148 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
as “ beech woods/' The leaves of the beecn 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 appears to have 
been highly valued by the ancients as a shade tree ; and 
Virgil says in its praise, in a well-known Eclogue : 
“ Tityre, tu patulee recubans sub tegmine fagi, 
Sylvestrem tenui musam 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, is 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 collected in that department in a single 
season. They are reduced, when perfectly ripe, to a fine 
paste, and the oil is extracted 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. 
The beech is quite handsome and graceful when young, 
and when large it forms one of the heaviest and grandest 
of beautiful park trees. From this massy quality, how- 
ever, it is excellently adapted to mingle with other trees 
when a thick anc: impenetrable mass of foliage is desired ; 
