338 



DECIDUOUS TBEES. 



Fig. 104, 



trunk is three and a half to four feet in diameter, and grows in a 

 twisted form to a height of twelve to fifteen feet, with an appear- 

 ance as if an immense weight were pressing it down. The 

 branches cover an area nearly a hundred feet in diameter. Its 

 history is curious. Some sixty years ago the baron's gardener was 

 planting an avenue of beech trees, and the baron, observing a very 

 crooked specimen, directed to have it thrown out ; but the .gar- 

 dener planted it in a corner of the grounds little visited, where it 

 grew to be one of the most beautiful and singular freaks of sylvan 

 nature. 



The illustration, Fig. 104, at the head of this page, is a portrait 

 of the weeping beech growing on the grounds of the Parsons nur- 

 sery at Flushing, and is probably the finest in this country. It is 



