

1970 ARBORETUM AND FRUT1CETUM. PART 111. 



the row. If the rows are 6 ft. asunder, the plantation will form a very suitable 

 coppice for cutting every seventh year ; or, if every tenth plant be permitted to 

 become a timber tree, the result will be a beech wood, with ample spaces 

 between the trees for the growth of coppice. 



Felling the Beech for Timber, the successional Trees, fyc. As full-grown 

 trees do not stole, they are generally taken up by the roots. The usual season 

 is winter; though some French authors assert that the English practice is to 

 fell beech trees in the beginning of summer, when the sap is in full motion. 

 In Buckinghamshire, beech woods have been succeeded by beech woods from 

 time immemorial ; the mast which has dropped from the trees springing up, 

 and supplying the place of those that are removed. In artificial culture, how- 

 ever, a different natural order of trees, it would seem, ought to be made to 

 succeed the beech ; though, on very thin soils on chalk, it would be difficult, if 

 not impossible, to name a tree that would produce an equal bulk of timber in 

 the same number of years, independently altogether of the value of its timber. 

 It is certain, that none of the poplars, beeches, or willows, would do this ; nor 

 will any of the pines or firs thrive where the subsoil is chalk. Where, how- 

 ever, the soil is deeper than it is in Buckinghamshire, the theory of a succes- 

 sion of a timber crop may, perhaps, be advantageously carried into execution ; 

 but the beech, on a thin surface of vegetable soil on chalk, seems to be an 

 exception : or, perhaps, several crops may be taken on such soils, and, con- 

 sequently, several generations elapse, before a change of crop is required. 



Accidents, Diseases, fyc. The full-grown beech, from the acuteness of the 

 angle which the branches form with the trunk, presents, as we have already 

 mentioned (p. 1954.), less leverage to the wind than the branches of many 

 other trees, and is, consequently, liable to few accidents from storms. Large 

 detached trees, when of a great age, are, like all others under similar circum- 

 stances, liable to be blown down ; but, in general, few trees are seen more 

 perfect in their form than the beech. It is subject to few diseases, unless we 

 except that tufted appearance named Erfneum /agineum Pers., Grev. Crypt., 

 t. 250., which is sometimes found on the leaves, and which some botanists con- 

 sider to be a fungus ; but which the Rev. M. J. Berkeley considers a disease 

 produced by a surorganisation of the cellular tissue. The trunk and branches 

 of the beech are subject to nodosities, seldom above 1 in. or 2 in. in diameter, 

 but which sometimes are much larger. These are probably originated by the 

 puncture of some insect, and are to the wood of the beech what the galls of 

 the oak are to the leaves of that tree. The branches from their number, 

 proximity, and liability to cross each other, may occasionally be found inos- 

 culated ; and a remarkable example of this occurs in a wood called West Hay, 

 between Cliff and Stamford, belonging to the Marquess of Exeter. We are 

 indebted, for a knowledge of this tree, to the kindness of the Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley ; and to Mrs. Berkeley for the very beautiful and accurate drawings 

 from which Jigs. 1881. and 1884. are engraved. Fig. 1881. is to our usual 

 scale for full-grown trees of 1 in. to 12 ft. ; and fig. 1884. in p. 1972., which 

 shows a portion of the trunk, is to a scale of 2 ft. 6 in. to 1 in. 



The only quadrupeds that we are aware of, that do much injury to the beech, 

 are deer and cattle pasturing round them, which, however, as before observed, 

 crop their branches much less than they do those of most other trees ; and 

 the squirrel, which, however, is most injurious to young beech trees, by feeding 

 on the inner bark. These animals appear to prefer the bark on the lower 

 part of the tree, as, indeed, do rats, mice, and most animals that gnaw through 

 stems of young trees. The squirrel, however, when pressed for food, will 

 attack both the beech and hornbeam, when the trees are of considerable size, 

 stripping off the outer bark in pieces of from Sin. to 6 in. in length ; and then 

 feeding on the inner bark and the soft wood. It has been found that coating 

 the stems of trees for 5 ft. or 6 ft. in height, with a mixture of tar and grease, 

 will deter the squirrels from attacking them. 



Insects. Comparatively few insects attack the beech, and those which do 

 chiefly belong to the order Lepidoptera, and are in the caterpillar state. Of these 

 the following are the most interesting species : Stauropus fagi (the lobster), 



