15 June 2009: 'Betula' Schilling would not be amused. He has given me a dressing-down in the past when I have admitted to peeling birches. The man who taught us an important part of what we know about this delectable genus, hunting them up into the Himalayas to determine how much or little, and how consistently, their variety of coloured bark and shape of leaf change with geography, feels strongly that each layer of the papery skin is vital to the tree. Only the tree should decide when to slough it off. Meanwhile it should hang in peeling shreds and blow in the wind like a scarecrow's jacket.
展开▼
