12 
LAWN AND SHADE TREES. 
to give it regularity and symmetry of form. A deep loamy, 
rather moist soil gives it most vigor and causes it to grow to a 
large size; but it also grows freely in poor thin soils, as the 
roots spread widely and keep near the surface. It is' admirably 
adapted to grouping with the hemlock, and with sequoia gigantea , 
or the mammoth evergreen tree of California ; but as a single 
lawn tree it has no superior, and should be planted wherever 
Fig. 2.— American Beech. 
room can be given for its development without destroying 
breadth or character of grounds. 
Of fancy varieties of the beech, the true purple-leaved (jpur- 
pured) is the most desirable. It has rather stronger limbs and 
twigs than the common plain variety, and the young shoots and 
buds are of a rose color, while the foliage when young or half 
grown is of a reddish purple tinge, forming a pleasing and 
