332 BECIB UO US TREES. 



Nor summer bud perfume the dew 

 Of rosy blush, or yellow hue ; 

 Nor fruits of autumn, blossom bom. 

 My green and glossy leaves adorn ; 

 Nor murmuring tribes from me derive 

 The ambrosial amber of the hive ; 

 Yet leave this barren spot to me: 

 Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree I 



Thrice twenty summers I have seen 

 The sky grow bright, the forest green ; 

 And many a wintry wind have stood ' 

 In bloomless, frmtless solitude. 

 Since childhood, in my pleasant bower, 

 First spent its sweet and sportive hour ; 

 Since youthful lovers in my shade 

 Their vows of truth and lapture made. 

 And on my trunks surviving frame 

 Carved many a iong-forgotteh name. 

 Oh ! by the si^hs of gentle sound, 

 First breathed upon this sacred groxmd. 

 By all that love has whispered there, 

 Or beauty heard with ravished ear ; 

 As love's own altar, honor, me : 

 Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree 



THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT-TREE. Castanea amerkana. 



This, our common native chestnut, is one of the glories of 

 the rocky hill-sides and pastures of New England, and well known 

 throughout the northern States, and on the mountains of the 

 southern States. It is a tree of great size, grand character, and 

 rapid growth. In form, when mature, it resembles the white oak, 

 but assumes its grand air much, )-ounger. Fig. 105, is a por- 

 trait of a chestnut about fifty years old, and exhibits the general 

 character of the tree at that age. Afterwards it increases more 

 rapidly m the size of its trunk and branches than in height or 

 lateral extension, and requires about a hundred years to attain 

 its noblest development; while, the white oak does not exhibit its 

 grandest character in less than twice that time. In its early 

 growth it is a little rounder, and more formal, than the white oak; 

 but develops so much more rapidly that, at middle age (fifty), it 

 is more " oak-like " than the .oak itself, of the same age. The 

 chestnut is particularly attached to rocky situations, or loose gravelly 



