SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
21 
population and cast them as iron in a uniform mould. 
Let us first to the forest, where more than one 
tree awaits us in its wealth of flower. The delicate 
pendent catkins and silver bark of the birch will be 
certain to attract us, since it is one of the most grace¬ 
ful of trees. Our species is Betula alba, L., a tree 
known to reach, though rarely, the height of 80 feet, 
an inhabitant of Northern Europe, Asia, and North 
America. The bark is still used in tanning, while 
the wood is useful for many articles of carpentry; 
moreover, it exudes a fragrant oil, and a wine is made 
from its sugary juices. From it canoes have been 
made by native tribes, and its bark is used by them for 
cordage, matting, and roofing; while from the twigs 
beer is brewed, and the leaves form a substitute for 
tea. Its wood is used for sabots, its slender branches 
for brooms. As an instrument of punishment its 
fame is recorded by Shakespeare’s contemporaries : 
And now the burchin tree doth bud, that makes the school¬ 
boy cry. 
Beaumont and Fletcher : 
Knight of the Burning Pestle , IV. v. 
And, again, old Turner: “ Howbeit it serveth for 
many good uses, and for none better than for betynge 
of stubborn boys, that either lye or will not learn.” 
And so our poet himself: 
fond fathers, 
Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch, 
Only to stick it in their children’s sight 
For terror, not to use, in time the rod 
Becomes more mock’d than fear’d. 
Measure for Measure, I. iii. 23. 
Brooms, at this time made solely of its branches, 
are twice referred to : 
I am sent with broom before, 
To sweep the dust behind the door. 
Midsummer-Night's Dream, V. i. 396. 
