Fagus 



27 



As showing the rate of growth of the beech in Co. Galway, a beech 

 measured by Lord Clonbrock at Clonbrock was 11 feet 3 inches in girth in 1871, and 

 15 feet in 1903. A beech hedge at Kilruddery, Co. Wicklow, the seat of Lord 

 Meath, said to be 300 years old, was measured by Henry in 1904, when it was 

 18 feet through and 29 feet high. It is clipped regularly, and forms a dense, 

 impenetrable mass. 



Beech Coccus 



We are indebted to Mr. R. Newstead of the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, for 

 particulars of the coccus which in some seasons, and in certain parts of England, 

 has been of late years very injurious to the beech. A fuller account of this insect 

 has been written by him in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. 1900, vol. xxiii. p. 249, and in 

 a leaflet recently published by the Board of Agriculture. From this we take the 

 following precis : 



The trunks and, less frequently, the main branches of good-sized beech trees 

 are often covered, to a greater or less extent, with irregular spots of a white cottony 

 substance. The latter is really the covering of white felted wax fibres secreted by 

 the felted beech coccus (Cryptococcus fagi, Barensprung), a minute, hemispherical, 

 lemon-yellow insect, about one twenty-fifth of an inch long, without legs, but fur- 

 nished on the underside with a well-developed beak, which it buries in the bark for 

 the purpose of sucking up the juices of the tree. When once a tree is attacked the 

 number of individuals of the pest becomes in time so great that it is doubtful whether 

 a badly-infected tree ever recovers unless active measures be taken against the 

 insect. The waxy covering of the latter is sufficient to protect it against the effects of 

 any of the insecticides usually applied by spraying, and its habit of preferring the 

 deepest part of the fissures in the bark makes it difficult to remove with certainty. 

 The only remedy at all likely to succeed is that of thoroughly scrubbing the bark 

 with a stiff brush and soap and water, the latter mixed in the proportion of half a 

 pound of soft soap to each gallon of water ; and the success of this treatment depends 

 for the most part on the amount of care taken to dislodge the insects by means 

 of the brush. 



Timber 



The timber of the beech is not valued so highly in England as abroad, where 

 it is considered as the best fuel in general use, and is little used in carpentry or 

 building, as it is hard, brittle, and liable to be attacked by beetles. It weighs when 

 green about 65 lbs. to the cube foot, when dry about 50. Its durability is said to 

 be increased by seasoning it in water, and it is more durable when entirely under 

 water than most timbers, being highly recommended by Matthews and Laslett for 

 planking the sides and bottoms of ships. In France it is used, when creosoted, 

 for railway sleepers, but requires more than twice as much creosote to preserve it 

 as oak does, and is not used in England, so far as I know, for this purpose. It is 

 also used for tool handles, rollers, butchers' blocks, brush heads, planes, and general 

 turnery, but decays rapidly when exposed to the weather. 



