332 
DECIDUOUS TREES, 
Nor summer bud perfume the dew 
Of rosy blush, or yellow hue ; 
Nor fruits of autumn, blossom born, 
My green and glossy leaves adorn ; 
Nor murmuring tribes from me derive 
The ambrosial amber of the hive; 
Yet leave this barren spot to me: 
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree ! 
Thrice twenty summers I have seen 
The sky grow bright, the forest green , 
And many a wintry wind have stood 
In bloomless, fruitless solitude. 
Since childhood, in my pleasant bower. 
First spent its sweet and sportive hour; 
Since youthful lovers in my shade 
Their vows of truth and lapture made. 
And on my trunks’ surviving frame 
Carved many a long-forgotten name. 
Oh ! by the sighs of gentle sound. 
First breathed upon this sacred ground , 
By all that love has whispered there. 
Or beauty heard with ravished ear ; 
As love’s own altar, honor me: 
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree 
THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT-TREE. Castanea amej'icana. 
This, our common native chestnut, is one of the glories of 
the rocky hill-sides and pastures of New England, and well known 
throughout the northern States, and on the mountains of the 
southern States. It is a tree of great size, grand character, and 
rapid growth. In form, when mature, it resembles the white oak, 
but assumes its grand air much younger. Fig. 105, is a por- 
trait of a chestnut about fifty years old, and exhibits the general 
character of the tree at that age. Afterwards it increases more 
rapidly in the size of its trunk and branches than in height or 
lateral extension, and requires about a hundred years to attain 
its noblest development ; while the white oak does not exhibit its 
grandest character in less than twice that time. In its early 
growth it is a little rounder, and more formal, than the white oak ; 
but develops so much more rapidly that, at middle age (fifty), it 
is more “ oak-like ” than the oak itself, of the same age. The 
chestnut is particularly attached to rocky situations, or loose gravelly 
