THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



A little above the ground it is forked and then grown 

 together again leaving an opening through which a 

 youth can pass. 



The Purple Beech (F. pylvatica var. purpurea) is in 

 my opinion the only tree with coloured leaves worth 

 planting. One, possibly two, but not more, properly 

 placed near a house or buildings with plenty of open 

 space around add effective dignity to the surroundings. 

 Unfortunately, however, the use of this tree is all too 

 frequently abused. The Purple Beech is a natural va- 

 riety of the common European and so far as is known 

 all of them in cultivation have been derived from a 

 single tree discovered in the 1 8th century (and 

 still living) in the Hanleiter forest near Sondershausen 

 in Thuringia, central Germany. Propagation has 

 been effected chiefly by grafting and to a less extent 

 by seeds, but only a percentage of the seedlings come 

 purple. This tree grows to as great a size as the par- 

 ent form and there are specimens in England nearly 

 ioo feet tall. It is popularly supposed that the 

 Thuringian tree is the only wild Purple Beech known. 

 This is not so, neither is that tree the oldest of which 

 records exist, but it is the mother tree of those culti- 

 vated in this country and elsewhere. Trees of the 

 Purple Beech grow wild in the Tyrol and at Buch, 

 a village in the Canton Zurich, Switzerland, three 

 specimens, growing among the common green-leaved 

 1 66 



