132 



THE HORNBEAM. 



deal of heat; it is highly inflammable, lighting 

 easily and making a bright flame. This property 

 was known to the ancients, for Pliny speaks of its 

 being used for marriage torches. Its charcoal is 

 highly prized, not only for ordinary purposes, but 

 for the manufacture of gunpowder. The inner 

 bark is also used, according to Linnasus, for dyeing 

 yellow. 



A number of trees are recorded by Loudon 

 averaging from fifty to eighty feet high, with 

 trunks from six to nine feet in circumference, 

 but none requiring any particular notice. At Al- 

 dermaston Park, in Berkshire, is a group of fine 

 Hornbeams, which were evidently planted to form 

 one of the quaint devices so much in vogue in the 

 seventeenth century. The}' surround an elliptical 

 area thirty paces in length and fifteen in width, 

 and, crossing their branches high over head, form 

 a leafy dome far more imposing than anything 

 which the planter could have contemplated. The 

 original intention, probably was, that they should 

 have been trained to form a hedge, such as Eve- 

 lyn loved to look upon ; but they have long es- 

 caped from this unnatural thraldom, and now rise 

 to a height of fifty or sixty feet, with trunks vary- 

 ing from three to seven feet in circumference, and 

 beautifully covered with lichens. 



The Hop Hornbeam, occasionally met with in 

 gardens and pleasure-grounds, approaches the 

 common Hornbeam in character, but belongs 

 to the genus Ostrya. It is not a native of 

 Britain. 



