THE planter's guide. 



321 



among the pre-eminent forest trees, or timber trees as they 

 are technically called.'^' 



Of this fine tree there is, properly speaking, but one 

 species, [Fagus sylvatica,) the common Beech. Linnaeus 

 has joined to it the Chestnut ; but there is sufficient 

 reason from their properties, as well as from conyenience, 

 to keep them separate. The Beech has two remarkable 

 varieties, the spreading and the upright, or the early and 

 the late. These are improperly called by some, the wild 

 and the mountain, and by others, the white and the black 

 Beech. t Both Miller and Professor Martyn are of opi- 

 nion that there is but one kind of this tree, and that the 

 lightness and darkness in the colour of the wood (which 

 they conceiye have given rise to the notion of two sorts) 

 are the mere effects of soil. But neither of those judi- 

 cious writers, nor any writer hitherto, as far as I know, has 

 noticed the actual points of difference between them, 

 which are their very different style of ramification, and 

 their late and early leaf. From a very close attention to 

 the Beech, I am quite satisfied that there are two vari- 

 eties, if not two distinct species of the tree, and that the 

 characteristics just now mentioned are clearly distinguish- 

 able. To planters, and especially to those who wish to 

 produce immediate effects by means of the transplanting 

 machine, these distinctive properties are extremely inter- 

 esting, from the very different purposes to which the tree 

 will in consequence be applied. 



The Beech, like the Oak, is of the glandiferous class of 

 trees. It is probably a native of Britain, as well as of 

 several other European countries, although the fact as to 

 the former has been doubted by some writers. Caesar 

 positively asserts that he did not perceive here, as in 



Note VIII. 



t Note IX. 



X 



