140 NOTES ON TREES. [Dec. 



growth by the dense shallow mass of roots and the shade of the thick 

 foliage ; and I well remember the general surprise of persons familiar 

 with the Evelyn Woods, near Dorking, when snow and wind over- 

 turned several acres of great Beeches, and the bare surface became 

 covered in a single year with a thick growth of Birch. The succession 

 crop appeared as if by magic : but how ? Evelyn planted the Beeches ; 

 who planted the Birch ? I suppose it had been self-sown, but Evelyn 

 has left it on record that Oak woods had covered the ground which 

 he and his brother planted with the existing crop of the Wotton 

 woods, so that the Birch seed must have been sown many centuries 

 ago. The truffle, which are common in some old Beech woods, were 

 found in our district, but the dogs, or pigs, trained to hunt Ihem, 

 were wanting. 



The Beech is inferior as timber, but excellent for fuel, and is said to 

 make good charcoal for gunpowder ; though we had powder mills on 

 the stream two miles below our village, and the Beech was not there 

 used, the Alder being preferred. As an occasional visitor in Bucks, 

 I have wandered among the Beech woods of the Chilterns, seen. 

 Hampden's house, deep among the thick woods, and other memorable 

 places where Beech trees grow, as Bulstrode, Hughenden, Beacons- 

 field, Penn, Dropmore, and Stoke Poges, with Wycombe, where the 

 chairs are made. There are, however, no Beeches in Bucks worthy 

 of more respect than those in ' Burke's Grove,' planted by Edmund 

 Burke as a shelter to his house. The statesman's house has been 

 destroyed by fire, but the trees remain fit memorials of one who very 

 wisely selected for his planting operations a tree native to the neigh- 

 bourhood and better suited to it than any other. 



Henry Evershed. 



Catalogues. ^We have to acknowledge the receipt of a catalogue and price- 

 list of plants, forest trees, &c., from Messrs. Cannon and Brace, of Lea Vaux 

 near Salbris (Loir-et-Cher) France. 



Appointments.— Mr. George Dodds, who was lately on the Collon Estates, 

 County Louth, Ireland, has succeeded Mr. Andrew Slater, as Forester on the 

 Wyreside and Wyredale Estates, near Lancaster. — Mr. J. T. McLaren, lately 

 manager of the Cavers Estate, fnear Hawick, has been appointed Local Factor 

 for Lord Balfour, of Burleigh, on his Clackmannan Estates, Mr. McLaren 

 received his early training under Mr. D. F. Mackenzie on the Murtly Estates, 

 Perthshire, after wards changing to Scone Palace, as foreman to Mr. M'Corquodale, 

 and subsequently being appointed a manager on the Cavers Estates. 



