CHAP. CV. CORYLA'CEiE. FAMOUS. 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 tlie 

 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 5 in. or Gin. 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 Joiirn .Hort. Tour., 

 p. 270.) 



As an 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 j 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 moistj 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, tliat 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 



