BEECH TREE. 



363 



strength, forms a support for the interior serrated 

 darts shown at fig. 3, which are plunged still farther 

 into the wound, whence, from their structure, it is 

 impossible to withdraw them without force ; the 

 poison, which is conveyed through the canal of the 

 sting, is contained in a reservoir near the dilated 

 base of the apparatus, and is connected with it. 

 The channelled sheath with its serrated weapon 

 are shown on a large scale at figs. 4 and 5 ; and it 

 will be obvious that its structure admirably fits the 

 possessor to protect the fruits of his laborious industry 

 from any enemy less powerful than man, and even to 

 the " lord of the creation " it becomes an instrument 

 of terror. 



BEECH TREE (Fagns sylmtiea). A tree be- 

 longing to the Linnaean class and order Monaec'ut 

 Polyandria; natural order Aincntficece. Generic cha- 

 racter: male flower calyx bell-shaped, five-cleft; 

 corolla none; stamina five to twelve. Female flower 

 calyx four-cleft ; corolla none ; styles two or three 

 three-cleft ; seeds an angular or three-corner shaped 

 nut, one or two contained in each muricate capsule, 

 which opens with four valves, and emits the nuts. 

 The beech is indigenous to Britain ; many extensive 

 natural woods of it are found on the Chiltern Hills 

 and other chalky districts of England. It is a highly 

 ornamental tree; and very much cultivated for its 

 timber, which is of a fine close grain and very durable 

 when converted into Tunbridge-ware, turnery, mill 

 and wheelwrights' machinery, cabinet-makers' articles, 

 &c. It is also used in the dock-yards for wedges ; 

 by musical-instrument makers for sounding boards ; 

 by coopers for clap-boards. It is very much used in 

 the manufacture of charcoal, and no kind of timber is 

 more used, or better adapted for billet wood. It is 

 also extensively used for sheet-piling of canals, and 

 for round or square piles for the foundations of 

 bridges, or other buildings standing in water, as it 

 is very durable when kept constantly under water. 



The tree being very hardy is well calculated for 

 planting in bleak situations where the shelter of woods 

 would be beneficial. It withstands the sea breezes 

 as well as any other ; and, though a native forester, 

 is a very suitable tree for park scenery ; its fresh 

 green tint in spring, graceful form in summer, smooth 

 silvery bark, and its many rich and mellowed hues oi 

 autumn, adds greatly to the beauty of the landscape. 



As a rustic fruit tree it i* of great value ; the fine 

 flavour and fattening qualities of its mast or nuts 

 afford the highest treat to deer and vast droves o! 

 swine. To some of the wild inferior animals, both 

 birds and quadrupeds, the nuts are a constant toast 

 the woodpigeon, jay, and nuthatch, among birds, am 

 the badger, hedgehog, squirrel, rat, arid different 

 species of mice, not only live on the mast during 

 autumn, but lay up winter stores of them in their 

 nests and burrows. Even man himself, in some places 

 on the continent, makes the kernels a part of his diet 

 roasted and used as coffee, and the expressed oi 

 serves instead of butter. This oil is considered nex 1 

 in fineness to the olive, is employed for lamps, am 

 many other useful purposes in the arts, and by me 

 chanists. According to Michaux, " the forests of Eu 

 and Crecy, in the department of the Oise, have 

 yielded, in a single season, 2,000,000 bushels o 

 beech-mast." The oil millers readily buy up what 

 ever quantity of the nuts they can procure ; bu 

 the lords of manors seldom allow the nuts to bi 

 gathered, as their tenants have generally a righ 

 of pannage. 



The beech tree as well as the hornbeam was for- 

 merly much used for hedges in pleasure grounds 

 and gardens as sheltering boundaries ; and, being 

 lipped in summer, the remaining leaves die, without 

 ailing from the tree till late in the spring On the 

 ontinent fields are fenced with beech trees. They 

 .re planted when young near together, and when 

 jrown up five or six feet high are intertwined right 

 and left, and tied together where the stems intersect. 

 In a few years they become engrafted with each 

 other, and then form a very durable fence. 



The bark contains a little of the tanning principle, 

 nit far inferior to that of the oak. It is also the 

 thinnest of, perhaps, all forest trees ; that on a tree of 

 i century old being hardly one quarter of an inch 

 hick. This is the more surprising when we consider 

 that the bark receives an addition of liber in every 

 year of its age. But these annual layers of liber are 

 as thin, and being constructed like fine gauze, are 

 compressed so closely together by the internal growth 

 of the wood, that they occupy but little space. Add 

 to this, that the bark of a beech is not rent into exte- 

 rior fissures, like that of the oak, to make room for 

 the new layers of wood within, but is stretched hori- 

 zontally like the lateral spreading of a net, the 

 opened meshes of the cortical tissue being filled up 

 by the parenchymous matter in which the fibrous 

 tissue of all the libers lie imbedded. 



With reference to the cultivation, it may be proper 

 to state, that no forest tree is easier raised than 

 the beech. A bed of light loamy earth is prepared, 

 by digging and levelling with the rake ; about an 

 inch of the surface is drawn off to each side, the nuts 

 are then spread regularly over the bed, and the earth 

 drawn over again from the sides that the seeds may 

 be covered about an inch deep. This sowing may 

 be done any time between October and February. 

 The bed must be guarded from mice, jays, &c., 

 as well before as for some time after the seedlings 

 appear. These stand on the seed-bed for a year 

 or two ; and are then transplanted into nursery 

 rows, to gain strength before removal to their final 

 stations. 



Sir John Evelyn, the great founder of beech plant- 

 ing in this country, in describing his process, says, 

 that " for woods the beech must be governed as the 

 oak ; in nurseries, as the ash ; sowing the mast in 

 autumn, or later, even after January, or rather nearer 

 the spring, to preserve them from vermin. They are 

 likewise to be planted from young seedlings, to be 

 drawn out of the places where the fruitful trees 

 abound." A later author says, " The season for 

 sowing the mast is any time from October to Fe- 

 bruary, only observing to secure the seeds from vermin 

 when early sowed. The sooner they are sown the 

 better, after they are fully ripe." 



Besides the common there are several ornamental 

 species or varieties, viz. the purple-leaved, than which 

 no tree is more conspicuous in a pleasure ground, 

 being so great a contrast to the general colour of 

 trees. Of this there is a sub-variety called the Golden 

 Stripe-leaved, which is planted in shrubberies ; next 

 there is what is called the Copper-leaved, allied to 

 the purple, and only different in the colour of the 

 foliage. Another from North America is called the 

 Broad-leaved, seemingly a distinct species ; as also 

 two others from the same country, viz. the White 

 and Fern-leaved beech trees. 



All these are propagated by layers or grafting in 



