Fagus 



13 



beech ; the periods when these three forest trees predominated in succession tallying 

 pretty nearly with the ages of stone, bronze, and iron in Denmark." 



All over Germany, except in the sandy plains of the north, it is one of the 

 principal forest trees ; but, so far as we have seen, does not or is rarely allowed to 

 attain such a great size as in England. In Central and Southern Germany and in 

 Eastern and Southern France it seems to be indigenous only in hilly districts and 

 mountains. 



In the north of France it attains perfection, and forms very large forests, usually 

 mixed with oak, which sometimes contain trees of immense height, but is not planted 

 as an ornament to parks as much as in England. 



According to HuffeV s Bconomte Forestiere, 362 (1904), the finest beech forest in 

 France is that of Retz, also called Villers Cotterets, which contains 37,000 acres, on 

 a soil composed of deep sand, mixed with a slight proportion of clay. The trees 

 consist almost entirely of beeches, there being only a small number of oaks and 

 hornbeams. In the best plot of this forest, the canton of Dayancourt, which is 30 

 acres in extent, there were, in 1895, 1998 beech trees, 20 oaks, and 16 hornbeams. 

 The beeches contain 329,433 cubic feet of timber, and reach a height of nearly 150 feet 

 with clean stems of 80 to 90 feet. Their age in 1895 was 183 years, and they were 

 considered to have reached their maximum development and to be on the point of 

 going back. 



In an account of the beech, Mr. Robinson has stated in Flora and Sylva that in 

 the forest of Lyons-la- Foret, near Rouen, beeches of 160 feet in height are found ; 

 but on asking my friend M, Leon Pard^, inspector of forests at Beauvais (Oise), near 

 Paris, whether this statement could be confirmed, he was good enough to send me a 

 letter from the forest ofiicer there, who says that the tallest beech known in France 

 is the one which I saw in the Foret de Retz, when the English Arboricultural Society 

 visited France in 1903,' the height of which was given as 45 metres, about 147 feet. 

 This tree measured 1 3 feet 2 inches in girth, and was straight and clear of branches 

 to 91 feet. It was estimated by the English measurement to contain 560 cubic feet 

 to the first branch, or 700 feet in all. This letter goes on to say that the tallest trees 

 at Lyons-le-Foret do not, in his opinion, exceed a total height of 35 metres, though 

 one has doubtfully been stated to attain y,']\ metres. 



Two of the finest and tallest beeches in France are the one called " La 

 Bourdigalle " in the For^t de Lyons at La Haye (Seine Inf.), which is 35.80 metres 

 high by 5.55 metres at i metre, and is supposed to be from 375 to 575 years old.^ 



Another called " Le Trois H^tres," in the forest of Brotonne at Guerbaville 

 (Seine Inf ), has three straight clean stems rising from a single base to a height of 

 nearly 35 metres, with a girth at i metre of about 18 feet. This very remarkable 

 tree is figured on plate xi. of the work cited below.^ 



In Switzerland pure beech forest is found as high as 4500 feet, and at 5000 

 assumes a shrubby habit. 



In the Austrian Alps and Carpathians it is also a common tree, forming vast 

 forests, which are sometimes pure, sometimes mixed with other trees. 



* Trans. Eng. Arb, Soc. v. pt. ii. p. 209. ^ Gadeau de Kerville, Les Vieux Arbres de !a Normandie, 143 (1893). 



