CHAP. CV.

Coryla'ceae. ja'gus.

1965

hedge may be trained to a great height (even 30 ft. or 40 ft.), and still be keptquite narrow at the base, like the hornbeam: but beech is greatly superior to thehornbeam, in the richer colour of its foliage. In Belgium , particularly in thevillage of St. Nicholas , between Ghent and Antwerp , very close and handsomehedges are made, with young beech trees, planted 7 in. or 8 in. apart, withtheir heads inclining in opposite directions, at an angle of 45°, so as to crossone another at right angles, and thus form a wall of trelliswork, the opensquares of which are 5 in. or 6 in. on the side. During the first year, theplants are bound together with osiers at the points of intersection, where theyfinally become grafted, and grow together. Dr. Neill found a hedge of thissort 5 ft. high, between Conti and Mechlin, in 1817. (See Journ .Hort. Tour.,p. 270.)

As an ornamental Tree for the park and the lawn, especially near the man-sion, the beech has many important advantages. Though its head is morecompact and lumpish than that of the oak, the elm, or the ash, yet its lowerbranches hang down to the ground in more pliant and graceful forms thanthose of any of these trees. The points of these branches turn up witha curve, which, though not picturesque, has a character of its own, which willbe found generally pleasing. The leaves are beautiful in every period of theirexistence: nothing can be finer than their transparent delicacy when expand-ing, and for some weeks afterwards. In summer, their smooth texture, andtheir deep yet lively green, are highly gratifying to the eye; and the warmth oftheir umber tint, when they hang on the trees during the winter season, as con-trasted with the deep and solemn green of pines and firs, has a rich, striking,and most agreeable effect in landscape. Hence a few beech trees are verydesirable on the margin of pine and fir woods, or among evergreens generally;more especially when the soil is somewhat good and moist; under which cir-cumstances alone will full-grown beech trees retain their leaves during thewinter. So desirable is the effect produced by the beech with its leaves onin the winter season, that when the trees, from age or any other cause, droptheir leaves in autumn, we would recommend the substituting of young trees,which seldom fail to retain their leaves during winter, till they approachtowards a timber size. It is certain, however, that some individual beechesare much more apt to retain their leaves through winter than others; forwhich reason a sufficient number of young trees ought to be planted, to allowof the rooting out of those which do not answer the end in view. Beechtrees under 30 or 40 years’ growth, when cut down to the ground, push upagain; and the leaves on the shoots so produced seldom fail to remain onduring the winter. Low growths of this sort will, in many cases, produce thedesired effect as well as trees; a circumstance which may afford a useful hintto the possessors of grounds of limited extent.

The leaves of the beech are less liable to be eaten, either by insects or bycattle, than those of almost any other tree. The first circumstance rendersthe beech very desirable for situations near the eye, and for avenues aridhedges; and the second renders it one of the best park trees, since itsbranches, though they are injured by cattle, are far less so than those of theoak and the elm. Two other circumstances which render this an excellentpark tree are, the food which its mast affords to deer and squirrels, to pea-cocks and other ornamental poultry, and to pigeons, thrushes, blackbirds,and other birds. The density of its head makes it an excellent nightlyshelter for singing birds. The smoothness and light colour of the bark, andthe circumstance of the trunk being clothed with branches to within a shortdistance of the ground, render it a desirable tree to place a seat under;the eye feeling the light colour of the smooth bark to be more enliveningthan the dark rough-furrowed bark of the oak or English elm, the darksmooth gloomy bark of the Scotch elm, the lichen-covered hoary bark ofme ash, or the reddish brown, cracked, and scaly bark of the Scotch pine,lhe only tree which can be compared to the beech, as one to sit under, is theplatanus; but the shade of this last tree is much less dense. The ancients