The Garden Magazine, April, 1920 
117 
FINEST KEEPING BEECH IN AMERICA AND REMINISCENT OF AN EARLY NURSERY 
This magnificent tree, in its youth one of the specimens of the old Parsons Nursery which occupied thissection, 
stands on what is now Washington Place, Flushing, Long Island — and is worthy a long pilgrimage to see 
joining parts of Szechuan the three species grow together, though 
F. longipetiolata is the more common and occurs at the lowest 
altitude. 
These three Beeches sorely puzzled me (though really they 
are as distinct as they possibly could be) and it was not until 
the eleventh and last year of my travels in China that I was able 
clearly to distinguish them. They were successfully transported 
to the Arnold Arboretum, and I am happy to say they are all 
growing there to-day. The Formosan Beech (F. Hayatae) is 
known only from a mountain in the heart of the savage coun- 
try, where I was not allowed to visit. No Beech has been 
found on the vast Himalayan range, and this is rather curious 
since so many Chinese types find their western limits in 
Sikkim and Nepal.’ The tenth and last species known — F. 
orientalis — is found on the Caucasus, in Asia Minor and in north 
Persia, the Caucasus being its centre of distribution. Of these 
ten Beeches Fagus multinervis of Dagelet Island and Fagus 
Hayatae, the Formosan species, are the only ones not growing in 
the Arnold Arboretum. 
The Common Beech is the only kind whose merit as a planted 
tree is properly known, and this is one of the very few European 
trees that thrives in eastern North America. It will grow on 
almost any soil except pure peat and heavy wet clay, but prefers 
dry soil and attains its greatest perfection on calcareous land 
or on deep sandy loam. On light sandy soil the bark often splits 
longitudinally and the trunks singularly resemble those of 
Hornbeam (Carpinus). At its best it is a magnificent tree a 
hundred and more feet tall with a trunk full twenty feet in 
girth. When grown close together the trunks are straight and 
free of branches for 30 to 50 feet from the ground or even more, 
but commonly the unbranched trunk is not more than 20 feet 
high. On old trees, and especially on those that have been 
pollarded as in Epping forest or the famous Burnham Beeches, 
huge gnarled burrs develop on the trunk and arrest attention. 
It is a gregarious species and its branches are so numerous and 
dense that few plants will grow beneath its shade. 
W HEN the Beech is planted to form pure groves the effect 
is perfect. It is an excellent avenue tree also provided it 
be planted thickly; but it is perhaps best of all as a screen tree. 
Owing to its dense branching habit it makes a splendid tall nar- 
row hedge, an additional advantage being that it carries its 
leaves, whose russet brown gives a sense of warmth, through the 
winter. Properly clipped, Beech hedges last for centuries, are 
impenetrable to man and beast, and the finest of windbreaks. 
In Europe, and especially in Belgium and England, Beech 
hedges are common. The most famous, however, is probably 
that of Meikleour in Perthshire, Scotland. It is claimed that 
this hedge was planted in 1745, and that the men who were 
planting it left their work to fight at the battle of Culloden, 
hiding their tools under the hedge — and never returned to claim 
them. It is 580 yards long and is composed of tall, straight 
stems set about eighteen inches apart on centres and now almost 
touching at their base. The average height is about 95 feet 
and it is branched from the ground up. This hedge is cut 
periodically, the work being done by men standing on a long 
ladder from which they are able to reach with shears to about 
60 ft. 
I here is also a beech-hedge at Achnacarry, on the estate of 
Cameron of Lochiel, whose history is even more remarkable. 
Here in 1715 the trees were laid in slantingly preparatory to 
planting when the men were called away to take part in the 
