108 FAMILIAR TREES 
branchlets and twigs, bending slightly downwards, 
and giving to the whole tree a rounded outline. 
The head of the fine Beech at Knole Park, near 
Sevenoaks, called the King’s Beech, is 352 feet in 
diameter. 
It is in April, however, that the beauty of the 
Beech generally first commands our attention. The 
pointed, dull-brown buds assume a more glossy 
hue. They swell almost visibly from day to day 
under the influence of the genial sunshine, warmth, 
and moisture. As the sunlight falls on a sloping 
Beech-wood from a white cloud hanging in the deep 
blue of an April sky, it will be seen to glow like a 
sheet of bronze; and just before bursting the buds 
will be almost red. Then on one particular tree, 
year after year, often on one particular branch, the 
first leaves burst forth as the clearest emeralds, 
heralds of the coming of the full springtide glory. 
As they grow in size the leaves deepen in tint. 
To enjoy them in their fullest beauty, we should 
walk under the trees when the sun is shining 
brightly through them, and we can then see each 
pellucid sunshade to be fringed with a row of 
most delicate silky hairs—hairs that protect it from 
undue moisture or the radiating cold of the late 
frost. 
When the leaves of each emerald tier of verdure 
lose these silky hairs, the tree has parted with one 
of its charms, though when the leaves are more 
opaque, as they then are, their glossy surfaces, 
reflecting every glint of sunshine, still render the 
tree, as a whole, anything but a heavy feature in 
