314 



THE BEECH. 



success of his military operations being slight, he 

 would very willingly have them infer, from the 

 minuteness with which he particularised the pro- 

 duce of the island, that he had penetrated far into 

 the country, but had met with no adventures 

 worth recording. This seems the readiest way 

 of meetino' the diihcultv. Other writers suo-o-est 

 that some other tree than the Beech may be 

 identical with the Fagus of Csesar, and have en- 

 deavoured to show that he meant the Chestnut. 

 But that this opinion is erroneous, will appear 

 from the foUo^^ing consideration. 



Tire Roman poets make frequent mention of 

 the tree {Fagus) which Caesar declares to be not 

 a native of Britain.^ They describe it as being 

 lofty, furnished with wide-spreading branches, 

 casting a dense shade, loving the hill side, at- 

 taining a great age, and furnished with so smooth 

 a bark, that rustics selected it to carve their 

 names on, and even for the reception of their 

 poetical effusions. f Virgil states that it was 



* The (pyjyo: (pJiepos) of Theophrastus does not appear to be the 

 same as the Fagus of the Romans, though both names have the same 

 etymology, from (py.yco (pJiaao), to eat. Our Beech is most probably 

 the tree which that author calls cclylXoo'^ {cegilops)^ and describes as 

 " a mast-bearing tree, fui'nished with a very straight trunk, xevy 

 lofty, having a smoother bark than any of the other mast-bearing 

 trees, and growing but sparingly in enclosed country."' (Theophras- 

 Tus de Flantis, lib. ii.) The :p'/;yo; of Theophrastus was probably the 

 ^Escuh/s of the Romans. 



t Among the many anecdotes connected with the history of 

 printing, which have come down to us, that related by Hadrian 

 Junius deseiwes to be noticed in this place. About the year 1441, 

 Lawrence Koster, a citizen of Haarlem, walking in a suburban 

 grove, began hrst to fashion Beech-bark into letters, which being im- 

 pressed upon paper, reversed in the manner of a seal, produced one 

 verse, then another, as his fancy pleased, to be for copies to the chil-- 

 dren of his son-in-law."' This hint he subisequently improA'ed upon, 



