48 



BRITISH FOREST TREES. 



Beech-Tree — Fagiis sylvatica. 



This hardy tree occupies fully as wide a range, 

 both of soil and climate, as the oak, and is generally 

 the fastest growing, most vigorous of all oiu* hard- 

 wood kinds, prospering on all soils, on the dry and 

 moist, the aluminous, the calcareous, the sihceous, 

 provided water does not stagnate. It combines mag- 

 nificence mth beauty, being at once the Hercules 

 and Adonis of our Sylva. The timber of our beech, 

 while green, is by far the hardest of our large grow- 

 ing trees, and, in the American forest, the members 

 of the beechen family match better than those of any 

 other, with the perseverance of the ruthless Yankee ; 

 the roots retaining the hardness deeper in the earth 

 than those of any other tree, and being so plaited and 

 netted throughout the ground for a considerable 

 space around the bulb, that it is next to impossible 

 to trench or dig over the soil till they have decayed. 



As we have before stated, the timber of the beech- 

 tree soon corrupts if it is not speedily dried, or kept 

 in water after being cut down, and is equally liable 

 to corruption in the tree when deprived of life by 

 w^ounds or other injmy. Beech has a matm-ed and 

 sap wood, although they are not very distinguishable, 

 being nearly of one colour. The former has consi- 



