COMMON BEECH. 309 



of all other kinds of timber;* for its power of occupancy, 

 where the soil is congenial, conjoined to its deep shade 

 and deleterious drip, is such as to prevent the interference 

 or growth of any other tree. In Scotland and Ireland 

 it is not indigenous, and according to Dr. Walker was 

 not planted in any quantity in the former till between 

 a. d. 1540 and 1560, and about the same period its first 

 introduction into Ireland is supposed to have taken place. 

 In both these countries, where the soil is congenial, it 

 arrives at as great perfection and attains as great a size 

 as it does in England, as we have ourselves observed 

 in different parts, and as may be collected from the 

 statistics of the Beech in the " Arboretum Britannicum." 



Its distribution throughout the temperate parts of Eu- 

 rope is extensive, and it reaches as far north in Norway 

 as 59°, and in Sweden to 58°. It is also found in Asia 

 Minor, Palestine, and other Asiatic districts. On the 

 Alps it seems that between latitudes 45^° and 46^°, 

 the line of Beeches rises to the height of 5142 feet, the 

 snow line being 3848 feet higher ; they occupy the southern 

 slopes of the mountains, the northern of the same zone 

 being generally clothed with the silver fir. 



From the description given by Pliny of the Roman 

 Fagus, in which the form of the nut is particularly noticed, 

 as well as the appropriate epithets Virgil has applied to 

 it, there is little or no doubt but that our common Beech 

 was known in Italy by that name, although it might not 

 have been restricted to the species; a supposition some 

 have been led to form in consequence of the passage in 

 " Caesar's Commentaries," where it is said that no Fagi 

 were found in Britain. It may also, to the readers of 



* In America the Beech appears to have the same exclusive power of occu- 

 pancy; the Beech forests, where they do occur, being entirely composed of this 

 tree. 



