178 AMENTACE^ 



was found to measure thirty-six feet in circumference, at thirty feet from the 

 ground. The tree called Pontey's Beech, at Woburn Abbey, is a hundred 

 feet high ; and instances are recorded of noble trees exceeding even this in 

 magnitude. If we may believe Fuller, Buckinghamshire takes its name 

 from the abundance of the Beech, which was called by the Anglo-Saxons 

 Barken ; and "Buchen ham," the home or land of Beeches, was then appro- 

 priate. The Germans call the tree Btiche ; and in France it is termed 

 mtre. 



Some writers have thought that the Beech was not an indigenous tree, 

 because Ctesar says that he did not find it in Britain. Commentators have 

 questioned whether the Fagiis of the Eomans was our Beech ; but the con- 

 clusion seems to be general that it was so, and that the great Roman, never 

 having penetrated probably to those parts of the country where it is abundant, 

 was unacquainted with it as a tree of this island. 



The Beech grows in the temperate countries of Europe, from the south 

 of Norway to the Mediterranean Sea, and also in Asia Minor and Japan. 

 Either this species, or a variety, is common ni the American forests ; and 

 Bryant, describing a winter day, refers to 



and adds- 



" The snow-bird twittering on the heechen bough ;" 



" From his hollow tree 

 The squirrel was abroad, gathering the nuts 

 .lust fallen, that asked the winter cold, and sway 

 Of winter blast, to shake them from their hold." 



The Beech is generally in full green by the end of May, when the flowers 

 appear among the delicately-fringed leaves. The barren flowers form 

 drooping tassel-like heads, and soon fall off ; and the brown, fertile, solitary 

 flower is on a slender stalk, and is gradually developed into the nut or mast 

 of the Beech. Children well know these nuts, which burst out when ripe 

 from their triangular prickly envelopes, and which have a flavour very similar 

 to that of the almond. To a large number of animals these nuts afford a 

 good store of food. The thrush, blackbird, and many another gladsome 

 songster delight in them, as do the partridge and pheasant ; and the little 

 dormouse makes his autumn meal on the mast, and sinks to sleep till the 

 next spring leaves are coming. As to the squirrel, he sits among the boughs, 

 and takes his meal of them, scatters luimbers in waste, or carries them with 

 him to some neighbouring tree : — • 



"The sun is higher in the morning sky. 



His beams embrace the niossy-trunked trees, 

 Yonder the squirrel, on the elm so high, 



Frisketh about in the cool morning breeze ; 

 Down peeps his diamond eyes — amazed he sees 



A stranger in his solitary home : 

 And now he hides beneath the oaken-trees, 



And now he forth upon a branch will come. 

 To crack his Beechen nuts, and watch me as I roam." 



An old herbalist said, " The nuts do much nourish such beasts as feed 

 thereon;" and the deer search for them beneath the trees, while country 

 people, in the neighbourhoods of Beech-woods, send the swine to feed on the 



