578 DODECANDRfA. TRIGYNIA. Castanea, 
B. Catkin naked: Cah five or six-cleft: Siam, ten to 
twenty. 
nary intertwining of the branches, but in some instances, an actual growing into each 
other | 
ee Huge trunks! and each particular trunk a growth 
Of intertwisted fibres, serpentine. 
Up-coiling, and invet’rately involv’d.” Wordsworth. 
The bark is remarkably even and silvery, which, added to the splendour and smoothness 
of its foliage, gives a striking delicacy to its appearance. The Beech, therefore, standing 
singly, and suffered to form its own natural head, is highly ornamental; and its leaves 
varying their hue, (to the richest shades of brown), as the autumn approaches, renders it 
still more desirable. Gilpin describes the spray of the Beech as observing the same kind of 
alternacy as that of the Elm : but it shoots in angles still more acute—the distance between 
each twig is wider, and it forms a kind of zigzag in its course. No bark tempts the lover so 
much to make it the depository of his mistress’s name. It conveys a happy emblem ; 
—-———* “ Crescent illae 5 crescetis arnores; ” 
As the letters of our names increase, so may our love. 
To which practice Virgil makes other allusions: and nearly the same beautiful idea is 
preserved in the epistle of iEnone to Paris: 
tc Incisae servant a te mea nomina Fagi: 
Et legor iEnone falce notata tua. 
Et quantum trunci, tantum mea nomina crescunt: 
Crescite, et in titulos surgite recta meos.” Ovid. 
But no poet, ancient or modern, amplifies this occasion more successfully than our own 
Thomson, in the episode of Damon and Musidora; not even Sannazaro in his Arcadia, 
whose hero wrote his mournful song “ in una verde corteccia di Faggio in an age 
loo, when 
<i Not a Beech but bore some cipher. 
Tender word, or amorous text.” 
This custom of carving favourite names on the bark of trees, probably originated 
in the simplicity of nature, and consequently, in the opinion of Dr. Hunter, must 
have been common to all ages. t( A man haunts the forest that abuses our young 
trees with carving 66 Rosalind” upon the bark.” Shaks. Nor hath Campbell neglected to 
avail himself of the argument in his elegant and feeling appeal in behalf of the Beech tree. 
i( Thrice twenty summers I have 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 
Carv'd many a long-forgotten name : 
Oh ! by the vows of gentle sound, 
First breath’d upon this sacred ground 3 
By all that love hath whisper’d here, 
Or beauty heard, with ravish’d ear 5 
As love’s own altar honour me, 
Spare, woodman, spare the Beechen tree'* 
Gilpin admits Virgil to be <c right in choosing the Beech for its shade. No tree forms 
so complete a roof. If you wish either shade, or shelter, you will find it best 
w Patulae sub tegmine Fagi** 
GarciTassa has some beautifully descriptive passages on this subject: 
