94? Observations on the Climate of Italy 



ing to the measures of Schouw (Brocchi Suolo di Roma, 

 p. 211.): consequently this grove of beeches must have ex- 

 isted at a height of little more than 200 feet above the 

 sea, 



I am aware that it is denied by some that the Fagus of Virgil 

 is our beech : but even those persons admit that the Fagus of 

 Pliny is the beech; and indeed in the description of that 

 author [Hist. Nat. xvi. 7.), the triangular coat of the gland, 

 the smoothness of the leaf, and the care with which the fagus, 

 though bearing an edible and sweet gland, is distinguished 

 from the trees bearing real " glandes," that is acorns, seems 

 pretty decisive on this point. 



The only argument urged (Gardener's Magazine for Ja- 

 nuary, 1839, pages 10 and 19.) against the Fagus of Virgil* 

 being the beech (beyond the fact now under discussion of its 

 not being found in the plains of modern Italy), is founded on 

 an erroneous reading of a passage in the Georgics, according 

 to which Virgil is made to speak of engrafting the fagus on 

 the castanea or chestnut. But in the text of the best modern 

 editions, Virgil says no such thing. The passage (Georgic. 

 ii. 69.) stands in Heyne thus: 



"Inseritur vero et fcetu nucis arbutus horrida; 

 Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes ; 

 Castanece fagus, ornusque incanuit albo 

 Flore pyri " 



It is evident that the poet speaks of engrafting the chestnut 

 on the beech, and not the beech on the chestnut. Whether 

 such a graft be really possible, I do not know; but it is not 

 more out of the way than the other operations of a similar 

 kind alluded to in this passage. 



The statements of Pliny regarding the existence of the 

 beech in the neighbourhood of Rome, are remarkably con- 

 firmed by Theophrastus, who speaking of the plain of Latium, 



* I say Virgil, for the most serious difficulty about the meaning of the word 

 " Fagus" arises from a passage of Caesar {Bell. Gall. v. 12.), who speaks of 

 this tree as not found in Britain. I may observe, that it is not more ex- 

 traordinary that Caesar should assure us that the beech was not found in 

 Britain, than that Herodotus (ii. 77-) should say that the vine was not 

 grown in Egypt, where, however, existing monuments, (Rosellini, Mon. 

 Civil., t. ii. p. 366.) and various passages of the Pentateuch (Genesis, xl. 9. 

 Numbers, xx. 5.), show it to have been cultivated from the earliest pe- 

 riod. But I have only to do at this moment with the " Fagus " of Virgil 

 and Pliny. As to the latter, it is true that the passage, " dulcissima omnium 

 fagi,'' {Hist. Nat. xvi. 8.) appears to be a translation of ylwKvrura, li rec rijg 

 Onyov {Hist. Plant, iii. 8.) ; but on the other hand, while Theophrastus 

 {Hist. Plant, iv. 12.) speaks of the (pviyo; on the tomb of Uus, Pliny {Hist. 

 Nat. xvi. 8.) uses the term " Quercus," which shows that this latter 

 careless and inconsistent writer did not always confound the Greek (pnyos 

 with the Latin " Fagus." 



