TREE FOKMS. 23 



upwards, and enables the clear, smooth stem to 

 rise with the beautiful symmetry by which it is 

 distinguished. It is the smooth, greyish-white 

 skin of the Beech which has tempted visitors to 

 the woods to engrave their names upon the bark. 

 One prominent and striking character of the tree, 

 besides the smoothness and beauty of its bole and 

 limbs, is its frequent habit of forming a trunk of 

 double columns. Oftentimes, quite close to the 

 ground, the bole divides and carries far up aloft 

 with graceful vigour and uprightness the two 

 trunks, both of which, spreading outwards, form, 

 by their ample ramifications, a head of considerable 

 width. The Beech has always had a reputation 

 for beauty ; it is a tree, as Gilpin happily described 

 it, ' of picturesque fame.' Yet, strange to say, 

 the author of ' Forest Scenery,' with an eye so 

 quick to discern beauty, disliked the Beech, and 

 made it the subject of some very severe criticism. 

 He says : ' In point of picturesque beauty I am 

 not inclined to rank the Beech much higher than 

 in point of utility. Its trunk, we allow, is often 

 highly picturesque. It is studded with bold knobs 

 and projections, and has, sometimes, a sort of 



