'le. Leaves spear-shaped, slightly serrated; stem shrubby. 
( E. Bot. 562. E.)— Kniph. 9— FI. Ban. 327—Ger. 1228 —Gars. 397— Bod. 
780. 2— Ger. Em. 1414— J. B. i. b. 225— Lob. Adv. 417, Ic. ii. 110. 2— 
Lob. Obs. 547. 2—Park. 1451. 5. 
Stems (a few feet high. E.) smooth, rust-coloured, sprinkled with white 
dots. Flower-buds above the leaf-buds, at the ends of the branches, 
whence, as soon as the fructification is completed, the end of the branch 
dies, the leaf-buds which are on the sides shoot out, and the stem be¬ 
comes compound. Buds composed of nine leafy, shining scales; the first 
nearly opposite, very short, rectangularly pointed; the rest egg-shaped, 
blunt. Leaves convoluted, sprinkled with resinous points, serrated 
towards the end, on leaf-stalks, (emitting a fragrant odour, as do the cat¬ 
kins, especially when rubbed. E.) Flowers appearing before the leaves. 
Fertile spike oblong, composed of five rows, and in each row five berries. 
Berries thick, rather globose, angular, taper-pointed, with three shallow 
clefts, a small tooth being fixed to each, sprinkled with golden resinous 
dots. Linn. Catkins barren and fertile on the same plant. In other spe¬ 
cimens from the same spot, catkins on distinct plants. St. Sometimes I 
have found a few fertile florets upon the barren catkins. 
Sweet Gale. Dutch Myrtle. (Welsh: Madywydd; Gwyrddling. 
Gaelic: Roid. E.) On bogs in gravelly soil, not unfrequent, and gene¬ 
rally in large quantity. (In Moreton Moors, three miles from Blymhill, 
Shropshire. Rev. S. Dickenson. Harwoodale Moors, near Scarborough. 
Mr. Travis. E.) Highlands of Scotland. Near Rufus’s Monument in 
the New Forest. (At Swan Pool, near Falmouth; and near the coal pits 
on Bovey Heath-field, Devon. Rev. Pike Jones. On moors, near Har- 
bottle, Northumberland. Common about the lakes of Westmoreland and 
Cumberland. Mr. Winch. Marsh, Gulval, and Ludgvan, Cornwall. Dr. 
Forbes. Abundant on the moors in Carmarthenshire, particularly about 
Llyn Idwell and Llyn Ogwen, between Capel Curig and Bangor. E.) 
S. May .J 
woods with rich varieties of harmoniously blended hues, and allures the contemplative mind 
by its transitory beauty, to regard with attention the most solemn of moral warnings.” 
Bot. Theol. E.) 
* Linnaeus observes that those plants which chiefly grow upon mountains, are rarely 
found any where else but in marshes : probably because the clouds resting upon the tops of 
the mountains keep the air in a moist state, as do fogs, the clouds of the lower atmosphere, 
in meadows and marshes. The leaves dye a finer yellow than that yielded by B. alba. It 
affords the humble Laplander in the summer, when he lives on the mountains, fuel for the 
fires which he is obliged constantly to keep in his hut to defend him from the gnats ; and, 
covered with the skin of the rein deer, it forms his bed. Linn. (The harness for horses 
in some parts of the Highlands of Scotland is made of the twisted twigs of Birch. Garnett’s 
Tour. E.) 
*f* (From juvpov, sweet ointment; in reference to its fragrance. E.) 
$ (The plant very fragrant, but the leaves bitter: they are, however, in France, dried 
and powdered to be used for spice. The northern nations formerly used it instead of hops; 
but unless it be boiled a long time it is apt to occasion head-ache. The catkins boiled in 
water throw up a waxy scum, which, gathered in sufficient quantity, would make candles. 
From another species of this plant, M. cerifera , (Candle-berry tree of North America; E.) 
the myrtle candles are prepared. (And M> cordifolia produces a kind of wax, which. 
