Fy /^irinission of ^ames Lee, Esq.. the oiv tier of the picture. 



THE BEECH. 



GENERAL RExMARKS. 



I HEN a tree stands by itself, the beauty and distinctiveness 

 ot the pattern it forms against the sky can be appreci- 

 ated ; a delicate tracery of branches, as in the Ash or 

 Birch, or a compact and well-defined outline, as in the 

 case of the Oak, Elm, Sycamore, and most evergreen trees. 



But the Beech has neither of these characteristics, and to appre- 

 ciate Beech trees one must be under and among them. We all love 

 Beech woods. In winter the massive grev trunks, lichen-covered and 

 moss-grown, rise in fluted columns trom the spreading roots into a 

 network ot interlacing boughs and wiry twigs overhead. Brown and 

 shrivelled leaves cover the lower branches which droop to the ground, 

 and red-brown leaves undertoot rustle as a rabbit or pheasant runs in 



