56 



BEECH. FAGUS. 



Natural order, Amentacea. A genus of' the Castanea, or 

 Chesnut Tree, and of the Mon&cia Polyandria class. 



" And the beech 



Of oily nuts prolific/' 



THE fruit of this tree having been the food of mankind 

 before the use of corn, claims our attention. The Greeks 

 called the beech <p>jyo$, from the old verb f >jyo>, I eat : 

 hence the Latin name of Fagus. It is, however, maintain- 

 ed that our beech is the oy of the Greeks. The fruit is 

 often called buck-mast, in England, from the eagerness 

 with which deer feed upon it. 



The beech is one of the handsomest of our native 

 forest-trees, and, in stateliness and grandeur of outline, 

 vies even with the oak. Its silvery bark, contrasting with 

 the sombre trunks of other trees, renders its beauties con- 

 spicuous in our woods; while the gracefully spreading 

 pendulous boughs, with their glossy foliage, mark its ele- 

 gance in the park or paddock. If none but painters were 

 planters, we should oftener see this tree cultivated for the 

 sake of its autumnal tint, which harmonizes so happily 

 with the oak, the elm, and the ash, and relieves so cheer- 

 fully the gloom of the cedar, the fir, and the cypress. The 

 German or purple beech is particularly ornamental to the 

 plantation. Cassar remarks in his Commentaries, that 

 during his stay in Britain he had never seen either the 

 beech-tree or the fir; but from our reading we have 



