Rev. P. Keith on the Structure of Living Fabrics. 121 



be from forty to fifty feet in length*; while the horizontal 

 branches of what is called the Live-oak, of East Florida, are 

 said to extend to upwards of fifty paces f. 



The most beautiful specimens that England affords, of plants 

 with wide-spreading branches, are undoubtedly those of the 

 Beech-tree; and the finest we have ever had an opportunity 

 of admiring, are those in Eastwell Park, Kent, a seat of the 

 Earl of Winchelsea. Expanding their aged and venerable 

 arms in the full maturity of their growth, dignified in their 

 elevation, and clothed with the pleasing verdure of their glossy 

 leaves, they excite in the breast of the spectator emotions ap- 

 proaching to those of the sublime ; and yet they are not so 

 conspicuously remarkable for vastness of dimension as for 

 beauty and symmetry of contour. The measurement of one 

 of the handsomest of them was as follows : girth of the trunk, 

 close to the soil, from eighteen to twenty feet; height, 

 clear of branches, from seven to eight feet ; horizontal growth 

 of the lower branches, thirty-six feet, which, with half the 

 width of the stem, gives a semidiameter of thirty-nine feet, 

 and consequently a diameter of seventy-eight feet ; slanting 

 extent of the upper branches, such as to give to the group a 

 sort of globular contour, as regular as if it had been clipped 

 with shears, with an estimated elevation of from fifty to sixty 

 feet. Think of the cooling and delightful shade afforded by 

 this ample expansion, as filled up with its summer garniture 

 of leaf and flower, and you have a type before you similar to 

 that from which Virgil drew when he said or sang, 



Tityre, tu patulce recubans sub tegmine fagi, 

 Sylvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena. — Eclog. i. 1. 



Indeed we are of opinion that no reader of Virgil is compe- 

 tent to form a correct or adequate idea of the beauty of the 

 distich now quoted, till he has seen some such trees as those 

 now described. The Beech-trees of Knowle Park, near Seven 

 Oaks, are said to be of dimensions still larger ; and the far- 

 famed Beeches of Knockholt are said to be the largest in 

 England. 



The Leaf. — The leaf, which belongs to the division of the 

 temporary parts of the plant, is a thin and flat substance, of a 

 green colour, issuing generally from the extremity of the 

 branches, but sometimes also immediately from the stem or 

 root, and distinguishable by the sight or touch, into an upper 

 and under surface, a base and an apex, with a midrib and 

 lateral nerves. Yet leaves are not always thin and flat, nor 

 are they always green. The leaves of the Aloe are thick and 

 fleshy ; and the leaves of the several species of Beet-root are 



* Famil. des Plant. Prcf. ccxii. t Bartraxn's Travels. 



Third Series. Vol. 2. No. 8. Feb. 1833. R 



