STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER 



beech have been sung in both poetry and prose. 

 Passienus Crispus, the orator, who married the 

 Empress Agrippina, was so fond of it that 

 " he not only delighted to repose beneath 

 its shade, but he frequently poured wine on 

 its roots, and used often to embrace it." 

 Evelyn and Cook recommended it, Boutcher 

 thought that it " hardly had an equal," Mathews 

 called it " the Hercules and Adonis " of the 

 sylva of Great Britain, and among the English 

 poets Beaumont and Fletcher, Leigh Hunt, 

 Gray, Campbell, and Wordsworth all loved and 

 admired it for its rare beauty and vigor. Gil- 

 pin, however, does not join this chorus of praise ; 

 in his " Remarks on Forest Scenery " he calls 

 it " an overgrown bush," and explains at some 

 length his reasons for thinking that it lacks 

 picturesque beauty. 



In Europe the wood has been used for more 

 purposes than in America, and it also ranks 

 high as fuel. In France oil is made from 

 beechnuts, used in lamps and for cooking. 

 The specific name, sylvatica, is from the Latin 

 which means belonging to the woods. 



The purple beech is a variety of this tree, 

 which has been propagated from the original 

 sport found in a German forest over a hundred 

 years ago. Plants from the seeds of the purple 



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