The birch is a tree of almost all countries. Excepting Africa, it is to be found in different forms throughout the globe, chiefly in mountainous situations, ascending to altitudes beyond the Scotch pine. In the north of Europe, and in America, its bark, which is much more indestructible than the wood, is used extensively in thatching houses; this roofing being overlaid with earth and cultivated. A decoction of the branches and leaves is employed in preparing Russia leather; and the Laplanders use a similar extract in tanning reindeer skins. Vinegar, oil, and wine are obtained of this tree; and, in times of scarcity, the natives of Kamtschatka peel off the inner cellular bark and mix it with oatmeal for food. To the Indians and Canadian hunters, the Betula papyracea affords the important material for forming canoes. In order to obtain the most suitable pieces of bark for this purpose, the largest trees are selected, and those which have the smoothest rind. In the spring-time, when the sap is ascending, two circular incisions are made on the trunk, several feet apart from each other, and a longitudinal one at each side of the tree, when the introduction of a thin piece of wood between the bark and the timber readily detaches the former. These pieces are stitched together with the fibrous roots of the white spruce, and the seams rendered water-tight by being coated over with the resin of the balm of Gilead fir. It is stated by Michaux that a canoe, which will carry four persons with their baggage, weighs only about forty-five pounds, so that it is easily transported on the shoulders from one lake to another. As its specific name implies, the bark of the last-mentioned species has been used for portfolios and manuscripts. The ancients, who split it into very thin leaves, used it for all the purposes of our writing paper; and, according to Pliny and Plutarch, the celebrated books which Numa Pompilius composed 700 years before Christ, and which were buried with him on Mount Janiculum, were written on the bark of this tree.

In the generality of seasons, the birch ripens its seeds about the end of September, when they ought to be carefully gathered, avoiding that process, too common amongst

seed collectors, of stripping the twigs of their leaves,destroying all that drapery with which those trees are so beauteously adorned. When collected, they should be spread thinly upon a loft, (being very subject to ferment when laid in heaps), and sown within the first fortnight of the ensuing April, on light moist soil, with little or no cover. A sandy peat bed is that which is most congenial to both varieties; but as this is rarely met with in our gardens, any damp soil may be appropriated for the purpose of growing them. In favourable seasons, the growth of one-year's seedlings will average four inches in length, and at two years of age, one foot, when they are considered fit to take their place in the forest, or wherever they are designed to remain. Amongst rank herbage, transplanted trees may be introduced; that is, those that have remained two years in the seed-bed and a like period in the nursery lines; for in such situations a tree with an indifferent root and stem is liable to be choked. It may be here remarked of the birch, that there is no tree which, when fairly started, will so completely overcome the evil effects of greensward, weeds, hardness of soil, or the usual results of negligence in rearing timber. This arises from an admirable provision of nature, in having formed its bark much harder, or at least more durable, than its wood. Here we have another proof that this tree was never intended to adorn our pleasure-grounds, but adapted to scenes visited but seldom, to which it would be inconvenient to repair often for the purpose of improving the soil. It is peculiarly, then, the tree of the waste and the desert, where it may be planted and left to contend successfully with all adverse circumstances.

In fine, we consider it to be one of the loveliest trees that we have; but by some it is absurdly despised because it is common. Its great merit is, that it will literally grow any where it is, therefore, melancholy to think that there should be still so many extensive tracts of waste land in our country, unadorned by such a desirable object. How is it, that those who live in mountainous dwellings, far away from the haunts of man and from society of any description, desire it not? It would add a great beauty to [No. IV.]

M

such habitations, affording shelter, fuel, &c.; and, what is of still greater consequence to those who live in sequestered places, it is a tree which affords food in autumn and winter to the siskin, linnet, and some other birds; so that it is admirably calculated to fill the waste and solitary places of our country with the best of songsters.

STRATTON PARK,

THE SEAT OF ROBERT MARSHAM, ESQ.

It is with a delightful feeling that we have to notice this eminent and interesting seat. It is one of nature's ancient dwelling-places, where she has long worn the garbs of settled majesty; a residence, too, associated with men who have been for many successive generations distinguished for planting and general improvement. Comparatively speaking, such names are but few in our country; but when found they fail not to awaken in the mind a high admiration of their character. They are linked to deeds which the multitude perhaps care little for, but which the wise and good appreciate as dispensing blessings of incalculable value.

There is a peculiar excellence about this place, which stamps it as differing from all others in this quarter, inasmuch as the trees with which it abounds are full-grown, perfect, and of great variety. In passing over many gentlemen's seats abounding with young and thriving trees,— the elements of sylvan greatness,-we have to regret that we cannot even now behold them in their manhood: we have to picture them to ourselves in the future; but here, the object Nature had in view in giving them a place in the economy of vegetation is completed, and no further beauty, unless that of decay, is expected of them. It is perfectly natural, we think, that we should thus betray some concern and anxiety to see that point which is considered mature in the destiny of an object which grows on through centuries, attaining its perfection only at such a distant date from the time of its planting; and especially of a thing that is so cast abroad on the open earth, without a protector, having to encounter the casualties of youth, the elements, and the other endless vicissitudes of lengthened years. Now the

trees are not only mature here, but, as we have stated, of a variety which will for a century at least sustain for this place the character of its being the Arboretum of Norfolk. The numerous and striking memorials of a correct and discriminating judgment, which we every where find in this park, are associated with the name of Robert Marsham, Esq. F.R.S., grandfather to the present proprietor, a gentleman who was particularly devoted to the study of trees, and who personally attended to the planting of this estate. Some proprietors might have had more trees planted on their lands, but we venture to assert that no individual in this county exercised such a careful superintendence over those matters, or displayed more taste in the varieties adopted. In this exalted line of life he has left behind him some glorious remains, to which we shall now more particularly allude.

The most noted relics of this description appear to be in the Reed-house Grove. Here there is a cedar of Lebanon (Pinus Cedrus), planted when one foot and a half high in 1747, now, in some respects at least, the handsomest tree of the species in the kingdom. Its stem is forty-four feet in height, free from branches, and measures, at two yards from the ground, twelve feet two inches in circumference. The height of this tree, which contains ten loads of timber, is seventy-nine feet. This specimen partakes in a considerable degree of the character of the Scotch pine, and from its appearance we should suppose that it must have been drawn up, or confined, by other trees when young, for in its natural state, when exposed freely to the air, the cedar throws out numerous lateral branches. At any rate, we consider this tree to display greater beauty than those of the same species growing in the Chelsea Botanic Garden and at the Duke of Northumberland's, Zion House, objects which have become celebrated all over England. The silver firs (Abies picea) are here in great perfection, one of them having attained to the extraordinary height of 105 feet, and girting at the bottom of the stem thirteen feet. Another measures eleven feet one inch around the trunk, and 104 feet in height. A spruce fir, again, (Abies excelsa) rises to