BEECH FAMILY 
redbreast alighted on our lawn. Willows glow in green and 
yellow long before any other indication of quickening life ap- 
pears, the last year’s wood of the Lombardy Poplars becomes 
tawny and shining, and the Beech tree fairly challenges the 
snow on its limbs by the frosty white of its smaller branches 
and twigs. 
It is surprising since our trees are leafless one-half of the 
year, that so little attention is paid to planting for winter 
beauty. A great success is awaiting the artist who can 
achieve this planting, and in the meau time a small but ever 
increasing number of persons are appreciating the grace and 
beauty of the leafless trees. |The winter beauty of the Beech 
is only equalled not surpassed by that of the elm. ‘Then the 
sinewy strength of its trunk is most evident, the white of its 
bark is the clearest, the structure of its noble head is most 
apparent, and the fine spray of its delicate branches stands 
clear cut in exquisite tracery against the sky. 
It is no less charming in early spring, when the half-opened 
leaves clinging to the branches make a shimmering mist of 
soft green and pearly white. In midsummer, because of the 
lateral arrangement of the branches, the foliage lies in great 
shelving masses and as the leaves are short petioled they 
have little independent motion but sway with the branch, 
{In autumn, the head becomes a glowing sphere of golden yel- 
low touched with russet, and as the last leaf flutters to the 
ground it marks the close of a cycle of unequalled beauty. 
Lumbermen have always insisted upon two species of 
3eech, the Red and the White, distinguished by the color of 
their wood. There are no botanical characters by which such 
trees can be distinguished, and the reason for the difference 
is unknown. 
The Beech is gregarious and often forms pure forests of 
considerable extent. In the first place, it is a tree that suck- 
ers; in the second, it makes a shade so dense that it is diffi- 
cult for the young of other trees to flourish near. Further- 
more, it readily adapts itself to environment, flourishes on the 
bottom lands and climbs the mountain slopes. 
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