Zbe Selbome Society’s fll>aga3tne 
No. 1 7. MAY 15, 1891. Vol. II. 
A BEECH WOOD IN SPRING. 
“ Recubans sub tegmine fagi.” VlRGIL, Bucolic a, Erl. i. 
“Beech, the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its smooth 
bark, its glossy foliage, or its graceful pendulous boughs.”— Gilbert White’s 
Natural History of Selbome, Letter /. 
HO can describe the exquisite loveliness of a forest glade 
on one of those brilliant days in spring or early summer 
when the sun is pouring floods of light amongst the 
young beech leaves, and they are sending down their 
greenish golden glow of colour upon the carpet of flowers 
beneath ? There is a kind of unearthly glamour in the scene 
which makes one almost expect to see the fairies themselves 
come tripping out of the old hollow moss-curtained tree stems. 
Truly, it would need an elfin’s pen to do justice to such a scene ; 
but one may think about it, and perhaps convey some of its 
sweetness to toiling minds, weary with prosaic work, dwelling 
possibly far away from golden beech leaves, or nodding violets, 
peeping out of their thymy banks. 
From the fallen tree stem where I sit, the road is carpeted 
with last year’s leaves, all sere and crisp; out of the brown buds 
overhead thousands of silvery fringed young leaves, unfolding 
and quivering in the gentle breezes, are sending their soft grey- 
shadows down in flickering traceries upon the mossy ground. 
On one side there is a light bank, rich in colour, lent to it by 
lichen growths of many kinds, glossy ivy leaves are throwing 
their own picturesque garlands over the grey masses of rocks, 
amongst which old tree roots are twining in and out like great 
brown snakes seeking their prey. Here and there the blue 
veronica looks out with its “angel eyes,”* pink campion is 
beginning to open its buds, the snowy stellaria holds up its 
A rustic name for the plant. 
