THE BEECH. 



THE Beech (Fagus sylvatica) is one of the noblest 

 of our forest-trees. It rises to the height of eighty 

 or a hundred feet, with a circumference of eight to 

 eleven feet, and in dimensions, when full grown, 

 surpasses all except the oak. On Sunning Hill, in 

 Windsor Forest, there is one of exceptionally great 

 antiquity and bulk, the circumference, at six feet 

 from the 'ground, being no less than twelve yards. 

 No tree forms woods so dry and pleasant to walk in, 

 though grasses do not nourish beneath the shade ; 

 and at every season of the year it presents some 

 remarkable and pleasing peculiarity. In the depth 

 of winter it is told by the smooth grey bark and the 

 arrangement of the branches ; in spring by the 

 buds ; in summer by the leaves ; while in autumn^, 

 if close by, we have the very curious seed-pods, and 

 at a distance, those auburn and coppery-golden dyes 

 which place the beech in the front rank of painted- 

 foliage trees. 



The general character of the trunk and branches 

 gives the idea, more than is done by any other tree, 

 of that glorious style of architecture termed the 

 Gothic. The columned temples of ancient Greece, 

 and the still older ones of ancient Egypt, lead the 

 imagination away to palm-trees, and in all probability 



