1883.1 NOTES ON TREES. 139 



I have always thought the Beech one of the most interesting trees. 

 We cannot free ourselves from prejudice, and I must admit a strong 

 prejudice in its favour, since I was born in a beechen country, and the 

 tree is inseparably connected witli my fondest recollections. Is there 

 a tree with a leaf more exquisite and delicate at its first bursting from 

 the bud? Is there a tree with smoother and more j^raceful trunk, 

 stained and tinted more attractively ? Then how gloriously the pale 

 Beech trunks reflect the golden colours of sunset ! Two forms of the 

 Beech are common. In the neighbourhood of our village we had the 

 spreading Beech, with short trunk, and the tall Beech of the woods 

 elegant as the Palm itself. Strength and grace are well represented 

 by those two forms of the same tree which have gained for the Beech 

 the opposing names of the Hercules and Adonis of our Sylvas. ' 



The exit from one part of our village was by a deep lane with steep 

 banks held up by the strong surface roots of spreading Beeches. The 

 trees grew on the top of the bank. What a canopy of light green 

 leaves they spread overhead in spring, and liow gloriously the sunlight 

 came shimmering through ! At another season, six months later, the 

 dry leaves rustled knee-deep in the lane below. Beech leaves were 

 formerly used, by the way, for stuffing beds, and are much better than 

 straw for that purpose. Evelyn lay on them in Switzerland, and Sir 

 T. D. Lauder, after mentioning the excellent mattresses made in Italy 

 and filled with the elastic spathe of the Indian corn, says, ' But the 

 beds made of Beech leaves are really no whit behind them in their 

 qualities, whilst the fragrant smell of green tea which the leaves 

 retain, is most gratifying.' This is beyond my experience ; but I 

 do know that the ring-doves coo-ooed deliciously from among the 

 Beeches many years ago, and that even now the sight of the trees, 

 when I revisit that neighbourhood, reminds me of their coo-ooing and 

 I seem to hear the well-known sound even when the birds are silent. 



I mentioned the roots of the Beech, The phenomenon they some- 

 times present must be familiar to many persons. They ran over the 

 steep sides of the lane as if they had been poured down in a molten 

 state, so that for a distance of many feet from the base of thi trunks 

 the steep slope was corrugated with them. But the term I have 

 used needs correction ; for a growing tree cannot maintain its roots 

 above the ground, and when some accident exposes them, they soon 

 cease to be roots, and assuming a covering of bark, they increase in 

 size in future, and grow as stems with the growth of the tree. This 

 had happened in the case of the Beech trees on the steep slope of the 

 lane where the washing away of the soil had exposed the network of 

 surface roots, and produced the curious though not uncommon 

 appearance which I have just described. 



A peculiarity in thick Beech woods is the exclusion of all under- 



