THE BEECH. 



339 



time, the trees push up again, and the leaves on 

 the shoots so produced seldom fail to remain on 

 the branches during the winter. Young trees 

 generally are, as it has been observed above, 

 liable to the same peculiarity, but not all in the 

 same degree. On this account, fences of young 

 Beech trees may be employed with advantage 

 in flower-gardens, as with their persistent foliage 

 they screen the tender plants during the mnter. 

 Gilbert White remarks, that Beeches love to 

 grow in crowded situations, and Vvill insinuate 

 themselves through the thickest covert, so as 

 to surmomit it all ; they are therefore properly 

 applied to mend thin places in tail hedges : care 

 should be taken, however, not to plant them 

 in situations where the drip might be injurious 

 to the vegetation beneath. Yv^here squirrels are 

 abundant, it is sometimes found necessary to 

 protect the trunks of young Beeches by the 

 application of tar and grease, these destructive 

 little animals being given, especially in spring, 

 to tearing off the bark in strips, in search of the 

 tender inner bark. 



An interesting fact recorded by Evelyn* would 

 tend to show that many of our natural Beech 

 woods stand where Oaks originally grew : That 

 wdiich I would observe to you from the wood 

 at Wooton is, that vrhere goodly Oaks grew, and 

 were cut down by my grandfather almost a hmidred 

 years since, is now altogether Beech ; and where 

 m.y Brother has extirpated the Beech, there rises 

 Birch. Under the Beech spring up innumerable 

 Hollies, which, growing thick and close together 

 in one of the woods next the meadow, is a vireticm-f 



* Letter in Aubrey's Surrey. f A leafy wood. 



