146 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



produced such picturesque monsters as those at Burnham, the 

 Beech-trunk grows clean and straight to a great height, sending 

 off slender, more or less downward-bending, branches with shiny 

 red skins. The twigs bear long, slender, fine-pointed brown 

 buds that are closely mimicked by the snail Clausilia laminata, 

 that loves to haunt the mossy angles between its large spread- 

 ing roots, and to climb at even up its trunk, which from its 

 smoothness and grey colour is far more suggestive of the gothic 

 column than is the ruddy pine-stern. In spring these buds ex- 

 pand and drop off as the rising sap swells the rolled-up leaves 

 within, which emerge bright silky things, plaited, and edged 

 with the most delicate fringe of gossamer, that gleams in the 

 April sunshine. Then the Beech is indeed a thing of beauty, 

 fair and majestic. The Birch has well been styled by Coleridge 

 " The Lady of the Woods/' but the Beech is surely entitled to 

 take higher rank as the Queen of the Forest, especially in the 

 spring, when covered with this bright and tender foliage, amidst 

 which the flowers are lost. 



As summer comes the silken fringe of the leaves is cast off 

 as they become firmer in texture, thicker, and more opaque of 

 tint; yet smooth, and with a character peculiarly their own. 

 With the advent of autumn the leaves become crisp, and turn to 

 red-gold, or crimson, or warm ruddy brown. Then, when the 

 afternoon sunbeams fall upon the Beech-wood, it seems all on 

 fire, and the autumnal glories of every other tree are eclipsed. 



In April or May the Beech flowers. The blossoms are of 

 two kinds, male and female, produced on stalks from the axils. 

 The male flowers are combined in threes or fours within an in- 

 volucre, forming a silky tassel as it hangs downwards with its 

 yellow anthers waving. The individual flower has a bell- 

 shaped, five or six-lobed perianth, with a varying number of 

 stamens. Nearer the growing end of the twig rise the female 

 flowers on shorter stalks. They are usually two or four to- 

 gether, in a silky-haired, four-parted involucre, known as a 



