72 



SYLVA BRITANNICA. 



THE BEECH. 



Sylva domus, cubilia frondes. 



The wood a house, the leaves a bed. 



Juvenal. 



There is no tree with which more classical and 

 pleasing associations are connected, than the Beech ; 

 the very mention of it recalls Virgil's 



" Tityre, tu, patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi, 

 Silvestrem tenui Musam ineditaris avena :" 



and a thousand images of rural life, of rustic lovers 

 carving their mistresses' names on its silver bark, of 

 tuneful shepherds disputing for bowls of its wood, 

 as curiously carved, and almost as much valued as if 

 of precious metal, all spring into the imagination. 



The Beech, however, has more solid claims on 

 admiration than those which merely affect the fancy. 

 It is a profitable as well as a beautiful tree ; for 

 though its wood, on account of being exceedingly 

 subject to the ravages of the worm, is not so fit as the 



