THE HORNBEAM. 



Carpi'nus Bet'ulus L. 



Few of our common native trees are so little 

 known to the general public as the Hornbeam 

 {Garjpinus Betulus L.). It is, however, not only 

 common, but has also many features of beauty and 

 interest. 



Its general distribution is not wide, being con- 

 fined to the temperate parts of Western Asia and 

 of Europe, its northern limit being stated at 55° 

 or 56°, though it occurs somewhat north of this in 

 the island of Gothland. It is almost certain that 

 this tree is not truly native in Scotland, even if so 

 in Yorkshire; but in Lancashire, Cheshire, Wales, 

 Norfolk, and the south-eastern counties it is more 

 particularly abundant, and it probably formed a 

 considerable portion of the underwood of the great 

 primeval forests of these areas. Eejoicing, as it 

 does, in a stiff, moist clay, but not refusing to 

 grow on gravel, or even on limestone, it may well 

 once have been far more aJbundant than it is now, 

 ranging from Wychwood, Shotover, and the New 

 Forest to Anderidaesweald, the great wood of 

 Sussex, Surrey, and Kent, and to Enfield Chase 

 and the Essex forest, of which the existing remnant, 

 now named from the town of Epping, in its northern 

 purlieus, still contains many ancient examples of 

 this species. 



42 17 



