TfiE PRINCIPLES OP BOTANt. 
?24 
pleasing tree,” or Evelyn to affirm that “ they make spreading 
trees and noble shades,” we would assert that the visitor of the 
Burnham Beeches, who is not struck with their huge quaint 
picturesque forms can have hut little sentiment in his com¬ 
position, and yet these specimens have been by pollarding 
shorn of half their splendours. 
The grand separate specimens to be met with on the Cottes- 
wolds from which the drawing of the beech in Selby’s 
* History of British Forest Trees’ might possibly have been 
taken, carved for a century with names of loving visitors, 
most vividly recalls the lines of Campbell, only instead of 
thrice twenty we may say thrice forty “ summers.” 
“ Thrice twenty summers have I stood, 
In bloomless, fruitless solitude. 
Since childhood, in my rustling bower 
First spent its sweet and sportive hour. 
Since youthful lovers in my shade. 
Their vows of truth and rapture paid; 
And on my trunk’s surviving frame 
Carved many a long forgotten name. 
Or by the vows of gentle sound 
First breathed upon this sacred ground. 
By all that love hath whispered here, 
Or beauty heard with ravished ear. 
As love’s own altar honour me, 
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree.” 
The size and importance of the beech place it in the 
foremost rank of British forest trees, while it is not one of the 
least useful. Its timber is employed for various purposes, 
such as for furniture, millwork, wooden machinery, piles, 
planks for ships, &c. It is much used in turnery, and it 
would seem that we even export it from England for conti¬ 
nental use in turning and cabinet work. 
In Germany it is said that “ thin slices of beech wood were 
early used by the bookbinders instead of pasteboard for 
forming sides to thick volumes, and from the German name 
of this wood, buck , “ originally came book.” 
No wood is better adapted for fuel than beech, and we 
delight in basking before its clear burning blocks in winter, 
emitting as it does but little smoke. From the small 
quantity of moisture it contains it is a most economical wood 
to buy, and has the further merit of being ready for imme* 
diate use though sawn up as soon as felled. 1 • 
The mast of the beech is much relished by pigs, but of 
late years it has been nefariously used for the adultera- 
1 Wood spirit and Pyloligneous acid are derived from the distillation of 
Beech.—J. B. 
