THE PRINCIPLES OP BOTANY. 
723 
are the curious plants which shelter themselves beneath 
them welcome to the botanists. In the park we have just 
mentioned it has been our lot to find the two fungi men¬ 
tioned by Mrs. Lankester in the following words: — 
“ The beech shelters and its shade is the favoured locality 
of two well-known and valuable fungi—the Morchella escu - 
lento, , the morel, and Tuber cibarium, the common truffle. 
The morel is a mushroom-like fungus, growing in great 
abundance in the forests of Germany and France, particularly 
after any of the trees had been burned down. This having 
been observed, led in Germany to the burning of woods in 
order to produce morels, and, consequently, a great number 
of valuable trees were destroyed until it was forbidden by 
law. The common truffle is, if possible, more highly prized 
than the morel; it is also more difficult to find, as instead of 
appearing above the surface like a mushroom, it is buried in 
the ground like a potato. They are generally found by dogs 
or pigs trained for the purpose.” We have enjoyed both 
these delicacies gathered from these wondrous woods, but 
far more have we been delighted with seeing here and there 
peeping through the rustling carpet of brown leaves such 
curious plants as 
Monotropa hypopitys , Bird’s nest. 
Lister a nidus avis , Bird’s-nest orchis. 
Lpipactis latifolia , Broad-leaved helleborine. 
,, yrandijiora , large white helleborine. 
,, ensifolia , narrow-leaved helleborine. 
Strange that all these should spread beneath the planted 
trees. Of the latter, indeed, we only found two specimens , 
which, thinking there was sure to be more, were seized by my 
companion and myself, but, alas ! though we looked year after 
year for other specimens, we have never been so fortunate as to 
find them, and we are, therefore, led to think that the plants 
just noted were the only two of this species which were ever 
found in the Cotteswold district. 
But we have wandered “ into mid wood shade,” where the 
beech is tall and comparatively slender. If, however, we would 
see the beech in all his giant glory we must visit solitary 
trees such as are to he found here and there on the oolitic 
or the chalk hills, with boles varying from twenty to over 
thirty feet in circumference. Jesse in his account of forest 
trees mentions one near Sawyer’s Lodge in Windsor Forest, 
which measures at six feet from the ground, thirty-six feet in 
circumference. 
Leaving such authorities as Gilpin to say that, “ on the 
whole, the massy full-grown luxuriant beech is rather a dis- 
