be found a tree, scarcely less useful | and picturesque, than that which is at once the ornament and blessing of the - sultry plains of India, the spicy groves of Ceylon, or the verdant islands of the Pacific Ocean ? Such a tree is the beech, no less distinguished for classical associations, beauty of appearance, and density of shade, than for general utility, and the variety of purposes to which they can be applied. And although the progress of refinement, and the introduction of foreign luxuries, may have superseded and caused us to overlook many of the products, for which in days of yore it was so highly esteemed, it will not prove an uninteresting or unprofitable employment to trace in "the branching beech,' no less than the cocoa palm, the provision made by the God of nature to satisfy the desires, and provide for the wants of every living thing.

"Hence, in the world's best years, the humble shed

Was happily and fully furnished;
Beech made their chests, their beds, and their

joined stools,

Beech made the board, the platters, and the

bowls :"

while, as another writer tells us, they derived from

"The wood, a house; the leaves, a bed."

Pliny relates that beechen vessels were employed in religious ceremonies, though in general they were considered as the furniture of the meanest people.

"No wars did men molest,

When only beechen bowls were in request."

These were sometimes curiously carved, and were then considered of great value: such were those two which Menalcus, when contending with Damætus for the prize of song, offered to stake against the "brindled heifer" of his adversary, "The pawn I proffer shall be full as good;

Two bowls I have, well turned, of beechen wood,

Both by divine Alcimedon were made;
To neither of them yet the lip is laid;
The ivy's stem, its fruit, its foliage, lurk
In various shapes around the curious work.
Two figures on the side embossed appear,

Conon, and, what's his name who made the

year?"

Damætus in reply, describes those he already possessed :

"And I have two, to match your pair at home;

Europe, or the rural peasant of classic days. Its fibrous shell enclosed a white oleaginous nut, described by Pliny as "the sweetest of all mast," and as used both for food and medicine. On this, we are told, the people of Chios subsisted during a siege, and beechen mast formed in those days, as in the present time, the main support of their herds of swine, on which they in a great measure depended for food. These animals devour greedily, and soon fatten on this mast; hence we may infer the importance of this tree when forests were valued by the number of swine they would support, from the abundance of the crop it affords, both from the ease with which the beech is propagated, and the rapidity of its growth.

It has been questioned, whether the beech is indigenous to this island, as Cesar, in his Commentaries, expressly states that he found no fagi in Britain. Some writers have considered that he here alludes to the quercus esculus, which very nearly resembles the beech; and from the fact of its producing edible nuts, may have been aptly included rived from the Greek word phego, to under the name of fagus, which is deeat. But from the great identity which exists between our tree and that so frequently described by Virgil, others have been inclined to believe with Evelyn that this assertion of the Roman general proceeded "from a grand mistake, or rather for that he had not travelled much up into the country." much is certain, that if not an aboriginal inhabitant, the beech must have been introduced into this country by the Romans at a very early period, as all the earliest writers upon such subjects enumerate it among our native timber trees. Additional confirmation has been

Thus

come;

The kimbo handles seem with bearsfoot carved, And never yet to table have been served: Where Orpheus on his lyre laments his love, With beasts encompass'd, and a dancing grove." But it was as "the mastful beech" that the tree was particularly esteemed by the untutored savage of ancient

planted among other trees, it frequently exceeds one hundred feet. They make spreading trees and noble shades," says Evelyn, "with their well furnished and glittering leaves, being set at forty feet distance; but they grow taller and

more upright in the forests. In the valleys, where they stand nearest in consort, they will grow to a stupendous procerity, though the soil be stony and very barren; also upon the declivities, sides, and tops of hills." But although it will thrive in any dry situation, it attains the greatest perfection in a sandy loam or calcareous soil. Some of the finest specimens this island produces are found upon the chalk ridge, which inter

sects the southern counties. The Hanger, a wood immortalized by the historian of Selbourne, forms a part of this ridge, and, to use the words of Mr. White," the covert of this eminence is altogether beech, the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its smooth rind or bark, its glossy foliage or graceful pendulous boughs." We have the more pleasure in quoting the naturalist's animated eulogium on his favourite tree, as another writer, an acknowledged oracle on forest scenery, has severely censured its peculiar characteristics. "The

massy,

full grown, luxuriant beech," says he, "is rather a displeasing tree. It is made up of littlenesses, seldom exhibiting those tufted cups or hollow dark recesses, which disport in the several grand branches of the beautiful kind of trees. The branches are fantastically wreathed and disproportioned, twining awkwardly among each other, and running often into long unwearied lines; in short, we rarely see a beech well ramified. The whole tree gives us something of the idea of an entangled head of bushy hair, from which here and there hangs a disorderly lock. In full leaf, it is equally unpleasing: it has the appearance of an overgrown bush. This bushiness gives a great heaviness to the tree, which is always a deformity." Such is the testimony of Gilpin, and many succeeding writers have blindly adopted his opinions. However, even he is constrained to admit, that in some situations and periods, "the heavy luxuriant beech" is not without picturesque beauty, and these very exceptions to his censures form no inconsiderable encomium. In fact, there is no season of the year, and no stage of its existence, in which this tree is devoid of interest. From the moment when its pale fungus-looking cotyledons first appear above the ground, as it progresses to maturity, its light and elegant branches bending beneath an airy veil of soft and

sunny green, till in full perfection it stands. "the Hercules and Adonis of our sylva," it is perhaps unrivalled in its peculiar features. What can be more noble than its appearance when a stately spreading tree,

-it scales the welkin with its top,"

and stretching far its giant arms supports a lofty mass of bright and glossy foliage, like a verdant pavilion extended on silvery poles, and impervious even to the meridian rays of the summer sun. Nor can the approach of old age, or even the progress of decay diminish, though they may vary the character of its charms. Unveiled from the leafy

covert and intertwisted branches which erst concealed them, we behold more clearly the picturesque beauties of its fluted trunk, knobbed protuberances, and fantastic roots, overspread with a velvet-like moss of soft and brilliant green, or garnished with the more glorious though evanescent beauties of the fungus race. What can exceed the transparent delicacy of its downy leaves, as they expand at the genial call of spring, late, but not least in beauty among the verdure of the forest? or what surpass the appearance of the tree, when ere long the tender green of its fringing foliage is varied by the gold

and roseate hues of its clustered blossom-when

Of beauty on the beech tree; a rich shade
Of crimson teeming life; buds sanguine-hued,
As though the sunset clouds had o'er them
play'd,

Until they left their dye upon the cone,
Tipping each slender branch with beauty all
their own?"-PARDOE.

Where shall we find so secure a retreat from the fierce "all conquering heat" of refulgent summer, as

"Beneath the shade, which beechen boughs diffuse ?"

or where so pleasantly spend the lingering hours of sultry noon as under their umbrageous canopy? The sombre hue of sober twilight reigns around; and the whispering breeze as it plays sportive amid the fluttering leaves, soothes the tired eye, and refreshes the enervated frame. Nought disturbs the dreamy stillness of the place, but the gentle murmurs of some neighbouring stream rippling along its pebbly channel: the frolic gambols of the sportive squirrel, and the "deep mellow crush of the wood pigeon's note;" or, save when a passing gleam of sunshine darts a momentary

is not to be undervalued; for it serves many purposes which, though apparently insignificant, contribute in no small degree to our comfort and convenience. And thus it ever is in the world around us. The most valuable and useful members of society are those, unrenowned upon the arena of political life or in the annals of heroic fame, undistinguished among the votaries of science or the favourites of the muses, and unknown in the registers of ancestral dignity or the list of princely merchants, whose sole object in life is, a faithful and diligent discharge of the duties of their allotted station, and their only desire to "maintain a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man." Though loving and beloved by all around them, and the centre of happiness to all within the range of their quiet but effective efforts, their path through life is only to be tracked by the ever-flowing though silent stream of "patient well doing," which marks their steps; their name is only known as the watch-word of hope and comfort to the drooping heart and afflicted spirit. Such are the individuals who best "serve their generation,” and whose removal hence leaves the greatest blank in society. Is it when the mighty monarch, the valiant hero, the monied man, or the hoary-headed philosopher is deposited with all the futile splendour of funereal pomp within the mausoleum of his ancestors, or the hallowed minster, when the long-drawn procession, the nodding plumes and all the sable pageantry of mimic woe convey a "heap of dust" to the bosom of its parent earth, that "all faces gather blackness," and the retarded step and averted eye tell a tale of genuine grief and heartfelt sorrow? No: would we trace such grateful tokens of mourning affection, we must turn from the semblance to the substance; we must stand amid the humble train around the lowly sod which shrouds for ever from mortal ken, the beloved and venerated remains of the tender parent, the duteous child, the beloved friend, or the unwearied benefactor. These have cast more largely into the treasure house of human happiness than all those have done; these, though unnoted among the great and noble of the earth, are registered in the archives of heaven as honoured recipients of the ennobling | title bestowed by our Lord himself on the devoted female he delighted to honour, "She hath done what she could."

"The soft beech employs the turner's wheel, And with a thousand implements supplies Mechanic skill."

With it "he makes dishes, trays, rims for buckets, trenchers, dresser-boards, and other utensils. It serves the wheeler and joiner for large screws, etc. It makes shovels and spade graffs for the husbandman, and is useful to the bellows maker. Floats for fishers' nets, instead of corks are made of its bark. If the timber lie altogether under water, it is little inferior to elm." On this account it is frequently employed for keels of vessels, rings of water wheels, flood gates, etc., for which it answers well. Wooden shovels, sieve-rims, peels for ovens, salt boxes, spinning wheels, pestles, rollers, with many other articles in daily use, are also made from it. But the principal purposes for which the timber is applied in England at the present time, is for the pannels of carriages, chairs, bedsteads, and as handles to various sorts of tools. There is also a great demand for it in consequence of the numerous railways now carrying on, as it is found to answer well for the sleepers or blocks, on which the rails are supported. On the continent it is, if possible, yet more used for domestic purposes. The sabots, or wooden shoes, worn universally by the French peasantry in the mountainous districts, are generally made from this wood; for this purpose it is selected when green, and dried rapidly over the smoke produced by burning the chips, branches, etc.; thus it absorbs the pyroligneous acid which is evolved from the beech in a larger proportion than from any other tree, and the sabots, though rather brittle, are rendered waterproof and more durable than those of alder or walnut. It is also on account of this chemical property that the wood is used in Scotland for smoking dried herrings, and in Germany for the carriages of cannon, in situations exposed to a damp or saline atmosphere. The ashes afford potash, and the timber when burned green yields excellent charcoal; in Buckinghamshire the large forests of beech are almost wholly employed for this purpose. As fuel the wood of this tree is superior to any other. The bois d'Andelle, which is used in all the principal houses of Paris, is almost entirely beech. It throws out a clear bright flame, and a great deal of heat; though it burns rapidly when dry, on this account the green wood is