148 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



as "beech woods." The leaves of the beecn are 

 remarkably thin in texture, glazed and shining on the 

 upper surface, and so thickly set upon the numerous 

 branches, that it forms the darkest and densest shade of 

 any of our deciduous forest trees. It appears to have 

 been highly valued by the ancients as a shade tree ; and 

 Virgil says in its praise, in a well-known Eclogue : 



" Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi, 

 Sylvestrem tenui musam moditaris avena." 



It bears a small compressed nut or mast, oily and sweet, 

 which once was much valued as an article of food. The 

 most useful purpose to which we have heard of their being 

 applied, is in the manufacture of an oil, scarcely inferior 

 to olive oil. This is produced from the mast of the beech 

 forests in the department of Oise, France, in immense 

 quantities ; more than a million of sacks of the nuts 

 having been collected in that department in a single 

 season. They are reduced, when perfectly ripe, to a fine 

 paste, and the oil is extracted by gradual pressure. The 

 product of oil, compared with the crushed nuts, is about 

 sixteen per cent. (Michaux, N. American Sylva.) 



In Europe, the wood of the beech is much used in the 

 manufacture of various utensils ; but here, where our 

 forests abound in woods vastly superior in strength, 

 durability, and firmness, that of the beech is comparatively 

 little esteemed. 



The beech is quite handsome and graceful when young, 

 and when large it forms one of the heaviest and grandest 

 of beautiful park trees. From this massy quality, how- 

 ever, it is excellently adapted to mingle with other trees 

 when a thick anc impenetrable mass of foliage is desired ; 



