i6 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



scar and the end bud, proving that this latter is 

 really a portion of the axis. At other times this 

 last axillary bud will be found nearly as large and 

 vigorous as the terminal bud. When the two buds 

 are thus close together, at the end of the year's 

 shoot, the axillary bud seems to have almost as 

 much force of development as the terminal bud, 

 and to share with it the future leadership, so 

 that a forking of the branch is the result. 

 This seems to occur chiefly in the upper part of 

 the tree. 



The angle which the branches make with the 

 main stem, and the secondary branches with their 

 parent branch, is small, usually less than half a 

 right-angle, but the older and longer limbs soon 

 lose this, for after ascending for a little they are 

 made to arch and bend downward by the weight of 

 branches and foliage. The delicate spray at their 

 extremities shows for the first season or two the flat 

 fan-like or shelf-like habit of growth which has 

 been mentioned ; but after a while the slender 

 twigs take an upward direction as they lengthen, 

 and become irregularly twisted and crowded. In 

 the upper part of the tree the leading branches all 

 ascend, and, being crowded with secondary branches 

 and spray, have a somewhat brush-like form when 

 seen in winter. 



Considered as to its general features the beech 

 is one of our noblest forest trees. There is 

 considerable difference, however, in the growth and 

 ramification of different individuals accordingly as 

 the leafy or flowering habit of growth prevails. 

 The finest examples are those in which the vigour 

 of the tree is expended in forming lengthened 

 leafy shoots rather than in the production of 

 short-jointed spurs, for an excess of these latter 

 is apt to give the branches a stiff, unclothed 

 appearance. 



The stem is massive, often short when the tree is 

 growing alone, but when amongst other trees, and 

 more especially if in a grove of its own kind, the 

 stem rises as a lofty column, crowned above by the 

 dense head of foliage, and deriving peculiar beauty 

 and refinement of character from the smoothness 

 of the pale-grey bark with which it is clothed. 

 Towards its base the stem often spreads out into 

 buttress-like ribs or projections, connected above 

 with the larger and lower branches, and continued 

 downward into the main roots which run for 

 a while above the surface of the ground in an 

 irregular sort of network with deep hollows 

 between them. This is more particularly the 

 case when the tree happens to be growing on a 

 sloping bank. 



The skeleton of the beech as seen in winter, shows 

 the main branches sweeping onward from their 

 origin to their tip in an unbroken, although often 

 pleasingly curved line, and crowded towards their 

 end with slender branchlets and sprays. These, in 



summer, are clothed with a wealth of foliage, and 

 they lie often so closely one upon another as to 

 leave little room for such breaks and hollows as give 

 variety of light and shade. The extremities of the 

 branches with their spray stand out, indeed, from 

 the general mass, but their outline is too pointed 

 and tapering, the spray too widely scattered, to 

 present any broad surface on which light can rest. 



fl^gj::-— 



,1^^ 



Beech, in the Winter State. 



Their beauty lies rather in their feathery delicacy. 

 This is best seen in the elegant and often drooping 

 terminations of the lower branches, particularly 

 in early summer when clothed with their shining 

 and silky-margined foliage. When suffered to 

 grow undisturbed the branches often feather down 

 almost to the ground. 



{To be continued.) 



