12 



LAWN AND SHADE TKEE8. 



to give it regularity and symmetry of form. A deep loamy, 

 rather moist soil gives it most vigor and causes it to grow to a 

 large size ; but it also grows freely in poor thin soils, as the 

 roots spread widely and keep near the surface. It is admirably 

 adapted to grouping with the hemlock, and with sequoia gigantea, 

 or the mammoth evergreen tree of California ; but as a single 

 lawn tree it has no superior, and should be planted wherever 



Fig. 2. American Beech. 



room can be given for its development without destroying 

 breadth or character of grounds. 



Of fancy varieties of the beech, the true purple-leaved (pur- 

 purea) is the most desirable. It has rather stronger limbs and 

 twigs than the common plain variety, and the young shoots and 

 buds are of a rose color, while the foliage when young or half 

 grown is of a reddish purple tinge, forming a pleasing and 



