Inseparably associated as the birch is with Scottish landscape, poets and painters have never wearied of honouring it. The late David MacWhirter got its beauty rather on the brain, and one turned rather tired of what became a mannerism in his work. Hamilton of Bangour never rang his quaintly iterative changes so tenderly as in his ballad, _The Braes of Yarrow_, the tragedy of a maiden with two lovers. The lovers fight, and one falls-- The comliest swain That e'er pu'd birks on the braes o' Yarrow. The survivor presses his court, trying in vain to persuade the girl to leave Tweedside and come to his home beside Yarrow. Sweet smells the birk, green grows, green grows the grass-- Yellow on Yarrow's braes the gowan; Fair hangs the apple frae the rock, Sweet the wave of Yarrow flowin'. "Flows Yarrow sweet?" she argues with him-- Flows Yarrow sweet? as sweet, as sweet flows Tweed; As green its grass, its gowan as yellow; As sweet smells on its braes the birk, The apple frae its rock as mellow. The late Professor Veitch laid finger on the only blot in this fair picture. Apples do not hang from rocks either in Tweedside or by Yarrow, but rowan berries do. It is a pity that Hamilton yielded so far to eighteenth century classicism as to introduce the conventional apple. The line would surely have run more smoothly-- "Fair hangs the rowan frae the rock." But I have wandered away from the birch. Economically, this tree has hitherto been reckoned of indifferent value, though there is an inexhaustible demand for bobbins. Clogmakers, also, will make picturesque encampment among birches of suitable size, and pay a fair price for working up the stems. Of the well-nigh imperishable bark no use is made in this country, except that chemists extract from it an antiseptic called pyrobetulin, used also in the preparation of glass for engraving. But Scandinavian farmers sheath their wooden houses with birch bark, which makes a durable, waterproof covering, with a beautiful silvery appearance very gratifying to eyes offended by the evil aspect of corrugated iron. In Russia, also, a fragrant oil is distilled from birch-wood, whence Russia leather derives its peculiar odour. Careful housewives should note that there is no kindling equal to birch bark, which blazes up almost as fiercely as celluloid.