272 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
^6* 
WEEPING BEECH — AT FLUSHING, N. Y. 
Sketched and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
The Ornamental Varieties of the Beech. 
The European and our native Beech are so 
nearly alike, that some botanists have consider- 
ed them as the same species. There is a slight, 
difference in the shape of the buds and leaves, 
but they so much resemble one another in form 
and habit, that for the purposes of planting as 
shade trees, they may be considered as identical. 
We have often wondered why the beech was 
so much neglected in tree planting. It may not 
have the grace of some other trees, but for af- 
fording a perfect shade, no tree is equal to it. 
Another thing which commends it, is its clean- 
liness and general freedom from the attacks of 
insects ; and besides, its foliage remains in Au- 
tumn much 
later than ^ 
that of other 
decid uous 
trees. Many 
of our read- 
ers will re- 
collect some 
partic u 1 a r 
beech tree 
whose cool 
shade was 
a favorite 
retreat in 
their boy- 
hood, and 
where en- 
joying the 
shelter that Fig. 2. -cut-leaved beech. 
it afforded, they whiled away the sultry hours of 
a summer's afternoon in carving some favorite 
name upon the bark, which offers a tempting 
surface to the knife. The European Beech has 
made several accidental sports which have been 
propagated by grafting, and are now very gen- 
erally distributed. One of the oldest of these 
is the purple beech, the original tree of which 
was discovered in Germany in the last century. 
The young leaves are of a cherry red, but as 
they grow older, they become darker, and event- 
ually are of so deep a purple as to give the 
tree, among the French, the name of black 
beech. The purple beech in Spring is a very 
attractive object; the young leaves when agi- 
tated by the wind, during bright sunshine, make 
such a brilliant show as to give the tree the ap- 
pearance of being on fire. The seeds of the 
purple beech have produced many colored va- 
rieties; the best known of these is the Copper 
beech, which has lighter colored foliage than its 
parent. Both these sorts are desirable in a col- 
lection of ornamental trees. 
Another and very interesting variety of the 
beech is the cut-leaved or the fern-leaved, in 
which the foliage is variously divided and in 
some forms even shredded. Figure 2 shows 
one form, but there are others in which the di- 
visions are much finer. This is a most grace- 
ful foliage, and the tree is worthy of being 
planted much more frequently than it is. Mr. 
Sargent, the well-known writer on landscape 
gardening, says, if he could have but six orna- 
mental trees, the fern-leaved beech would be 
among the first he would choose. — Many forest 
trees have produced seedlings, the branches of 
which have a drooping or pendulous form ; 
these are cornmonly called "weeping " trees, and 
we have weeping varieties of the elm, ash, birch, 
beech, and many other trees. None of these 
weeping trees are more beautiful than a well 
grown Weeping Beech. The original tree was 
found in the grounds of an English Park, and it 
has been propagated by grafting, and is now not 
very rare in this country, though not nearly as 
well-known as it should be. The finest speci- 
men within our knowledge is in the grounds of 
Messrs. Parsons & Co., at Flushing, N. Y. 
Willi the hope of bringing this most graceful 
tree to the notice of those about to plant for 
ornament, we Have had the specimen drawn 
and engraved. [The artist sent specially to 
make the sketch for ns, has failed to represent 
the real beauty of the tree ; it has a heavyi 
thick, dark foliage, and every branch and leaf 
should have been represented as pendulous- 
hanging almost perpendicularly downward— 
the upper branches less spreading, and turning 
in a short curve, and the lower ones thickly 
massed, and gracefully drooping their ends 
to the earth.] Always attractive, it is toward 
sunset that this tree shows its beauty most 
strikingly ; then the pendulous branches throw 
deep shadows, and the whole tree is a picture of 
light and shade worthy of the study of an artist. 
For small places and for situatious near the 
house, no tree presents more desirable qualities 
than the weeping beech. 
Tall Trees— The Douglass Fir. 
Many of our readers will remember an ac- 
count published in the Agriculturist some tiino 
since, of an enormous flagstaff sent to England 
from Oregon. The gentleman who presented 
it gives the following interesting particulars 
concerning the growth of trees in that State, 
which we find in the London Agr. Gazette: 
" Douglas Fir, better known in this part of 
the world as Oregon Yellow Pine, is generally 
from 200 to 300 feet high, frequently 150 to the 
first branch ; has a corrugated bark on a full- 
grown tree, 6 or 7 inches thick ; sapwood, 2 to 
3 inches thick ; roots spread over a large extent 
of ground, but no tap root, or root growing 
from the center downward. The largest tree 
that I have had cut, was one measuring 9 feet at 
the but, including the bark, and 306 feet from 
the but to the top; it squared, clear of sap, at 
45 feet from but, 40 inches ; it was cut at 130 
feet, this being the proportion of length to di 
ameter of a mast, for which purpose I sent it 
to England in 1858. One great advantage the 
Douglas Pine (generally so called in England), 
has over all other trees, is the very little taper 
I have seen trees in which at first you could not 
tell the top from the but — I mean trees cut for 
masts of 100 to 130 feet long. For all purposes 
this is an advantage, inasmuch as the tree con- 
tains more timber, but for ship masts this is an 
invaluable quality. I have recently built a ves- 
sel of 200 tons, and no other timber but Doug- 
las Pine was used in her construction. 
" Spruce is plentiful, but less abundant than 
Douglas Pine ; it is closer grained, and I think 
better timber than the same wood of Canada; 
grows to about 200 feet high, and fully as great 
diameter as the Douglas Pine ; the roots furnish 
knees for ship-building purposes, which I 
consider equal to Oak. 
" Hemlock is not held in much repute here. 
I have only seen it used for wharf piles. It is 
plentiful and grows to a hight of 150 to 200 feet. 
"White Pine is very scarce here, consequent- 
ly very valuable, as it is almost the only wood 
we have fit for joiners' fine purposes. It grows 
about 200 feet high ; 40 inches is a large tree. 
"Red Cedar has generally a short trunk, with 
large spreading branches. When it can be found 
clear of knots, it is as valuable as White Pine. 
The Indians make their canoes from this tree, 
hollowing it out ; many of them convey 50 to 
00 men, and the most perfect models of the clip- 
per I have seen. I consider the Cedar the most 
ornamental tree I have met with. It is gener- 
ally found near the water, or, I should rather 
say, grows larger near the water, and on swampy 
ground ; but I have found it in the interior of 
this island, near the lakes on the side of the ris- 
