CHAPTER IV 
In the Beechwoods 
APPARENTLY it is not every lover of nature 
who can appreciate to the full the charm of 
the beechwoods. In single specimens the beech 
(Fagus sylvatica) does not appeal to the poet in 
anything like the same degree as the oak. It 
has none of the sublime qualities of majesty 
and of endurance for many centuries against 
the destroying tooth of time. And yet, to the 
forester, few sylvan scenes can equal in quiet 
loveliness the dense beechwoods, thickly carpeted 
with fallen leaves, in which stately, smooth-barked, 
ashen-grey stems rise upwards in support of a 
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