BIRCH OR BEECH?

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 161, 3 April 1920, Page 8

BIRCH OR BEECH?

— « — AN INTERESTING EXPLANATION. Following up the remarks of a correspondent to the effect that a mistake was made in a recent Teport on tlie Day's Bav bush by calling the beech trees birch, 6ome inquiry has been made. It was found that whilst botanically such'trees are beech, they are commonly called birch; and. colloquially, not kriowii as anything else. A gentleman skilled in botany and forestry sends us the following interesting note:— "The New Zealand beeches are known' as taw-hiq or tawai by the Natives. The silver' beech (Fagus Menziesii) has a white or silvery bark, which closely resembles the English beech (Betula Alba), and this is responsible for the common name of birch, which was first given it by the early hushmen. At least a dozen kinds of small-leaved trees are called birch at the present time, with various prefixes, such as red, white, brown, prey, yellow, mountain, etc., the names varying according to locality. For instance tlioi Fagus Golanderi is called in the Wellington district black birch; in parts of Canterbury black, white, red or brown birch; in Nelson white birch; in Otago- black heart birch. Thus, whilst botanically, tliey are not birch but beech, the old names stick, and to the average colonial.'they will be birch for all time."