102 BIRCH AND BEECH 



proper material for fashioning club-heads withal. Then 

 beech came into favour for that purpose ; but nowadays 

 the American persimmon is all the go. 



Our beechwoods have been attacked of late by a 

 very destructive parasite, the felted coccus (Cryptococ- 

 cus fagi}, a wretched little bug, without legs, but with a 

 sharp beak, with which it pierces the bark and sucks 

 the sap. It is but one twenty-fifth of an inch long, 

 but what it lacks in stature it makes up in multitude, 

 propagating itself indefinitely until the strongest and 

 largest tree perishes under the invasion. Moreover, 

 this pestilent mite comes into the world equipped with 

 a defence against the most potent insecticide, protecting 

 itself with an overcoat of white felt composed of waxy 

 fibres, which no spray can penetrate. Individual trees, it 

 is said, may be rid of it by scrubbing the bark with a hard 

 brush and a strong solution of soft soap ; but, needless 

 to say, such a remedy is impracticable in the forest. 



If, as I maintain, the beech is the queen of British 

 trees, what shall be said of those who prefer it copper- 

 coloured to green as God made it ? De gustibus 

 and all said. The abnormal will always command 

 votaries ; but it is sad to see pleasure-grounds marred 

 by the increasing fashion of sticking in copper beeches 

 at all odd corners. People who want foliage of that 

 colour should satisfy their craving at the haberdasher's ; 

 or, if they must have something abnormal, let it be the 

 purple beech, which strikes a much richer and less 

 metallic note than the copper beech. The most shapely 

 specimen of the true purple beech known to me stands 

 in Osterley Park, near the south-west corner of the 



