THE BEECH, 



83 



grove, about the middle of May, when the foliage is tolerably well 

 expanded, presents one of the greenest and airiest sights that trees 

 afford. The leaves are singularly thin and translucent, and these 

 innumerable silvery fringes seem to aid in detaining the light. Embo- 

 soming ourselves in a little thicket of young beech, we learn for the 

 first time in its fulness, what is the meaning of green, and the force of 

 that charming line in Coleridge, 



" The level sunshine glimmers with green light." 



Fully expanded, the striking and characteristic feature of the beech- 

 leaf is at once obvious. To recognise this, it is useful to remember 

 that tree-leaves are of five principal forms, viz. : 



1. Needle-shaped, as in pines and firs. 



2. Simple and with a midrib, as in the beech, oak, elm, lime, alder, 



hornbeam, hazel-nut, birch, poplar, willow, Spanish chesnut. 



3. Simple and palmate, as in the maple, sycamore, and plane. 



4. Digitate, as in the horse-chesnut. 



5. Pinnate, as in the walnut and ash. 



Two or three .of those in the second class have the blade rather larger 

 upon one side of the midrib than upon the other. This is the case 

 with the beech, the margin of which is at the same time quite free 



Leaf of Beech-tree. 



from notches or incisions, and by these two simple characters it may 

 thus, under any circumstances, be identified. In general figure the 

 leaf is oval ; the stalk is very short ; the primary veins proceed towards 

 the margin in parallel and nearly equidistant lines ; and the surface is 

 quite smooth. 



