6 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



But in spite of their unfavorable surroundings, they pos- 

 sess a large measure of the peculiar charm of the beeches and 

 the steepness of the bank has done them one good turn at least 

 — it has saved part of them from the vandalism of youthful 

 lovers, who never seem to find their happiness quite complete 

 until their initials, enclosed, perhaps, in the outline of a heart, 

 are carved on the bark of a beech tree. I think no other tree 

 of our north-land with the possible exception of the birch, can 

 compare in beauty of bark with the common beech. It is a 

 peculiarly smooth, firm looking bark of a soft light gray color, 

 mottled with a darker gray that seems like the shadows of the 

 leaves caught and fixed by some magic alchemy. It is small 

 wonder that the boy with a sharp knife in his pocket and a 

 wonderful name in his heart, fails to resist the temptation to 

 test the one and perpetuate the other on this most alluring of 

 surfaces. 



Everything about the beech tree is attractive. The slim, 

 polished brown buds are distinctive and elegant, the half un- 

 folded leaves with their deep Acins and creases are exquisitely 

 soft and dainty in appearance and the mature leaves are pleas- 

 ing in form and color. In the autumn they change through 

 shades of greenish yellow to shining gold which later becomes 

 a russet brown and a large part of the leaves cling to the 

 twigs until late in the winter. Although this particular group 

 of trees have never given me any nuts, yet oUier trees in other 

 fields liave given me many a delicious feast. The little three- 

 cornered nuts have a flavor all their own and arc so small that 

 one cannot eat them too rapidly if he would — at least not un- 

 less he shells a quantity before he begins to eat. 



Beechnuts are a favorite food of chii)munks antl scpiirrels 

 and the Nature lover who has spent a golden October after- 

 noon under a beech tree, sharing the nuts with the saucy 

 creatures who scold him soundly if they suspect him of taking 



