HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. o07 



from decomposing the stones on which it grows, was 

 held to have the like effect. How strange, then, it 

 is that with such evidences of the truth of the 

 motto, — 



Similia similibus curantur, 



physicians of the present day should refuse to listen 

 to this still (and very small) voice of nature, and not 

 all become homoeopaths ! Such may well be the 

 reasoning of many an old woman who still pretends 

 to cures either by magic spells or infinitesimal 

 globules. 



Two interesting varieties of ash are met with : the 

 pendulous or weeping-ash, which, Sir W. Hooker 

 informs us, is said to have been first discovered in a 

 field at Gamlingay, and the Fraxinus heterophylla, in 

 which the leaf is simple, that is, it is in one piece, 

 more the form of a laurel-leaf than the usual 

 pinnated ash-leaf. These variations are easily per- 

 petuated by grafting, and are here only mentioned on 

 account of their peculiar habits. 



The Beech (Fagus sylvatica) is admitted by all 

 authors to be a native of Great Britain, and if the 

 many magnificent giants one here and there meets 

 with be admitted as proofs of indigenous origin, few 

 trees can put in a more imposing claim. The cele- 

 brated Burnham beeches, so well known to artists 

 and lovers of nature in general, and the many fine 

 examples of this tree in the Cotteswolds, upon which 

 range it is said to grow as a weed, testify to the age 

 and size to which the beech may attain. 



The plantations of beeches in Oakley Park are well 



