The Universal Herbal: Betula Nana; Smooth Dwarf Birch.

The Universal Herbal;
or botanical, medical and agricultural dictonary.
Containing an account of All the known Plants in the World, arranged according to the Linnean system. Specifying the uses to which they are or may be applied, whether as food, as medicine, or in the arts and manufactures.
With the best methods of propagation, and the most recent agricultural improvements.
collected from indisputable Authorities.
Adapted to the use of the farmer - the gardener - the husbandman - the botanist - the florist - and country housekeepers in general.
By Thomas Green.
Vol. I
Liverpool.
Printed at the Caxton Press by Henri Fisher.
Printer in Ordinary to His Majesty.
1824Leaves orbiculate, crenate. — This is an upright shrub, seldom above two or three feet high; trunk hard and stiff, with a roughish bark, like that of the elm, of a russet or blackish purple colour. It flowers in May, and is a native of the northern parts of Europe. This plant, the leaves of which, according to Linneus, dye a better yellow than the common birch, is of signal use in the oeconomy of the Laplanders. The branches furnish them with their bed and their chief fuel; and the seeds are the food of the ptarmigan, which makes so considerable a part of their sustenance. The moxa also is prepared from it, which they consider as an efficacious remedy in all painful diseases.