72 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



ance of consciously holding a tenacious grip 

 on the earth to balance the great expanse of 

 branch and leafage above. It is known as 

 "The Mother of Forests," because the drip 

 from it destroys the weeds that exhaust the 

 soil, which its leaves enrich when they fall ; 

 and which its shade protects from over- 

 evaporation. The beech is a determined mono- 

 polist, a vigorous supplanter. Evelyn notes 

 this. "That which I would observe to you 

 from the wood at Wooton," he says, "is, that 

 where goodly oaks grew, and were cut down 

 by my grandfather almost a hundred years 

 since, is now altogether beech ; and where my 

 brother has extirpated the beech, there rises 

 birch. Under the beech spring up innumer- 

 able hollies, which growing thick and close 

 together in one of the woods next the meadow, 

 is a viretum all the year long, which is a very 

 beautiful sight, when the leaves of the taller 

 trees are fallen." Evidently the humble holly 

 may be tolerated, but not the lordly oak. The 

 beech roots in the surface soil, and robs the 

 more deeply rooted oak of its food-supply. It 

 is only a mother-tree if not allowed to have too 

 much of its own way. 



