]958

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

80 ft. to 90 ft. high, with clear trunks of from 30 ft. to 40 ft.; and from 8 ft.to 14 ft. in circumference at 4 ft. from the ground. We saw some of thesemagnificent trees in 1831, and can bear testimony to the amplitude of theirdimensions, and to their being apparently in good health; though, we believe,some of those alluded to by Mitchell have been cut down since his time.

Poetical and legendary Allusions. The poetical allusions to the beech,among the Latin poets, are very numerous : Virgil frequently mentions it,several instances of which have been quoted in p. 1956.; but, among the mostcelebrated, are the well-known lines, —

“ Tityre, tu, patulaa recubans sub tegmine fagi,

Sylvestrem tenui musam meditaris avena.”.

“ Beneath the shade which beechen boughs diffuse.

You, Tityrus, entertain your sylvan Muse.” Dryden’s Virgil.

And the following : —

“ Or shall I rather the sad verse repeatWhich on the beech’s bark I lately writ ?” Dryden’s Virgil.

In the third Eclogue, Virgil makes his shepherds boast of their beechen bowls.Tibullus says,—

-“ No wars did men molest,

When only beechen bowls were in request.”

In more modern times, we may quote the well-known lines from Tasso’s

Gerusa/emme Uberata : —

** Nella scorza de’ faggi e degli allori a

Segnb P amato nome in mille guise.” *

14 On the smooth beechen rind the pensive dameCarves in a thousand forms her Tancred’s name.’’ Hoole’s Tasso.

Garcilasso, the Spanish poet, has several allusions to this tree : —

“ Under the branches of the beech we flungOur limbs at ease, and our bent bows unstrung.

Thus idly lying, we inspired with zest

The sweet fresh spirit breathing from the west.” Wiffen’a Garcilasso.

“ The sun, from rosy billows risen, had ray’d

With gold the mountain tops, when at the footOf a tall beech romantic, whose green shadeFell on a brook, that, sweet.voiced as a lute,

Through lively pastures wound its sparkling way,

Sad on the daisied turf Salicio lay.” Ibid.

** Not a beech but bears some cipher,

Tender word, or amorous text:

If one vale sounds Angelina,

Angelina sounds the next.” Don Luis de Gongora.

Among the English poets, we may find numerous allusions to, and descrip-tions of, the beech ; and of these we shall give a few. Milton says, —

“ In beechen goblets let their bev’rage shine,

Cool from the crystal spring their sober wine.”

Beaumont and Fletcher, in the Faithfid Shepherdess , allude to Pan, —

“ That sleeping lies in a deep glade,

Under a broad beech’s shade.”

Leigh Hunt, in a translation from Theocritus, says,—

“ I ran to meet you, as the traveller

Gets from the sun under a shady beech.”

The most generally quoted lines in English, on the beech tree, are, however,those of Gray, Campbell, and Wordsworth, all of which we shall give below.Gray says, —

** There at the foot of yonder nodding beech,

That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,

His listless length at noontide he would stretch,

And pore upon the brook that bubbled by.” Gray.

Campbell’s lines are entitled “ The Beech Tree’s Petition —