CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CEX. FA‘GUS. 1967 
necessary, nothing answers our purpose like the beech. But, at present, we 
are not considering the beech in composition, but only as an individual; and 
in this light it is in which we chiefly conceive it as an object of disapprobation. 
“ We should not conclude our remarks on the beech without mentioning its 
autumnal hues. In this respect it is often beautiful. Sometimes it is dressed 
in modest brown, but generally in glowing orange; and in both dresses its 
harmony with the grove is pleasing. About the end of September, when the 
leaf begins to change, it makes a happy contrast with the oak, whose foliage 
is yet verdant. Some of the finest oppositions of tint which, perhaps, the 
forest can furnish arise from the union of oak and beech. We often see a 
wonderful effect from this combination: and yet, accommodating as its leaf is 
in landscape, on handling, it feels as if it were fabricated with metallic rigour. 
In its autumnal state, it almost crackles :--‘ Leni crepitabat bractea vento.” 
For this reason, I suppose, as its rigour gives it an elastic quality, the common 
eople in France and Switzerland use it for their beds. I have dwelt the 
onger on the beech, as, notwithstanding my severity, it is a tree of picturesque 
fame ; and I did not choose to condemn it without giving my reasons. It has 
acquired its reputation, I suppose, chiefly from its having a peculiar character ; 
and this, with all its defects, it certainly has. I may add also, that, if objects 
receive merit from their associated, as well as from their intrinsic, qualities, the 
dry soil and salubrious air in which the beech generally flourishes, give it a 
high degree of estimation.” (Gilp. For. Scen., vol. i. p. 50.) 
“ The spray of the beech,” Gilpin continues, “ observes the same kind of alter- 
nacy as that of the elm; but it _ 1879 
shoots in angles still more acute _ a 
(fig. 1879.) ; the distance between ——— 
each twig is wider; and it forms 
a kind of zigzag course. We : 
esteem the beech also, in some de- e 
gree, a pendent tree, as well as the ash; but there is a wide difference between 
them. The ash is a light airy tree, and its spray hangs in loose elegant fo- 
liage; but the hanging spray of the beech (fig. 1880.), in old trees especially, 
is often twisted, and intermingled : : 
disagreeably ; and has a perplexed 
matted appearance. The whole 
tree gives us something of the idea 
of an entangled head of bushy hair, 
from which, here and there,hangsa ~ ai t 
disorderly lock ; while the spray of 
the ash, like hair neither neglected real § 
nor finically nice, has nothing squa- ‘ai 1880 
lid in it, and yet hangs in loose and easy curis.” (Jbid., p. 114.) If an ordi- 
nary old beech tree gives the idea of an entangled head of hair, the inoscu- 
lated beech at Westbury (jigs. 1881. and 1884.), may be compared to a 
head of hair affected with the plica polonica. 
On Gilpin’s observations on the beech, Sir T. D. Lauder justly observes, 
that they afford “ one of the instances in which the author’s love for the art 
of representing the objects of nature with the pencil, and his associations with 
the pleasures of that art, have very much led him astray. We are disposed to 
go along with him in a great measure, so far as we, like him, draw our asso- 
ciations with this tree from the same source. But we conceive we have much 
/ the advantage of him, in being able to indulge in the pleasures arising from the 
contemplation of a noble beech as one of the most magnificent objects of 
God’s fair creation. Some of the very circumstances which render it un- 
picturesque, or,in other words, which render it an unmanageable subject of 
art, highly contribute to render it beautiful. The glazed surface of the leaf, 
which brightly reflects the sun’s rays, and the gentle emotions of light, if we 
may venture so to express ourselves, which sometimes steal over the surface 
of its foliage with the breathing of the balmy breeze, although difficult, or 
6™ 
