THE BEECH. 69 



a solitary beech is one of the most undesirable of 

 trees, the density of the shade being very hurtful to 

 neighbouring crops and to fences, and the wood, for 

 the reason above given, being of little value except 

 for fuel. In this respect the wood is excellent, and 

 the green wood is generally preferred to that which 

 is dry. Burned green, it produces heat and light 

 relatively to beech burned dry, as 1181 is to 1540. 

 In Paris it is very extensively consumed under the 

 name of bois d'Andelle. For long and narrow 

 hedges, such as are required for the shelter of 

 gardens, the beech has no equal among deciduous 

 trees, since through its power of retaining its dead 

 brown leaves throughout the winter, which is always 

 the case with this tree while young, it answers all 

 the purposes of an evergreen. The roots do not 

 descend deeply into the soil, but spread to a con- 

 siderable distance; the rootlets, however, are not 

 nearly so numerous as in the ash and the elm, so that 

 the injury done to the vegetation above them is much 

 less. Young plants, favourably placed, will reach 

 the height of ten feet in five years, and 20 or 25 

 feet in ten years. The full growth is obtained in 60 

 or 80 years, though the tree will live to a hundred 

 or a hundred and fifty years, and perhaps longer. 



