Four Trees 



especially if its tone tends toward golden 

 brown — if it is a copper rather than a truly 

 purple beech. Indeed, it looks better in 

 isolation than in any possible group. It is 

 evidently a specimen" tree, valued be- 

 cause of its peculiarities ; and besides, when 

 freely developed, it is very symmetrical, 

 and where color is abnormal one wants no 

 irregularities of form. 



If a purple beech cannot stand alone, and 

 yet must be planted, its associates should be 

 very carefully chosen. Of course, the best 

 will be its own relatives, the green beeches 

 — either the English form with its dark 

 green, glossy foliage, or the American with 

 its lighter foliage, paler bark, and more 

 graceful ramihcations. Faihng these, it 

 groups most agreeably with trees which re- 

 peat its own lines in a general way, as with 

 the scarlet maple, or with those which form 

 gentle contrasts, like the elliptical sugar- 

 maple. Its effect would be entirely spoiled 

 by near neighborhood with the broken, pict- 

 uresque outline of a white pine, or the hard, 

 conical shape of a spruce. Again, all trees 

 which accord well with it in form may not 

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