1964- ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



tourteaux from this oil, which are too hard and husky to be eaten, are used 

 for making torches; and hence the name of lourteau, which is generally 

 applied to a torch, or link, in France. In those districts of England where 

 the beech tree abounds in natural forests, it might, perhaps, be worth while 

 to make beech oil for private use, both as a substitute for olive oil, and for 

 lamp oil. By steeping the mast in water for several hours, and afterwards 

 kiln-drying them, both the outer husk and inner skin would probably be easily 

 removed in a common flour-mill, or in some coarse portable mill ; and the 

 kernels might be ground in a finer mill previously to expressing the oil from 

 them. To prevent disappointment, however, as to the quantity of oil pro- 

 duced, it must be recollected that the summers of England are less favourable 

 to the oleaginous secretions of plants than those of France. 



For useful Plantations, the beech is not highly prized ; the tree not being of 

 much value when young, not forming a permanent coppice-wood, and the 

 bark being of little value. Beech of small size, or of short and crooked stem, 

 Mathew observes, is the least valuable of all timber. On dry chalky soils, it 

 may be planted as a timber tree ; but here, as in many other cases where a 

 straight clean trunk is wanted, the plants require to be drawn up, either by 

 other trees of their own species, or by trees of a different species, which 

 advance at nearly the same rate of growth ; such, for example, as the sweet 

 chestnut. The beech, however, succeeds best in plantations by itself; and, 

 perhaps, there is no membranaceotis-leaved tree which, in a wild state in 

 forests, is found so little intermixed with other species. It is one of the 

 worst of all trees for hedgerows, not only injuring the fence and the adjoining 

 crops by the density of its shade ; but its trunk, when grown in this situation, 

 being neither long, clean, nor straight, is of little value except for fuel. 

 Another disadvantage attending the beech, in hedgerows, is, that it does not 

 resist the sea breeze ; though, after a certain period of time, the beech tree, like 

 most others in which the head has grown all to one side, has the power of 

 throwing out branches on the opposite side ; as has been beautifully illustrated 

 by Mr. Davis of Portway, in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. iii. p. 256.; and 

 the rationale of the process will be found generalised in our Encyclojxsdla of 

 Arboriculture. In Normandy, Bosc informs us, it was formerly the custom to 

 plant the beech round villages, in order to shelter them from storms ; the 

 tree, from the upright tendency of its branches, affording less leverage to the 

 wind, and, by the bulk and compactness of its head, opposing a greater body 

 to its progress, and thus producing more shelter. 



As Undergrowth, the beech is not of long duration, seldom pushing from 

 the stools after 40 or 50 years ; owing, as it is supposed, to the extreme hard- 

 ness which the bark acquires during that period. Even to preserve a beech 

 coppice in vigour for any length of time, it is necessary to cut it more fre- 

 quently than in the case of almost any other tree. In Buckinghamshire, 

 which is almost the only county in England where there are extensive beech 

 coppices, they are cut every sixth or seventh year, and the wood burned into 

 charcoal, which is sold to the gunpowder manufacturers. In Germany, M. 

 Hartig has found that the beech does not push nearly so well from the stool in 

 rich as in poor soil ; which, he conjectures, may be owing to the extraordinary 

 thickness and hardness of the bark, produced by the exuberance of sap, which, 

 as it were, prevents the bud formed by the germ from penetrating through it ; 

 in the same manner as a seed, when sown, if covered by a lump of hard soil, 

 is prevented from coming up. For this reason, Hartig recommends beech 

 coppices, on rich soils, to be cut when the sap is in motion ; because the quan- 

 tity of sap being diminished by the loss that is then sustained, the stool becomes 

 more marly in the situation which it would be in if growing in a poor soil. 



For Hedgerows for Shelter, and especially for those lofty narrow hedges 

 which were formerly much in use for enclosing and sheltering gardens, or- 

 chards, and small fields for affording early grass, the beech has no equal 

 among deciduous trees; for, as Boutcher observes, by retaining its withered 

 leaves all the winter, it affords the same protection as an evergreen. A beech 



