OF FOREST-TREES. 79

Also for Fuel: In many of the Mojses in the IVeft-Riding of Tork- Ch.XVH.Jhire , are often dug up Birch-trees , that bum and flame like Fir and ^sphiu/^ij.Candle-wood] and I think Pliny says, the Gauls extracted a fort of Trans. Vol.Bitumen out of Birch. Great and Small Coal are made by the Char- lx -^ umCY -ring of this Wood (fee Book iii. Chap. iv. of Fuel ) as of the Tops pand Loppings, Mr. Howard’s new Tanne. The inner white Cuticleand Jilken Bark (which strips off of it self almost yearly) was an-tiently used for Writing-Tables, even before the Invention of Paper ;of which there is a Birch-tree in Canada, whose Bark will serve towrite on, and may be made into Books , and of the Twigs very prettyBaskets ; with the outward thicker and coarser Part of the commonBirch, are divers Houses in RuJJia, Poland , and those poor NorthernTracts covered, instead of Slates and Tile : Nay, one who has latelypublished an Account of Sweden,. fays, that the poor People grind thevery Bark of Birch-trees , to mingle with their Bread-Corn. Tis af-firmed by Cardan , that some Birch-roots are so very extravagantlyveined,zs to represent the Shapes and Images of Beasts, Birds,Trees, andmany other pretty Resemblances. Lastly, of the whitejt Part ol theold Wood, found commonly in doating Birches, is made the Groundsof our effeminate farined Gallants Sweet ‘Powder , and of the quiteconfumed and rotten (such as we find reduced to a Kind of reddishEarth in superannuated hollow Trees) is gotten the best Mould for theraising of divers Seedlings of the rarest Plants and Flowers-, to faynothing here of the Magisterial Fasces , for which anciently the Cud-gels were used by the Li Et or for lighter Faults, as now the gentlerRods by our Tyrannical P pedagogues.

3 . I should here add the ‘V/es of the Water too, had I full Permif-tT s e s.sion to tamper with all the Medicinal Virtues of Trees: But if the fo-veraign Effects of the Juice of this despicable Tree supply its otherDefects (which make some judge it unworthy to be brought into theCatalogue of Woods to be propagated) I may perhaps, for once , be per-mitted to play the Empiric, and to gratifie our laborious Wood-manwith a Draught of his own Liquor ; and the rather, because these Kindof Secrets are not yet sufficiently cultivated ; and ingenious Planterswould by all means be encouraged to make more Trials of this Na-ture, as the Indians and other Nations have done on their Palms, andTrees of several Kinds, to their great Emolument. The Mystery is nomore than this : About the Beginning of March (when the Buds be-gin to be proud and turgid, and before they explain into Leaves ) witha Chizel and a Mallet, cut a Slit almost as deep as the very Pith, un-der some Bough or Branch of a well-fpreading Birch ; cut it oblique , andnot long-ways (as a good Chirurgeon would make his Orifice in a Vein)inserting a small Stone or Chip, to keep the Lips of the Wound a littleopen. 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 flit over-thwart, nofarther than to the Body of the Tree: Moreover, that this Wound bemade only in that Part of the Bark which respects the South-West, orbetween those Quarters; because, says he, little or no Sap rifeth fromthe 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 theTree be inserted, first fitted to the Dimensions of the Slit, from whichthe Sap will distil in manner of Filtration. Take away the Leaf andi the