THE EUROPEAN BEECH 



pale gray bark, "its glossy rind," from early times 

 seems to have proved an irresistible attraction to 

 love-sick swains, sentimental adolescents, and other 

 irresponsibles. Everywhere one sees lovely Beech 

 trunks disfigured by letters and symbols cut into 

 the bark. No other tree suffers to the same extent 

 from this peculiar form of egotistical vandalism. 



Geologically, the Beech is not ancient, having 

 apparently first appeared in Tertiary times. It is 

 in fact an aggressive modern type of tree. Lyell in 

 his " Antiquity of Man" speaks of it as follows: " In 

 the time of the Romans the Danish Isles were covered 

 as now with magnificent Beech forests. Nowhere 

 in the world does this tree flourish more luxuriously 

 than in Denmark, and eighteen centuries seem to 

 have done little or nothing toward modifying the 

 character of the forest vegetation. Yet in the ante- 

 cedent bronze period there were no Beech-trees, or 

 at most but a few stragglers, the country being then 

 covered with Oak. The Scots Pine buried in the old- 

 est peat in Denmark gave place at length to the Oak; 

 and the Oak after flourishing for ages, yielded in its 

 turn to the Beech; the periods when these three 

 forest trees predominated in succession tallying 

 pretty nearly with the ages of stone, bronze, and iron 

 in Denmark." 



The Common Beech {Fagus sylvatica) is indigenous 

 '57 



