COMMON BEECH. 317 



afterwards, as no tree is more liable to throw out additional 

 or supernumerary leaders and large interfering branches than 

 the Beech ; to these the pruning-knife must be applied, 

 but we by no means recommend that excessive pruning 

 and denuding of the stem advocated by Pontey and other 

 arboriculturists ; on the contrary, as more consonant with 

 the principles of vegetable physiology, we would allow 

 most of the side branches to remain, merely thinning out 

 where they interfered or grew too close together, or short- 

 ening in such as appeared of too rampant a growth for 

 the other parts of the tree ; for, as Matthew well observes, 

 " In pruning, every means should be taken to increase 

 the number of feeders, in order that none of them may 

 become too large, and no healthy regular feeder should 

 be lopped off till the tree has reached the required height 

 of stem and a sufficient top above this for the purpose 

 of growth, at which time the feeders upon the stem, as 

 far up as this necessary height, may be removed." We 

 would add, not entirely, but leaving a few to break the 

 nakedness and give value to the appearance of the stem, 

 for we are no admirers of a Pontey-like Beech, whatever 

 merits it may have in the eyes of the timber-merchant, 

 wood-valuer, or carpenter. 



In mass, or in mixed plantations, indeed, there is little 

 fear, from the confined situation in which they are placed, 

 of the side branches or feeders ever attaining so large a 

 size as to injure or interfere with the straightness and 

 length of the bole ; the difficulty, sometimes, is to keep 

 them alive, in order that the tree may be kept in a healthy 

 state, so as to insure a due increase of the stem. In open 

 situations, or when standing alone, where the natural 

 form of the Beech is that of an expansive, round-headed 

 tree, any attempt to force it to a long, naked stem by severe 



