_Of the Birch._
1. The birch [_betula_, in British _bedw_, doubtless a proper indigene
of England, (whence some derive the name of Barkshire) though Pliny
calls it a Gaulish tree] is altogether produc’d of roots or suckers,
(though it sheds a kind of _samera_ about the Spring) which being
planted at four or five foot interval, in small twigs, will suddenly
rise to trees; provided they affect the ground, which cannot well be too
barren, or spongy; for it will thrive both in the dry, and the wet,
sand, and stony, marshes, and bogs; the water-galls, and uliginous parts
of forests that hardly bear any grass, do many times spontaneously
produce it in abundance, whether the place be high, or low, and nothing
comes amiss to it. Plant the small twigs, or suckers having roots, and
after the first year, cut them within an inch of the surface; this will
cause them to sprout in strong and lusty tufts, fit for copp’ce, and
spring-woods; or, by reducing them to one stem, render them in a very
few years fit for the turner. For
2. Though birch be of all other the worst of timber, yet has it its
various uses, as for the husbandman’s ox-yoaks; also for hoops, small
screws, paniers, brooms, wands, bavin-bands, and wythes for fagots; and
claims a memory for arrows, bolts, shafts, (our old English artillery;)
also for dishes, bowls, ladles, and other domestic utensils, in the good
old days of more simplicity, yet of better and truer hospitality. In
New-England our Northern Americans make canoos, boxes, buckets, kettles,
dishes, which they sow, and joyn very curiously with thread made of
cedar-roots, and divers other domestical utensils, as baskets, baggs,
with this tree, whereof they have a blacker kind; and out of a certain
excrescence from the bole, a _fungus_, which being boil’d, beaten, and
dry’d in an oven, makes excellent spunck or touch-wood, and balls to
play withal; and being reduc’d to powder, astringent, is an infallible
remedy in the hœmerhoids. They make also not only this small ware, but
even small-craft, pinnaces of birch, ribbing them with white cedar, and
covering them with large flakes of birch-bark, sow them with thread of
spruse-roots, and pitch them, as it seems we did even here in Britain,
as well as the Veneti, making use of the willow, whereof Lucan,
When Sicoris to his own banks restor’d,
Had quit the field, of twigs, and willow-board
They build small craft, cover’d with bullocks-hide,
In which they reach’d the rivers farther side:
So sail the Veneti if Padus flow,
The Britains sail on their rough ocean so.{142:1}
Also for fuel: In many of the mosses in the West-Riding of Yorkshire,
are often dug up birch-trees, that burn and flame like firr and
candle-wood; and I think Pliny says the Gaules extracted a sort of
bitumen out of birch: Great and small coal, are made by the charring of
this wood; (see Book III Chap. 4. of fuel) as of the tops and loppings,
Mr. Howard’s new tanne. The inner white cuticle and silken-bark, (which
strips off of it self almost yearly) was anciently us’d for
writing-tables, even before the invention of paper; of which there is a
birch-tree in Canada, whose bark will serve to write on, and may be made
into books, and of the twigs very pretty baskets; with the outward
thicker and courser part of the common birch, are divers houses in
Russia, Poland, and those poor northern tracts cover’d, instead of
slates and tyle: Nay, one who has lately publish’d an account of
Sweden,{142:2} says, that the poor people grind the very bark of
birch-trees, to mingle with their bread-corn. ’Tis affirm’d by Cardan,
that some birch-roots are so very extravagantly vein’d, as to represent
the shapes and images of beasts, birds, trees, and many other pretty
resemblances. Lastly, of the whitest part of the old wood, found
commonly in doating birches, is made the grounds of our effeminate
farin’d gallants sweet powder; and of the quite consum’d and rotten
(such as we find reduc’d to a kind of reddish earth in superannuated
hollow-trees) is gotten the best mould for the raising of divers
seedlings of the rarest plants and flowers; to say nothing here of the
magisterial _fasces_ for which anciently the cudgels were us’d by the
_lictor_, for lighter faults, as now the gentler rods by our tyrannical
pædagogues.
3. I should here add the uses of the water too, had I full permission to
tamper with all the medicinal virtues of trees: But if the sovereign
effects of the juice of this despicable tree supply its other defects
(which make some judge it unworthy to be brought into the catalogue of
woods to be propagated) I may perhaps for once, be permitted to play the
empiric, and to gratifie our laborious wood-man with a draught of his
own liquor; and the rather, because these kind of secrets are not yet
sufficiently cultivated; and ingenious planters would by all means be
encourag’d to make more trials of this nature, as the Indians and other
nations have done on their palmes; and trees of several kinds, to their
great emolument. The mystery is no more than this: About the beginning
of March (when the buds begin to be proud and turgid, and before they
explain into leaves) with a chizel and a mallet, cut a slit almost as
deep as the very pith, under some bough or branch of a well-spreading
birch; cut it oblique, and not long-ways (as a good chirurgion would
make his orifice in a vein) inserting a small stone or chip, to keep the
lips of the wound a little open. Sir Hugh Plat, (giving a general rule
for the gathering of sap, and tapping of trees) would have it done
within one foot of the ground, the first rind taken off, and then the
white bark slit over-thwart, no farther than to the body of the tree:
Moreover, that this wound be made only in that part of the bark which
respects the south-west, or between those quarters; because (says he)
little or no sap riseth from the northern, nor indeed when the east-wind
blows. In this slit, by the help of your knife to open it, he directs
that a leaf of the tree be inserted, first fitted to the dimensions of
the slit, from which the sap will distil in manner of filtration: Take
away the leaf, and the bark will close again, a little earth being
clapped to the slit. Thus the Knight for any tree. But we have already
shew’d how the birch is to be treated: Fasten therefore a bottle, or
some such convenient vessel appendant; this does the effect as well as
perforation or tapping: Out of this aperture will extil a limpid and
clear water, retaining an obscure smack both of the tast and odor of the
tree; and which (as I am credibly inform’d) will in the space of twelve
or fourteen days, preponderate, and out-weigh the whole tree it self,
body and roots; which if it be constant, and so happen likewise in other
trees, is not only stupendous, but an experiment worthy the
consideration of our profoundest philosophers: _An ex sola aqua fiunt
arbores?_ whether water only be the principle of vegetables, and
consequently of trees: I say, I am credibly inform’d; and therefore the
late unhappy{144:1} angry-man might have spar’d his animadversion: For
he that said but twenty gallons run, does he know how many more might
have been gotten out of larger apertures, at the insertion of every
branch, and foot in the principal roots during the whole season? But I
conceive I have good authority for my assertion, out of the author cited
in the margin, whose words are these: _Si mense Martio perforaveris
betulam, &c. exstillabit aqua limpida, clara, & pura, obscurum arboris
saporem & odorem referens, quæ spatio 12 aut 14 dierum, præponderabit
arbori cum ramis & radicibus, &c._ His exceptions about the beginning of
March are very insignificant; since I undertake not punctuality of time;
and his own pretended experience shew’d him, that in hard weather it did
not run till the expiration of the month, or beginning of April; and
another time on the tenth of February; and usually he says, about the
twenty-fourth day, &c. at such uncertainty: What immane difference then
is there between the twenty-fourth of Feb. and commencement of March?
Besides, these anomolous bleedings, (even of the same tree) happen early
or later, according to the temper of the air and weather. In the mean
time, evident it is, that we know of no tree which does more copiously
attract, be it that so much celebrated spirit of the world, (as they
call it) in form of water (as some) or a certain specifique liquor
richly impregnated with this balsamical property: That there is such a
_magnes_ in this simple tree, as does manifestly draw to it self some
occult and wonderful virtue, is notorious; nor is it conceivable,
indeed, the difference between the efficacy of that liquor which distils
from the bole, or parts of the tree nearer to the root (where Sir Hugh
would celebrate the incision) and that which weeps out from the more
sublime branches, more impregnated with this astral vertue, as not so
near the root, which seems to attract rather a cruder, and more common
water, through fewer strainers, and neither so pure, and aerial as in
those refined percolations, the nature of the places where these trees
delight to grow (for the most part lofty, dry, and barren) consider’d.
But I refer these disquisitions to the learned; especially, as mentioned
by that incomparable philosopher, and my most noble friend, the
Honourable Mr. Boyle, in his second part of the _Usefulness of Natural
Philosophy_, Sect. 1. Essay 3_d._ where he speaks of the _manna del
corpo_, or trunk-manna, as well as of that liquor from the bough; also
of the _sura_ which the coco-trees afford; and that Polonian secret of
the liquor of the walnut-tree root; with an encouragement of more
frequent experiments to educe saccharine substances upon these
occasions: But the book being publish’d so long since this _Discourse_
was first printed, I take only here the liberty to refer the reader to
one of the best entertainments in the world.
But now before we expatiate farther concerning saps; it is by some
controverted, whether this exhaustion would not be an extreme detriment
to the growth, substance, and other parts of trees: As to the growth and
bulk, if what I have observ’d of a birch, which has for very many years
been perforated at the usual season, (besides the scars made in the
bark) it still thrives, and is grown to a prodigious substance, the
species consider’d. What it would effect in other trees (the vine
excepted unseasonably launc’d) I know not: But this calls to mind, a
tryal of Esq; Brotherton, (mentioning some excortications and incisions,
by what he observ’d in pruning,) that most (if not all) of the sap
ascends by the lignous part of trees, not the cortical; nor between the
cortical and lignous: And that the increase of a tree’s growth in
thickness, is by the descent of the sap, and not by the ascent; so as if
there were no descent, the tree would increase very little, if at all;
for that there is a perpetual circulation of the sap, during the whole
Summer; and whilst it is in this course, and not a descent at Michaelmas
only, as some hold, but evaporated by the branches, during Summer and
Autumn, and at Spring supplied with rains. He also thinks it probable,
that the bodies of plants, as well as those of animals, are nourish’d
and increas’d by a double _pabulum_ or food; as water and air both
impregnated, mixing and coalescing by a mutual conversion.
That all plants and animals seem to have a two-fold kind of roots, one
spreading into the earth, the other shooting up into the air; which, as
they receive and carry up their proper nutriments to the body of the
plant and root, so they carry off the useless dregs and recrements, &c.
But this curious note seeming fitter to have been plac’d in our chapter
of Pruning, (upon which this learned gentleman has given us his
experience) I beg pardon for this diverticle, and return to my subject.
4. But whilst the second edition was under my hand, there came to me
divers papers upon this subject, experimentally made by a worthy friend
of mine, a learned and most industrious person, which I had here once
resolv’d to have publish’d, according to the generous liberty granted me
for so doing; but understanding he was still in pursuit of that useful,
and curious secret, I chang’d my resolution into an earnest address,
that he would communicate it to the world himself, together with those
other excellent enquiries and observations, which he is adorning for the
benefit of planters, and such as delight themselves in those innocent
rusticities. I will only by way of corollary, hint some particulars for
satisfaction of the curious; and especially that we may in some sort
gratifie those earnest suggestions and queries of the late most
obliging{148:1} publisher of the _Philosophical Transactions_, to whose
indefatigable pains the learned world has been infinitely engag’d. In
compliance therefore to his _Queries_, Monday, Octob. 19. 1668. numb.
40. p. 797, 801, &c. these generals are submitted: That in such trials
as my friend essay’d, he has not yet encountred with any sap but what is
very clear and sweet; especially that of the sycomor, which has a
dulcoration as if mixed with sugar, and that it runs one of the
earliest: That the maple distill’d when quite rescinded from the body,
and even whilst he yet held it in his hand: That the sycomor ran at the
root, which some days before yielded no sap from his branches; the
experiment made at the end of March: But the accurate knowledge of the
nature of sap, and its periodic motions and properties in several trees,
should be observed by some at entire leisure to attend it daily, and
almost continually, and will require more than any one person’s industry
can afford: For it must be enquir’d concerning every tree, its age,
soil, situation, &c. the variety of its ascending sap depending on it;
and then of its sap ascending in the branches and roots; descending in
cut branches; ascending from root, and not from branches; the seasons
and difference of time in which those accidents happen, &c. He likewise
thinks the best expedient to procure store of liquor, is, to cut the
trees almost quite through all the circles, on both sides the pith,
leaving only the outmost circle, and the barks on the north, or
north-east side unpierced; and this hole, the larger it is bored, the
more plentifully ’twill distill; which if it be under, and through a
large arm, near the ground, it is effected with greatest advantage, and
will need neither stone, nor chip to keep it open, nor spigot to direct
it to the recipient. Thus it will, in a short time, afford liquor
sufficient to brew with; and in some of these sweet saps, one bushel of
mault will afford as good ale, as four in ordinary waters, even in March
it self; in others, as good as two bushels; for this, preferring the
sycomor before any other: But to preserve it in best condition for
brewing, till you are stored with a sufficient quantity, it is advis’d,
that what first runs, be insolated and placed in the sun, till the
remainder be prepar’d, to prevent its growing sour: But it may also be
fermented alone, by such as have the secret: To the curious these essays
are recommended: That it be immediately stopp’d up in the bottles in
which it is gathered, the corks well wax’d, and expos’d to the sun, till
(as was said) sufficient quantity be run; then let so much rye-bread
(toasted very dry, but not burnt) be put into it, as will serve to set
it a working; and when it begins to ferment, take it out, and bottle it
immediately. If you add a few cloves, &c. to steep in it, ’twill
certainly keep the year about: ’Tis a wonder how speedily it extracts
the tast and tincture of the spice. Mr. Boyle proposes a sulphurous fume
to the bottles: Spirit of wine may haply not only preserve, but advance
the virtues of saps; and infusions of rasins are obvious, and without
decoction best, which does but spend the more delicate parts. Note,
that the sap of the birch, will make excellent mead.
5. To these observations, that of the weight and virtue of the several
juices, would be both useful and curious: As whether that which proceeds
from the bark, or between that and the wood be of the same nature with
that which is suposed to spring from the pores of the woody circles? and
whether it rise in like quantity, upon comparing the incisures? All
which may be try’d, first attempting through the bark, and saving that
apart, and then perforating into the wood, to the thickness of the bark,
or more; with a like separation of what distills. The period also of its
current would be calculated; as how much proceeds from the bark in one
hour, how much from the wood or body of the tree, and thus every hour,
with still a deeper incision, with a good large augre, till the tree be
quite perforated: Then by making a second hole within the first, fitted
with a lesser pipe, the interior heart-sap may be drawn apart, and
examin’d by weight, quantity, colour, distillation, &c. and if no
difference perceptible be detected the presumption will be greater, that
the difference of heart and sap in timber, is not from the saps plenty
or penury, but the season; and then possibly, the very season of
squaring, as well as felling of timber, may be considerable to the
preservation of it.
6. The notice likewise of the saps rising more plentifully, and
constantly in the sun, than shade; more in the day than night, more in
the roots than branch, more southward, and when that, and the west-wind
blows, than northward, &c. may yield many useful observations: As for
planting, to set thicker, or thinner (_si cœtera sint paria_) namely,
the nature of the tree, soil, &c. and not to shade overmuch the roots
of those stems we desire should mount, &c. That in transplanting trees
we turn the best and largest roots towards the south, and consequently
the most ample and spreading part of the head correspondent to the
roots: For if there be a strong root on that quarter, and but a feeble
attraction in the branches, this may not always counterpoise the weak
roots on the north-side, damnified by the too puissant attraction of
over large branches: This may also suggest a cause why trees flourish
more on the south-side, and have their integument and coats thicker on
those aspects annually, with divers other useful speculations, if in the
mean time, they seem not rather to be _puntillos_ over nice for a plain
forester. Let the curious further consult _Philos. Transactions_, numb.
43, 44, 46, 48, 57, 58, 68, 70, 71. for farther instances and tryals,
upon this subject of sap. And that excellent treatise of Hen. Meibomius.
_De Cervisiis Potibusque; & Ebriaminibus extra Vinum_, annext to
_Turnebus de Vino_, &c. Where he shews how, and by whom, (after the
first use of water and milk) were introduc’d the drinks made from
vegetables, vines, corn, and other fruits and juices tapp’d out of
trees, &c.
7. To shew our reader yet, that these are no novel experiments, we are
to know, that a large tract of the world, almost altogether subsists on
these treen liquors; especially that of the date, which being grown to
about seven or eight foot in height, they wound, as we have taught, for
the sap, which they call toddy, a very famous drink in the East-Indies.
This tree increasing every year about a foot, near the opposite part of
the first incisure, they pierce again, changing the receiver; and so
still by opposite wounds and notches, they yearly draw forth the
liquor, till it arrive to near thirty foot upward, and of these they
have ample groves and plantations which they set at seven or eight foot
distance: But then they use to percolate what they extract, through a
stratum made of the rind of the tree, well contus’d and beaten, before
which preparation, it is not safe to drink it; and ’tis observed that
some trees afford a much more generous wine than others of the same
kind. In the coco and palmeto trees, they chop a bough, as we do the
_bétula_; but in the date, make the incision with a chisel in the body
very neatly, in which they stick a leaf of the tree, as a _lingula_ to
direct it into the appendant vessel, which the subjoin’d figure
represents, and illustrates with its improvement to our former
discourse.
Note, if there be no fitting arms, the hole thus obliquely perforated,
and a faucet or pipe made of a swan’s or goose’s quill inserted, will
lead the sap into the recipient; and this is a very neat way, and as
effectual: I would also have it try’d, whether the very top twigs,
grasped in the hand together, a little cropt with a knife, and put into
the mouth of a bottle, would not instil, if not as much, yet a more
refined liquor, as some pretend.
8. The liquor of the birch is esteemed to have all the virtues of the
spirit of salt, without the danger of its acrimony; most powerful for
the dissolving of the stone in the bladder, bloody water and strangury:
Helmont shews how to make a beer of the water; but the wine is a most
rich cordial, curing (as I am told) consumptions, and such interior
diseases as accompany the stone in the bladder or reins{152:1}: The
juice decocted with honey and wine, Dr. Needham affirms he has often
cur’d the scorbut with. This wine, exquisitely made, is so strong, that
the common sort of stone-bottles cannot preserve the spirits, so subtile
they are and volatile; and yet it is gentle, and very harmless in
operation within the body, and exceedingly sharpens the appetite, being
drunk _ante pastum_: I will present you a receipt, as it was sent me by
a fair lady, and have often, and still use it.
{Illustration: (a. b.) The _Body_ of the _Tree_ (g.) boar’d at that part
of the _Arm_ (f.) join’d to the _Stem_, with an Augre of an _Inch_ or
more _diameter_, according to the bigness of the _Tree_. (c.) A part of
the _Bark_, or if you will, a _Faucet_ of _Quill_ bent down into the
Mouth of the _Bottle_ (e.) to conduct the _Liqour_ into it. (d.) The
_String_ about the _Arm_ (f.) by which the _Bottle_ hangs.}
9. To every gallon of birch-water put a quart of honey, well stirr’d
together; then boil it almost an hour with a few cloves, and a little
limon-peel, keeping it well scumm’d: When it is sufficiently boil’d, and
become cold, add to it three or four spoonfuls of good ale to make it
work (which it will do like new ale) and when the yest begins to settle,
bottle it up as you do other winy liquors. It will in a competent time
become a most brisk and spiritous drink, which (besides the former
virtues) is a very powerful opener, and doing wonders for cure of the
phthysick: This wine may (if you please) be made as successfully with
sugar, instead of honey 1 _lb._ to each gallon of water; or you may
dulcifie it with raisins, and compose a raisin-wine of it. I know not
whether the quantity of the sweet ingredients might not be somewhat
reduc’d, and the operation improv’d: But I give it as receiv’d. The
author of the _Vinetum Brit._ boils it but to a quarter or half an hour,
then setting it a cooling, adds a very little yest to ferment and purge
it; and so barrels it with a small proportion of cinamon and mace
bruis’d, about half an ounce of both to ten gallons, close stopp’d, and
to be bottled a month after. Care must be taken to set the bottles in a
very cool place, to preserve them from flying; and the wine is rather
for present drinking, than of long duration, unless the refrigeratorie
be extraordinarily cold. The very smell of the first springing leaves of
this tree, wonderfully recreates and exhilerates the spirits.
10. But besides these, beech, alder, ash, sycomor, elder, &c. would be
attempted for liquors: Thus crabs, and even our very brambles may
possibly yield us medical and useful wines. The poplar was heretofore
esteem’d more physical than the _betula_. The sap of the oak, juice, or
decoction of the inner bark, cures the fashions, or farcy, a virulent
and dangerous infirmity in horses, and which (like cancers) were reputed
incurable by any other topic, than some actual, or potential cautery:
But, what is more noble, a dear friend of mine assur’d me, that a
countrey neighbour of his (at least fourscore years of age) who had lain
sick of a bloody strangury (which by cruel torments reduc’d him to the
very article of death) was, under God, recover’d to perfect, and almost
miraculous health and strength (so as to be able to fall stoutly to his
labour) by one sole draught of beer, wherein was the decoction of the
internal bark of the oak-tree; and I have seen a composition of an
admirable sudorific, and diuretic for all affections of the liver, out
of the like of the elm, which might yet be drunk daily, as our coffee
is, and with no less delight: But quacking is not my trade; I speak only
here as a plain husband-man, and a simple forester, out of the limits
whereof, I hope I have not unpardonably transgressed: Pan was a
physician, and he (you know) was president of the woods. But I proceed
to the alder.
FOOTNOTES:
{142:1}
Primum cana salix madefacto vimine, parvam
Texitur in puppim, cæsoque induta juvenco,
Vectoris patiens, tumidum super emicat amnem.
Sic Venetus stagnante Pado, fusoque Britannus
Navigat oceano.......
{142:2} See _Philos. Transact._ Vol. 9. num. 105. p. 93.
{144:1} Dr. Stubb. See the tractate intitled, _Aditus novus ad occultas
sympathiæ & antipathiæ causas inveniendas, per principia philosophiæ
naturalis, & fermentorum artificiosâ anatomiâ hausta, patefactas_, à
Silvestro Rattray, M.D. Glasquensi, 1658. p. 55.
{148:1} Mr. Oldenburg.
{152:1} _De Lithiasi_, c. 8. n. 24, 25, &c.