THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



to England and in western Europe as far east as about 

 the old Russian frontier from Norway and Sweden 

 south to the Mediterranean and reappears in the Cri- 

 mea. It is absent from Portugal and is not considered 

 to be wild in Ireland or Scotland though it probably is 

 in the southernmost parts of the latter country. Usu- 

 ally it forms pure forests of considerable extent, some 

 of the finest of which grow on the northern slopes of 

 the Balkans from their base to 4,000 feet altitude. 

 Fossil remains of the Beech have been found in 

 neolithic deposits in the Fen districts and elsewhere 

 in England and in the pre-glacial deposits in the 

 Cromer forest-bed. Julius Caesar stated that Fagus 

 did not occur in England; but apparently the tree 

 he meant was the Chestnut (Castanea). Yet the 

 mistake is a curious one, for the Roman, Pliny, de- 

 scribed as Fagus a tree which cannot be anything 

 else than the Common Beech. However, the Fagus 

 of the Old Greek philosopher, Theophrastus, was 

 undoubtedly the Chestnut, and Virgil's statement 

 that Castanea by grafting would produce fagos seems 

 to indicate that the name Fagus was in common use 

 among the Romans for the Chestnut. 



In all there are ten species of Beech now recognized, 



eight of which are growing in the Arnold Arboretum, 



and it is doubtful if any other garden is so fortunate. 



We are here primarily concerned with the Common 



.58 



