The Probert Encyclopaedia of Nature

BIRCH

The birch (Betula) is a genus of trees of the order Betulaceae, which comprises only the birches and alders, which inhabit Europe, Northern Asia, and North America. The common birch is indigenous throughout the north, and on high situations in the south of Europe. It is extremely hardy, and only one or two other species of trees approach so near to the north pole.

There are two varieties natives of Britain, Betula alba, and Betula alba pendula, or weeping-birch, the latter a very beautiful tree. The wood of the birch, which is light in colour, and firm and tough in texture, is used for chairs, tables, bedsteads, and the woodwork of furniture generally, also for fish-casks and hoops, and for smoking hams and herrings, as well as for many small articles. In France wooden shoes are made of it.

The bark is whitish in colour, smooth and shining, separable in thin sheets or layers. Fishing-nets and sails were formerly steeped with it to preserve them. In some countries it was made into hats, shoes, boxes, etc. In Russia the oil extracted from it was used in the preparation of Russian leather, and imparted the well-known scent to it. In Lapland bread has been made from it. The sap, from the amount of sugar it contains, affords a kind of agreeable wine, which is produced by the tree being tapped during warm weather in the end of spring or beginning of summer, when the sap runs most copiously.

The dwarf birch, Betula nana, a low shrub, two or three feet high at most, is a native of all the most northerly regions. Betula lenta, the cherry-birch of America, and the black birch
(Betula nigra) of the same country, produce valuable timber, as do other American species. The largest of these is the yellow birch (Betula lutea or excelsa) which attains the height of 80 feet. It is named from its bark being of a rich yellow colour. The paper birch of America (Betula. papyracea) has a bark that may be readily divided into thin sheets almost like paper. From it the Indian bark canoes are made.
Research Birch