THE BEECH 109 



the landscape. Then it was, in early summer, 

 Pelleas 



" Riding at noon .... 



Across the forest call'd of Dean, 



, . saw 



Near him a mound of even-sloping side, 



Whereon a hundred stately beeches grew, 



And here and there great hollies under them. 



But for a mile all round was open space, 



And fern and heath : and .... 



It seem'd to Pelleas that the fern without 



Burnt as a living fire of emeralds, 



So that his eyes were dazzled looking at it. 



Then o'er it crost the dimness of a cloud 



Floating . . . ." 



The Beech generally flowers in May ; but neither 

 its long-stalked globular clusters of male flowers 

 nor its smaller assemblages of female ones, are con- 

 spicuous among the foliage. The male catkins hang 

 from the axils of the lower leaves on the shoot, 

 whilst the female inflorescences, each consisting of 

 two or three flowers invested by a single " cupule," 

 rise erect from those of the leaves nearer the grow- 

 ing end of the shoot. When the four-sided " cupule " 

 of rigid bracts, covered with recurved hooks and 

 enclosing two or three triangular fruits of a rich 

 chestnut colour, grows to a larger size and turns 

 brown, it not only becomes conspicuous, but causes 

 a greater litter on the lawn on which the tree may 

 chance to stand. 



The closely matted roots and the dense shade 

 rather perhaps than any poisonous exhalations, or 

 even than mere drip render the Beech generally 

 fatal to grass, and injurious even to evergreens 



