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Birch. (Betula). A genus of trees, order Betulaceae, comprising only the birches and alders, which inhabit Europe, northern Asia, and North America. The common birch is indigenous throughout the north, and on high situations in the south of Europe. It is extremely hardy, and only one or two other species of trees approach so near to the north pole. Betula alba is a European variety, the oil of which is used in dressing Russia leather and imparts a pleasant odor to it. The wood of the birch, which is light in color, and firm and tough in texture, is used for chairs, tables, bedsteads, and the woodwork of furniture generally, also for fish cases and hoops, and for smoking harns and herrings, as well as for many small articles. In France wooden shoes are made of it. The bark is whitish, yellowish, or brown in color, smooth and shining, separable in thin sheets or layers. Fishing nets and sails are steeped with it to preserve them. In some countries it is made into hats, shoes, boxes, etc. In Lapland bread has been made from it. The dwarf birch, Betula nana, a low shrub, two or three feet high at most, is a native of all the most northerly regions. Betula lenta, the cherry birch of America, and the black birch, Betula nigra, of the same country, produce valuable timber, as do other American species. The largest of these is the yellow birch, Betula lutea, which attains the height of eighty feet. It is named from its bark being of a rich yellow color. The paper birch of America, Betula papyracea, has a bark that may be readily divided into thin sheets almost like paper. From it the Indian bark canoes are made.

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