CHAP. CV.

coryla'cehs. ea'gus.

1953

trees. There is a specimen at Oriel Temple, in Ireland , 33 ft. high,diameter of the head 24 ft. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley informs us,in a letter dated June 2. 1837, that in “one of the plantationsbordering Milton Park, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam, in Northamp-tonshire , there is a beautiful accidental weeping variety of the beech.The trees have been cleared round it, and it is a very flourishingyoung tree. The branches are beautifully pendent, and even thelast six feet of the top bend down. Mr. Henderson, the very in-telligent gardener, has propagated it by grafts. The height is 50 ft.,and the girt 3 ft. at 1 ft. from the base, by measurement just madefor the purpose.” So splendid a variety will, we trust, soon find itsway into the public nurseries.

Other British Varieties or Variations. In some beech woods, trees arefound with a rough and somewhat chapped bark; and these are called thehay beech by the woodmen in Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire ;but we have not heard of the kind having been propagated either by seedsor grafting. There is also what joiners call the red, or the yellow, beech,and the white beech; the former having dark-coloured wood, and the latterhaving the wood white. These two varieties are commonly considered asbeing produced by the locality, the darker wood growing in the better soil.According to Mathews, “ the yellow beech grows faster and straighter, andis cleaner and freer of black knots, and also more pleasantly worked thanthe white; but it corrupts much sooner in the bark when cut down. Thisvariety of beech, when properly trained,” he continues, “ is, probably, themost profitable hard wood that we can raise: when planked, it bends plea-santly under the shipwright to the curvature of the vessel’s side. The treeis also much superior in size and grace of outline to the white.” ( On Nav.Tim., p. 49.) This variety ought to be sought out in beech woods, or inplantations, and the mast collected from it for propagation : it ought alsoto be propagated by grafting or budding, as an experiment to try whetherthe colour of wood can be continued without reference to the soil on whichthe stock grows. Mitchell says there are two sorts of beech, the black andthe white wooded; but he knows no sort of botanical distinction betweenthem. He never met, he adds, “ with five trees of the black beech on anyestate,” and, therefore, concludes that the colour of the wood is merely avariation resulting from soil.

iF.j.8 americana ; F. sylvestris Micluc. N. Amer. Syl., 3., t. 107.; whiteBeech, Amer.; is generally considered by botanists as identical with thecommon European beech. This it very probably is ; but, from thefigure in Michaux, and the description given by him of the wood, itappears to us somewhat different from the species. In North Ame-rica , it forms one of the tallest and most majestic trees of the forest,abounding in the middle, western, and southern states; but mostabundant in the middle and western states, and composing largemasses in Genessee, Kentucky, and Tennessee , in deep moist soil,and in a cool atmosphere. The trunks of the trees are frequently8 ft., 9 ft., and 11 ft. in circumference, and more than 100 ft. high.The tree is less branchy than the F. ferruginea, or red beech ofAmerica ; and the perfect wood bears but a small proportion to thesap, frequently occupying only 3 in. in a trunk 1 ft. 6 in. in diameter.The wood of the white beech is little valued in America , even forfuel; and the bark is used for tanning, but is little esteemed; and,therefore, in point of utility, the tree cannot be recommended forculture in Europe ; but, if it should prove distinct from the commonbeech, it well deserves introduction as an ornamental variety.

Description. The European beech is a handsome umbrageous tree, com-piling magnificence with beauty; and being, as Mathews observes, at onceme Hercules and Adonis of our sylva. It has a smooth thin bark, which is

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