and as the wood takes a high polish, it is highly valued in Siberia for work-boxes, cigarette cases, and other small fancy articles.
In northern Sweden and Russia the wood is sometimes found full of undula- tions, which make it very ornamental for furniture, and some bedroom furniture made by the Nordiska Kompaniet (Lundberg and Laja) of Stockholm, was almost equal in beauty to satinwood. I have also seen it used as veneer with the best effect for decorating cabins in steamers built in Denmark and Sweden. This is known in Sweden as “Flammig björk.” Another curious form of birch wood is that known in Finland and Sweden as “Masur.” I was informed by Mr. Jacobssen, Swedish Vice-Consul at Äbo, that this variety in Finland is only found in certain places, Karku, Tyrois, and Kalvola. A number of logs which I saw in the works of the Finska Colorit Aktiebolag at Abo were covered on the outside with small pitted depressions, somewhat similar to those which produce bird’s-eye maple, and when cut into veneer, are dyed of various colours, of which French grey seemed to me the most effective ; and made up into furniture which commands a high price.
At St. Petersburg this form of birchwood is known as “Karelsky,” being supposed to come from the Karelian peninsula; and is largely used both in the solid and as veneer for furniture making. Though not so elegant as the waved form, or as the bird’s-eye maple which it somewhat resembles, it is very quaint and striking in appearance, and can be imported at very reasonable prices.
The bark,’ when taken off in sheets, is used in Scandinavia for covering the roofs of houses, and remains for many years undecayed between the inner boarding and the outer sod of turf. A strong smelling oil, obtained by destructive distillation from birch wood, is, when mixed with alcohol and rubbed on the skin, the best protection I know of against the swarms of midges and mosquitoes which make life almost unbearable in the short summer of the far north. This oil is used as a preservative, and gives the fragrant odour to Russia leather. Birch bark has no equal for lighting fires, and in the dripping forests of the north I have often had good reason to value it when nothing else would start a fire. (H.J.E.)
BETULA DAVURICA
- Betula davurica, Pallas, Fl. Ross, i. 60, t. 39 (1784); Winkler, Betulaceæ, 86 (1904).
- Betula Maximowiczii, Ruprecht, in Bull. Phys. Math. Acad. Pétersb. xv. 139 (1856) (not Regel).
- Betula Maackii, Ruprecht, in Bull. Phys. Math. Acad. Pétersb. xvi. 380 (1857).
A tree, attaining 60 or 70 feet in height. Bark purplish brown, separating in small, papery scales, which remain attached, curled and ragged, to the trunk, giving the tree a peculiar appearance. Young branchlets glandular, covered with a minute erect pubescence, interspersed with a few long hairs. Leaves, about 3 inches long and 14 to 2 inches wide, narrowly ovate or ovate-rhombic, cuneate at the base,
1 Pyrobetulin, obtained by sublimation from the outer bark of birch, is used for depositing films on glass, about to be
engraved, and for covering lint with an antiseptic layer. Cf. Wheeler, in Pharm. Journ. ix. 494 (1899).
