170 BURNHAM BEECHES. [June, 



But the Beeches must not be forgotten in these generalities. 

 There they are ; and huge and protuberant are their stems ; and 

 though rather stumpy in their stature, amply umbrageous (shade- 

 yielding) . They surely possess more attractions for the artist or 

 the man of taste, than for the timber-merchant. To the Dotanist 

 they appear in no way attractive, excepting he be a mycologist. 

 And here he may observe several huge Polypor'i attached to their 

 shapeless, aged trunks, and also one of the most elegant of the 

 Agaricus, growing, as it usually does, beyond his reach. 



But the great harvest is on the ground, under the trees or 

 beside the trees; for the Beeches of Burnham are not all patu- 

 lous (spreading), and consequently there is not much which can 

 grow under them : but cheek-by-jowl with them grow innumer- 

 able Funguses, chiefly Agarics and Boleti, with Chanterelles, 

 Hydnum, Clavarias, etc. 



A list of these curious plants would possess no interest for the 

 general reader, or even botanist, unless he were also a mycolo- 

 gist, and such a one would rather see them than read about them. 

 The student of this portion of the Vegetable Kingdom might do 

 worse than go to Burnham Beeches, any time between the end 

 of August and the middle of October. 



On the Stoke side of the Beeches there is an extensive heathy 

 common, and between the common and the Beeches there is 

 what, in the language of courtesy or by poetic license, might be 

 called a brook, where the bard of the poet * stretched his listless 

 length and pored on the babbling streamlet. In this bog — for it 

 is not a purling burn, except in the fancy of the poet or benevo- 

 lent observer — there are several ponds or heads of very deep wa- 

 ter. In the lowermost — for there is a continuous series of them 

 — grows Uiricularia intermedia, if your informant is correct in 

 judging by the radical leaflets and their bulbous appendages. 

 The plant rarely flowers with us : it certainly was not in flower 

 when I was at Burnliam, and it was raked out of the water in 

 hopes of its proving Ceratophyllwn submersum. There are in the 

 same water several Pond weeds (Potamogetones) ; but what they 

 are deponent saith not, for a good reason. 



At the tail of the bog, stretching out and upwards on the 



* See Gray's Elegy : — . 



" His listless length at noontide would he stretch, 

 And pore upon tlie brook that babbles by." 



J 



