CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CEX. Fa‘GUS. 1965 
hedge may be trained to a great height (even 30 ft. or 40 ft.), and still be kept 
quite narrow at the base, like the hornbeam: but beech is greatly superior to the 
hornbeam, in the richer colour of its foliage. In Belgium, particularly in the 
village of St. Nicholas, between Ghent and Antwerp, very close and handsome 
hedges are made with young beech trees, planted 7 in. or 8 in. apart, with 
their heads inclining in opposite directions, at an angle of 45°, so as to cross 
one another at right angles, and thus form a wall of trelliswork, the open 
squares of which are 5in. or 6in. on the side. During the first year, the 
plants are bound together with osiers at the points of intersection, where they 
finally become grafted, and grow together. Dr. Neill found a hedge of this 
sort 5 ft. high, between Conti and Mechlin, in 1817. (See Journ .Hort. Tour., 
- 270. 
: As mA ornamental Tree for the park and the lawn, especially near the man- 
sion, the beech has many important advantages. Though its head is more 
compact and lumpish than that of the oak, the elm, or the ash, yet its lower 
branches hang down to the ground in more pliant and graceful forms than 
those of any of these trees. The points of these branches turn up with 
a curve, which, though not picturesque, has a character of its own, which will 
be found generally pleasing. The leaves are beautiful in every period of their 
existence; nothing can be finer than their transparent delicacy when expand- 
ing, and for some weeks afterwards. In summer, their smooth texture, and 
their deep yet lively green, are highly gratifying to the eye; and the warmth of 
their umber tint, when they hang on the trees during the winter season, as con- 
trasted with the deep and solemn green of pines and firs, has a rich, striking, 
and most agreeable effect in landscape. Hence a few beech trees are very 
desirable on the margin of pine and fir woods, or among evergreens generally; 
more especially when the soil is somewhat good and moist; under which cir- 
cumstances alone will full-grown beech trees retain their leaves during the 
winter. So desirable is the effect produced by the beech with its leaves on 
in the winter season, that when the trees, from age or any other cause, drop 
their leaves in autumn, we would recommend the substituting of young trees, 
which seldom fail to retain their leaves during winter, till they approach 
towards a timber size. It is certain, however, that some individual beeches 
are much more apt to retain their leaves through winter than others; for 
which reason a sufficient number of young trees ought to be planted, to allow 
of the rooting out of those which do not answer the end in view. Beech 
trees under 30 or 40 years’ growth, when cut down to the ground, push up 
again; and the leaves on the shoots so produced seldom fail to remain on 
during the winter. _Low growths of this sort will, in many cases, produce the 
desired effect as well as trees; a circumstance which may afford a useful hint 
to the possessors of grounds of limited extent. 
The leaves of the beech are less liable to be eaten, either by insects or by 
cattle, than those of almost any other tree. The first circumstance renders 
the beech very desirable for situations near the eye, and for avenues and 
hedges; and the second renders it one of the best park trees, since its 
branches, though they are injured by cattle, are far less so than those of the 
oak and the elm. Two other circumstances which render this an excellent 
park tree are, the food which its mast affords to deer and squirrels, to pea- 
cocks and other ornamental poultry, and to pigeons, thrushes, blackbirds, 
and other birds. The density of its head makes it an excellent nightly 
shelter for singing birds. The smoothness and light colour of the bark, and 
the circumstance of the trunk being clothed with branches to within a short 
distance of the ground, render it a desirable tree to place a seat under; 
the eye feeling the light colour of the smooth bark to be more enlivening 
than the dark rough-furrowed bark of the oak or English elm, the dark 
smooth gloomy bark of the Scotch elm, the lichen-covered hoary bark of 
the ash, or the reddish brown, cracked, and scaly bark of the Scotch pine. 
The only tree which can be compared to the beech, as one to sit under, is the 
platanus ; but the shade of this last tree is much less dense. The ancients 
