COMMON BEECH. 311 



like him, draw our associations with this tree from the 

 same source. But Ave conceive we have much the ad- 

 vantage in the pleasure arising from the contemplation 

 of a noble Beech, as one of the most magnificent objects 

 of God's fair creation." 



To such a sentiment we give a willing assent, and though 

 the Beech may not exhibit those characteristics which pro- 

 duce picturesque effect in so eminent a degree as the oak, 

 the ash, and some other arboreal forms, still it possesses 

 in itself many, attractions and favourable accidents, whe- 

 ther it be in the form of a vast umbrageous tree, with a 

 short but massive stem, such as it usually appears when 

 growing solitary, or detached from other trees, and such 

 as we may fancy the wide-spreading Beech of the Man- 

 tuan bard to have been ; or whether it presents a straight 

 and lofty trunk, rising amidst its neighbours like a polished 

 column, and crowned by a canopy of the thickest foliage, 

 such as it is when nursed and drawn up with other trees, 

 or in company with those of its own kind, and where, 

 as combining magnificence with beauty, it has, by an 

 eminent writer on arboriculture, been pronounced as at once 

 the Hercules and Adonis of our Sylva. 



Whatever may be the defects of the Beech in compo- 

 sition, and defects we allow it to have, it possesses too 

 many important advantages in itself to be set entirely 

 aside, or banished from our parks and lawns. Its noble 

 and majestic size, its umbrageous and thickly-clothed 

 head, affording, in summer heats, a cool and welcome 

 shade, and which, though without the tufted beauty of 

 that of the oak, or the feathery lightness of the ash, is 

 valuable for the depth it produces in distant scenery ; 

 the beauty of its foliage, either when matured and reflect- 

 ing in gem-like coruscations, from its deep green polished 



