DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
149 
ish bark and finely divided spray, and is a common inhabi- 
tant of the forest in all temperate climates. In the United 
States, this tree is generally found congregated in very great 
quantities, wherever the soil is most favourable ; hundreds 
of acres being sometimes covered with this single kind of tim- 
ber. Such tracts are familiarly known as 11 beech woods.” 
The leaves of the beech are remarkably thin in texture, 
glazed and shining on the upper surface, and so thickly set 
upon the numerous branches, that it forms the darkest and 
densest shade of any of our deciduous forest trees. It ap- 
pears to have been highly valued by the ancients as a shade 
tree ; and Yirgil says in its praise, in a well-known Eclogue : 
“ Tityre, tu, patulse recubans sub tegmine fagi, 
Sylvestrera tenui musara meditaris avena.” 
It bears a small compressed nut or mast, oily and sweet, 
which once was much valued as an article of food. The 
most useful purpose to which we have heard of their being 
applied, as in the manufacture of an oil, scarcely inferior to 
olive oil. This is produced from the mast of the beech forests 
in the department of Oise, France, in immense quantities; 
more than a million of sacks of the nuts having been col- 
lected in that department in a single season. They are re- 
duced, when perfectly ripe, to a fine paste, and the oil is ex- 
tracted by gradual pressure. The product of oil, compared 
with the crushed nuts, is about sixteen per cent. ( Michaux , 
N. American Sylva.) 
In Europe, the wood of the beech is much used in the 
manufacture of various utensils ; but here, where our forests 
abound in woods vastly superior in strength, durability, and 
firmness, that of the beech is comparatively little esteemed. 
For ornamental purposes, the beech, from its eompara- 
