DESCEIl-'TIVE ENUMEEATION OF TEBES. 67 



The Elm forms a rounder, the Beech a more 

 pointed foliage. But the former is ahvays in 

 harmony with itself. 



On the whole, the massy, full-grown, luxuriant 

 Beech is rather a displeasing tree. It is made 

 up of littleness, seldom exhibiting those tufted 

 cups, or hollow, dark recesses, which dispart the 

 several grand branches of the more beautiful 

 kinds of trees. Sometimes, however, we see in 

 Beeches of happy composition, the foliage falling 

 in large flakes, or layers, between which the 

 shadows have a forcible effect when the tree is 

 strongly illumined. 



Contrary to the general nature of trees, the 

 Beech is most pleasing in its juvenile state, as 

 it has not yet acquired that heaviness which is 

 its most faulty distinction. A light, airy, young 

 Beech with its spiry branches, hanging, as I have 

 just described them, in easy forms, is often beau- 

 tiful. I have seen also the forest Beech, in a 

 dry, hungry soil, preserve the lightness of youth 

 in the matui-ity of age. 



After all, however, we mean not to repudiate 

 even the heavy, luxuriant Beech in picturesque 



