106 FAMILIAR TREES 



" is identical with that of the Sanskrit bdkd, letter 5 

 bdkds, writings ; and this correspondence of the 

 Indian and our own language is interesting as 

 evidence of two things, viz. that the Brahmins had 

 the art of writing before they detached themselves 

 from the common stock of the Indo-European race 

 in Upper Asia, and that we and other Germans 

 have received alphabetic signs from the East by a 

 northern route, and not by the Mediterranean." 

 This last remark of the learned Doctor's refers, of 

 course, to our old black-letter Gothic characters and 

 not to our modern Roman alphabet. 



As to the name Fagus, it is possible that this 

 may be of Celtic origin ; and, in the time of Pliny, 

 the Britons, as well as the Gauls, may, as he de- 

 scribes, have mixed the ashes of Beech-wood with 

 goat's- fat to make a red dye tor their hair and 

 moustaches ; or this name may then have per- 

 tained to the Sweet Chestnut, to which tree Cgesar 

 may have referred when he wrote that in Britain 

 there was every kind of timber as in Gaul, except 

 " fagum " and the Fir. 



The Beech requires a thoroughly drained soil, 

 and accordingly flourishes on high ground, whether 

 calcareous or sandy. Its grey stems may thus be 

 seen often of great girth throwing out their 

 spreading roots on the earthworks of an ancient 

 British camp on the greens and hills of Kent, as 

 at Oldbury, near Ightham, while but a few miles 

 off a fine clump crowns the conspicuous chalk 

 summit of Knockholt ; and in Surrey we have as 

 fine trees on the sands of Haslemere, Hascombe, 



