2008 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



among these hang certain triangled things, upon which are found knaps, or little 

 buds of the bignesses of ciches, in which is contained the fruit or seed. The 

 root is strong and thicke." He adds, that " it growes plentifully in North- 

 amptonshire, and in Kent, by Gravesend ; where it is commonly taken for a 

 kinde of elme" (Herball, p. 1479.) : and concludes by saying that he con- 

 siders it as a kind of elm himself; and that it is called, in England, horn- 

 beam, hard-beam, or yoke-elm, and in some places, witch-hazel. It was also 

 sometimes called horse-beech. " This tree," says Parkinson, in his Theatre 

 of Plants, " hath found about as many names as there have been authors that 

 have written of it ; but, by the judgment of the best, it is the Ostrya of 

 Theophrastus, which he describeth so plainly in his 3d bookeand 10th chapter, 

 that it is a wonder so many learned men as have called it otherwise, should 

 not better heede it ; but, led by tradition or conceit, have rather taken it to 

 be any other thing than what it is. Pliny (lib. iii. c. xxii.) describeth it; but 

 maketh it like to Fraxinus, when he should rather have set Fagus ; for it no 

 way resembleth the ash, but very much the beeche. Tragus taketh it to be 

 Ornus ; and saith that he cannot agree to Ruellius, who said that Ornus was 

 a species of Fraxinus. Matthiolus called it Carpinus. Dodonaeus, in his 

 Dutch book, maketh it his third kinde of elme, and doubteth if it be not the 

 Ulmus sylvestris of Pliny. Lugdunensis giveth us the figure of it for Ulmus 

 attinia ; but Cordus or Dalechampius, I take it, first tooke it be Ostrya. 

 Gesner, in Hortis, calleth it Fagus sepiaria; L'Obel, Betulus; and Clusius, 

 Fagulus herbariorum." (Parkinson's Theat. Bot., p. 1406.) Parkinson him- 

 self calls it Ostrya. The author of An Old Thrift newly revived classes the 

 "hornebeame" among the British timber trees. It "doth much," he adds, 

 " resemble the beech tree in qualitie ; and desireth the same kind of ground, 

 husbanding, and dressing, as the beech tree doth ; but it is a more firme and 

 solide kinde of wood." (p. 59.) The hornbeam was always a favourite tree 

 for forming hedges and labyrinths ; and, as these last appear to have been in - 

 troduced at a very early period, it was, doubtless, among the first indigenous 

 trees planted for garden purposes. In the Retired Gardener, and in James's 

 Gardening, both of which are translations of French works published during 

 the reign of Louis XIV., long details are given on the art of forming groves, 

 labyrinths, alcoves, arcades, and " various other devices " of hornbeam ; of 

 which, the author adds, " Nature, of herself, hath provided enough for us to 

 make what compartments we please with it in our gardens." (Ret. Gard. y ii. 

 p. 740.) Evelyn speaks quite in raptures of the hornbeam hedges in the 

 garden of London and Wise at Brompton ; and of " the admirable espa- 

 lier hedge in the long middle walk of the Luxembourg Garden at Paris (than 

 which nothing is more graceful), planted of this tree ; and so is that cradle, 

 or close walk, with the perplexed canopy, which lately covered the seat in His 

 Majesty's garden at Hampton Court." (Hunt. Evel., i. p. 140.) With the 

 decline of the geometric style of planting, the lofty hedges and alleys with 

 clipped sides, of hornbeam, fell into disrepute ; and the tree was chiefly used 

 to form garden and nursery hedges for shelter and for coppice-wood. In the 

 present day, the tree is little used for either of these purposes ; beech, or 

 some species of evergreen, being found to grow more rapidly as a hedge ; and 

 undergrowth of hornbeam only being planted in the worst soils. 



Poetical Allusions. The hornbeam does not appear to have been mentioned 

 by Virgil, or any of the other Latin poets. It is also very seldom alluded to 

 by any of either the French or English poets of the middle ages. Rapin, in 

 his Latin poem, entitled The Gardens, speaks of the use of this tree for laby- 

 rinths : 



" Let beauteous hornbeams one fair part adorn ; 

 Another, cypresses with judgment shorn : 

 These mazy windings form a wilderness, 

 Which hornbeam hedges in trim neatness dress. 

 Along the alley sides their boughs expand : 

 Like verdant walls the firm espaliers stand ; 

 And, while the eyes their various forms delight, 

 To private walks and shady bowers invite." Book ii. 



