THE planter's GUIDE. 



323 



tree deliglits most in light, clialkj, or sandy loams, and 

 calcareous soils, in all of which it shoots with wonderful 

 vigom\ It will gTow likewise on stiff soils, though not with 

 the same luxuriance ; but it is decidedly the hardiest of all 

 deciduous trees, and will succeed where the soil is too wet, 

 or too dry, and I may also add too poor, for most other 

 trees to live. It is for that reason quite inyaluable to the 

 planter or the transplanter, whether for utility or ornament. 



But, says Gilpin, (whose taste it would be a bold mea- 

 sure to call in question,) the Beech is not a picturesque tree, 

 although it is one of great fame in that particular. The 

 trunk, he admits, is often picturesque from its bold pro- 

 jections, its irregular flutings, and the mosses and lichens 

 with wliich it is diversified. Its beautiful smoothness 

 likewise contrasts agTeeably with these rougher append- 

 ages. He farther allows that the tree is sometimes of 

 very happy composition, from the light and floating cha- 

 racter of the foliage ; but that, contrary to the general 

 ■nature of trees, it is most pleasing in its juyenile state ; 

 therefore a young Beech with its spiry branches, hanging 

 in loose and easy forms, is often beautiful. However, the 

 forest Beech, in a dry and hungiy soil, will often preserve 

 the lightness of youth in the maturity of age. Fm'ther, 

 this accurate observer acknowledges that the leaf of these 

 trees, young and old, is most accommodating in landscape ; 

 that the beauty of their autumnal hues, of a glowing 

 orange, is striking to a degree ; and that when they are 

 seen with the Oak, yet verdant, it produces one of the 

 finest oppositions of tint that the forest can furnish. Even 

 the pleasing circumstance of the lover being tempted by 

 the softness of the bark to cut his mistress's name in it, 

 does not escape him. It conveys, he says, a happy 

 emblem : — 



" Crescent illse, crescetis amores." 



