197G 



AKUOKETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PAPT in. 



France ; Roqiie's Hht. dcs Champ.; &c.) Rhizo- 

 p6gon albus Fr., Berk. Eng. F/., v. part 1 1 . p. 229, 

 syn. 7'uber &lbum Bull., t. 404'., Sow., t. 310., and 

 OUT ^g. 1815.; 7\ albidum Ccesatp.; Lycoperdon 

 gibbosum Dicks. Cri/pt., ii. p. 26. ; TriifHe blanche, 

 Fr. ; the White Truffle; is also eaten. It is rare both 

 in France and England ; but is sometimes found, in 

 both countries, in sandy woods, ami is common in 

 Germany. It has occurred in the Botanic Garden 

 at Glasgow. 



The price of morels, dry, in Covent Garden market, varies from 16*. a pound 

 to 20.S-. ; and in Paris the fresh morels are from 50 to 60 cents the pottle. 

 Truffles, when dry, are about 14*. a pound in Covent Garden market; and 

 fresh English truffles are from Ss. Qd. to 5s. a pound. Fresh truffles vary in 

 Paris, according to their quality, from 50 cents to 3 francs per pound. 



Lichens. We are informed by W. Borrer, Esq., tht 

 the only lichens known to him,as pecuUar to the beech, 

 are, Opegrapha venosa and Parmelia speciosa. O. ve- 

 nosa Eng. Bot., t. 245+., and our Jig. 1816., is found 

 on the trunks of beech trees in the New Forest, 

 Hampshire. Sir J. E. Smith describes the ramifica- 

 tions of this lichen as being " deeply sunk into the 

 crust, but convex above, and intensely black, with ob- j„q|, 



tusc terminations." (See J?Hg. /<'/., v. pi. 1. p. 148.) 



The name of Opegrapha alludes to the supposed resemblance of the lichens 

 which compose this genus to Hebrew characters inscribed on the wood. 

 P. speciosa Ach. Syn., p. 221., Lichen speciosus Wulf. Eng. Bot., 1979., 

 the elegant garland parmelia, is usually found on rocks; but Mr. Borrer 

 informs us that it is also found on the beech. " The fructification of this 

 lichen has not been found in Great Britain ; but it is described from specimens 

 gathered in North America." {Eng. FL, v. pi. 1. p. 202.) Dr. Taylor, how- 

 ever, finds it "not very rare near Dunkerron, county of Kerry." {Fl. Hib., 

 pt. ii. p. 149.) ; and a single specimen has occurred in St. Leonard's Forest, 

 Sussex. 



statistics. Recorded Trees. The Great Beech, in Windsor Forest, of which an engraving is given 

 by Strutt in his Sylva Britannica, and of which our^o^. 1907. is a copy, reduced to a scale of 1 in. to 

 50 ft., is evidently of very great antiquity. It is supposed to have existed before the Norman Con- 

 quest; and it is mentioned by Carabden as " standing on a high hill (Sunning Hill), and overlooking 

 a vale lying out far and wide ; garnished with corn fields, flourishing with meadows, decked with 

 groves on either side, and watered with tlie Thames." According to Jesse, the trvnik of this tree 

 measures, at 6 ft from the ground, 3fi ft. round. " It is now," he says, 

 "protected from injury, and Nature seems to be doing her best to. 

 wards repairing the damage which its exposure to the attacks of man 

 and beast had produced. It must once have been almost hollow; 

 but the vacuity (as shown in yf/j. liiOS.), has now been nearly filled 

 up. One might almost fancy that liquid wood, which had jifterwards 

 hardened, had been poured into the tree. The twistings and dis. 

 tortions of this huge substance have a curious and striking efl'ect; 

 and one might almost imagine them to have been produced by a 

 convulsive throe of nature. (See fig. 1907. in p. 1977., on a larger 

 scale, copied from Jesse's Gleanings.) There is no bark on this .extra- 

 neous substance ; but the surface is smooth, hard, and without any 

 appearance of decay." {Jesse's Gicanings in Xat. Hist., 'id s., 

 p. \V2.) A beech at Bicton, in Devon.ihire, blown down in 1806, had 

 a trunk which measured 29 ft. in circumference, and a head which 

 was lOoft. in diameter. The Burnham Beeche.s stand in a tract of 

 woodland above 4 miles from Stoke Pogis, in Buckinghamshire, 

 which is celebrated as the scene of Gray's poetic musings. " Both vale and IhU," says Gray, 

 " are covered with most venerable beeches;" and in his Etcgy he particularly mentions " the nod- 

 ding beech, that wreathes its old fantastic roota so high." In Scotland, a very large beech stood atNew- 

 battle Abbey, in Mid-Lothian. It was measured by Dr. Walker, in 1789 ; when the trunk was found 

 to be 17 ft in circumference, and the diameter of the head 89ft It containeil upwards of 10(0 ft. 

 of timber. It was blown down by a gale of wind about 1809. Dr. Walker thinks it must have 

 been iilanteil between \biO and 15(id. A beech tree at Preston Hall, Mid-Lothian, at 1 ft. from the 

 ground, measured 17 ft. ^ in. in circumference; and at 4 ft, 14 ft. 6 in. A beech at Taymouth, 

 jiecmingly coeval with that at Ncwbattle Abbey, was blown down when its trunk was above Ifift 

 round. A number of other fine beech trees, which existed in Scotland in the time of Dr. Walker, 

 art noticed in his Essays on tCatural History, to which Mr. Sang and Sir T. Dick Lauder have added 

 (everal other remarkable examples. In Ireland, there are a number of large beech trees, the dimen- 

 sions of which have been recorded by Hayes. At Shelton Abbey, near Arklow, there are 7 beech 

 trees, the trunks of which measure from 13 it 9 in. to 15 ft. in circumference ; and there are upwards 



I<xt7 



