308 HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 



worthy of note in speaking of the Cotteswolds, for 

 although they have been planted here, yet the fine, 

 tall, clean balks, lofty tops, and the " twilight 

 shades " beneath, will not soon be forgotten by the 

 author, who, beneath their boughs, through the 

 liberality of Earl Bathurst, "has felt them all his 

 own," as says the poet Gray of the Burnham beeches. 

 Here, too, has he mused, though not, like Pope, in 

 " thoughts that burn," yet much wondering at the 

 curious plants which choose such seclusion for their 

 dwelling. Of these the following may be here 

 enumerated, as they really form part of the natural 

 history of the beech wood : — 



Listera Nidus-avis — Birds'-nest Orchis. 

 llabenaria chlorantha — Butterfly Orchis. 

 Epipactis grandijlora — Large White Helleborine. 

 Epipactis ensifolia — Narrow-leaved White Helleborine. 

 Epipactis latifolia — Broad-leaved Helleborine. 

 Monotropa Hypopithys — Yellow Birds'-nest. 

 Pyrola minor — Lesser Winter Green. 



Such a list of plants found in the beech woods is 

 sufficient to make their locality remarkable, and if we 

 add to them the 



Tuber cibarkim — Truffle, 



Morcliella esculenta — Morell, 



Elaphomycea muricatus — Sharp-warted Elaphomyces, 



— these, with various other curious fungi, will be 

 sufficient to make Oakley Park and its beeches a 

 botanical habitat of no mean pretension. 



As regards the truffle, we may mention that we 

 have heard that a former Earl Bathurst kept dogs for 

 the purpose of hunting them. We have partaken of 



