Online Encyclopedia

BIRCH (Betula)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 959 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

BIRCH (Betula)  , a genus of
See also:
plants allied to the
See also:
alder (Alnus), and like it a member of the natural order Betulaceae . The various
See also:
species of,birch are mostly trees of
See also:
medium
See also:
size, but several of them are merely shrubs . They are as a
See also:
rule of a very hardy character, thriving best in
See also:
northern latitudes—the trees having round, slender branches, and serrate, deciduous leaves, with barren and fertile catkins on the same tree, and winged fruits, the so-called seeds . The bark in most of the trees occurs in
See also:
fine soft membranous layers, the
See also:
outer cuticle of which peels off in thin, white, papery sheets . The
See also:
common white or
See also:
silver birch (B.
See also:
alba) (see fig.) grows throughout the greater
See also:
part of
See also:
Europe, and also in
See also:
Asia Minor,
See also:
Siberia and North
See also:
America, reaching in the north to the extreme limits of
See also:
forest vege- tation, and stretching southward on the
See also:
European continent as a forest tree to 450 N.
See also:
lat., beyond which birches occur only in
See also:
special situations or as isolated trees . It is well known in England for its graceful habit, the slender, grey—or white—barked stem, the delicate, drooping branches and the quivering leaves, a bright, clear green in s p r i n g, becoming duller in the summer, but often keeping their greenness rather
See also:
late into the autumn . The male and
See also:
female flowers are borne on
See also:
separate catkins in
See also:
April and May . It is a short-lived tree, generally from 40 to 50 ft . high with a trunk seldom more than 1 ft. in diameter . It flourishes in
See also:
light soils and is one of the few trees that will grow amongst heather; owing to the large number of " winged seeds " which are readily scattered by the wind, it spreads rapidly, springing up where the
See also:
soil is dry and covering clearings or waste places . The birch is one of the most wide-spread and generally useful of forest trees of Russia, occurring in that
See also:
empire in vast forests, in many instances alone, and in other cases mingled with pines, poplars and other forest trees . The wood is highly valued by
See also:
carriage-builders, upholsterers and turners, on account of its toughness and tenacity, and in Russia it is prized as firewood and a source of
See also:
charcoal .

A very extensive domestic

industry in Russia consists in the manufacture of wooden spoons, which are made to the extent of 30,000,000 annually, mostly of birch . Its pliant and flexible branches are made into brooms; and in ancient Rome the
See also:
fasces of the Iictors, with which they cleared the way for the magistrates, were made up of birch rods . A similar use of birch rods has continued among pedagogues to times so
See also:
recent that the birch is yet, literally or metaphorically, the instrument of school-
See also:
room discipline . The bark of the common birch is much more durable, and industrially of greater From Strasburger, Lehrbuch der Botanik . Betula alba . 1, Branch with male (a) and female (b) inflorescences; 2, bract with three male flowers; 3, bract with three female flowers; 4, infrutescence; 5, fruit . (After Wossidlo.) value, than the wood . It is impermeable to
See also:
water, and is there-fore used in northern countries for roofing, for domestic utensils, for boxes and jars to contain both solid and liquid substances, and for a kind of bark shoes, of which it is estimated 25 millions of pairs are annually worn by the
See also:
Russian peasantry . The jars and boxes of birch bark made by Russian peasants are often stamped with very effective patterns . By dry distillation the bark yields an empyreumatic oil, called diogott in Russia, used in the preparation of Russia leather; to this oil the
See also:
peculiar pleasant odour of the leather is due . The bark itself is used in tanning; and by the Samoiedes and Kamchatkans it is ground up and eaten on account of the starchy
See also:
matter it contains . A sugary
See also:
sap is
See also:
drawn from the trunk in the spring before the opening of the leaf-buds, and is fermented into a kind of
See also:
beer and
See also:
vinegar .

The whole tree, but especially the bark and leaves, has a very pleasant resinous odour, and from the

young leaves and buds an essential oil is distilled with water . The leaves are used as
See also:
fodder in northern latitudes . The species which belong peculiarly to America (B. lenta, excelsa, nigra, papyracea, &c.) are generally similar in appearance and properties to B. alba, and have the same range of applications . The largest and most valuable is the black birch (B. lenta) found abundantly over an extensive
See also:
area in
See also:
British North America, growing 6o to 70 ft. high and 2 to 3 ft. in diameter . It is a wood most extensively used for furniture and for carriage-
See also:
building, being tough in texture and bearing shocks well, while much of it has a handsome grain and it is susceptible of a fine
See also:
polish . The bark, which is dark brown or reddish, and very durable, is used by Indians and backwoodsmen in the same way as the bark of B. alba is used in northern Europe . The canoe or paper birch (B. papyracea) is found as far north as 70° N. on the
See also:
American continent, but it becomes rare and stunted in the Arctic circle . Professor Charles Sprague Sargent says: " It is one of the most widely distributed trees of North America . From Labrador it ranges to the
See also:
southern shores of Hudson's
See also:
Bay and to those of the
See also:
Great Bear Lake, and to the valley of the
See also:
Yukon and the coast of
See also:
Alaska, forming with the
See also:
aspen, the larch, the balsam poplar, the banksian pine, the black and white spruces and the balsam
See also:
fir, the great subarctic transcontinental forest; and southward it ranges through all the forest region of the Dominion of
See also:
Canada and the northern states." It is a tree of the greatest value to the inhabitants of the Mackenzie
See also:
river
See also:
district in British North America . Its bark is used for the construction of canoes, and for drinking-cups, dishes and baskets . From the wood, platters, axe-handles, snow-shoe frames, and
See also:
dog sledges are made, and it is worked into articles of furniture which are susceptible of a good polish . The sap which flows in the spring is drawn off and boiled down to an agreeable spirit, or fermented with a birch-wine of consider-able alcoholic strength .

The bark is also used as a substitute for paper . A species (B . Bhojputtra) growing on the Himalayan Mountains, as high up as 9000 ft., yields large quantities of fine thin papery bark, extensively sent down to the plains as a substitute for wrapping paper, for covering the "

See also:
snakes " of hookahs and for umbrellas . It is also said to be used as writing paper by the mountaineers; and in Kashmir it is in general use for roofing houses .

End of Article: BIRCH (Betula)
[back]
BIRCH
[next]
SAMUEL BIRCH (1813–1885)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.