332 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
gloss by the play of sunlight, tells us of the un- 
seen but potent forces which beneath our feet, 
where the soil is embrowned by dead leaves, are 
moving silently upwards through the stately 
columns, carrying to their summits the life and 
vigour which give symmetry to stem and branch, 
grace to clustering bough and twig, and the 
beauty of colour to the moving forms of glossy 
leaves. 
The Beech leaf shares with the Tree itself its 
grace, symmetry, and polish. Enclosed in its 
bud—formed in late autumn and then encom- 
passed by its brown protective sheath—it is 
wrapped in a soft, silky mantle of silvery down. 
And when the tender incipient leaf emerges from 
its fairy covering, with its hue of golden green, 
it, too, is fringed along its edge and lined along 
its veins with silky down. Then with the young 
leaves the clustered fruit appears in rounded 
downy bunches, stamen with complement of 
pistil—male and female. The floral stamen, its 
work performed, retires, leaving place for the de- 
velopment of the ovaries in their protective 
prickly cases, with their four-celled compartments, 
