Beech Tree
(Fagus sylvatica)

IT must surely be difficult to resist enthusiasm for beech trees when standing, at the close of April or beginning of May, under the young foliage of a Beech.

Belonging to the same family as the Oaks, the Beeches occur over a great part of the world. They are absent in Africa and in southern Asia; but clothe the hills alike of Japan, New Zealand, South Australia, Tasmania, Tierra del Fuego, North America, Norway, Spain, and Asia Minor, and Europe.

The name Beech is in early English boc, bece, or beoce; in German Buche, and in Swedish bok, and signifies either a book or the tree, the two senses being supposed to be connected by the fact that the ancient Runic writings were engraved upon beechen boards. "The origin of the word," says Dr. Prior in his "Popular Names of British Plants," "is identical with that of the Sanskrit boko, letter, bokos, writings; and this correspondence of the Indian and our own language is interesting as evidence of two things, viz.: that the Brahmins had the art of writing before they detached themselves from the common stock of the Indo-European race in Upper Asia, and that we and other Germans have received alphabetic signs from the East by a northern route, and not by the Mediterranean." This last remark of the learned Doctor's refers, of course, to our old black-letter Gothic characters and not to our modern Roman alphabet. As to the name Fagus, it may be of Keltic origin, and in the time of Pliny the Britons, as well as the Gauls, may, as he describes, have mixed the ashes of Beech-wood with goats'-fat to make a red dye for their hair and moustaches; or this name may then have pertained to the Sweet Chestnut, to which tree Caesar may have referred when he wrote that in Britain there was every kind of timber as in Gaul, except "fagum" and the fir.

The Beech requires a thoroughly drained soil, and accordingly flourishes on high ground, whether calcareous or sandy. Its gray stems may thus be seen--often of great girth--throwing out their spreading roots.

Though not glossy, like that of the birch, the smooth, olive-gray bark of the Beech gives it a charm even in the winter months. Then, too, though the lower boughs are often still deeked with the crisp, dead leaves of the previous year, which reflect each transient sun-gleam from their surfaces of polished copper, we can see most clearly the splendid outlines of this king of the forests. Its roots spread far and close together to gain a firm footing that the gale can seldom overcome, and above them towers the smooth unbroken, pillar-like stem, often seen with a girth of from fifteen to twenty feet, and reaching as many feet in height without a branch. When not pollarded, the Beech frequently bifurcates naturally, each branch, of which there may sometimes be three or four, rising vertically, "each in itself a tree," like the clustered columns of a Gothic aisle. From the main branches sweep outwards the more knotted branchlets and twigs, bending slightly downwards, and giving to the whole tree a rounded outline. 

It is in April, however, that the beauty of the Beech generally first commands our attention. The pointed, dull-brown buds assume a more glossy hue. They swell almost visibly from day to day under the influence of the genial sunshine, warmth, and moisture. As the sunlight falls on a sloping Beech-wood from a white cloud hanging in the deep blue of an April sky, it will be seen to glow like a sheet of bronze; and just before bursting, the buds will be almost red. Then on one particular tree, year after year, often on one particular branch, the first leaves burst forth as the clearest emeralds, heralds of the coming of the full spring-tide glory. As they grow in size the leaves deepen in tint. To enjoy them in their fullest beauty, we should walk under the trees when the sun is shining brightly through them, and we can then see each pellucid sunshade to be fringed with a row of most delicate silky hairs--hairs that protect it from undue moisture or the radiating cold of the late frost. When the leaves of each emerald tier of verdure lose these silky hairs, the tree has parted with one of its charms, though when more opaque, as they then are, the glossy surfaces of the leaves, reflecting every glint of sunshine, still render the tree, as a whole, anything but a heavy feature in the landscape. Then it was, in early summer, Pelleas:

"Riding at noon . . .
Across the forest call'd of Dean,
. . . saw
Near him a mound of even-sloping side,
Whereon a hundred stately beeches grew,
And here and there great hollies under them.
But for a mile all round was open space,
And fern and heath: and . . .
It seem'd to Pelleas that the fern without
Burnt as a living fire of emeralds,
So that his eyes were dazzled looking at it.
Then o'er it crost the dimness of a cloud
Floating . . ."

The Beech generally flowers in May; but neither its long-stalked globular clusters of male flowers, nor its smaller assemblages of female ones, are conspicuous among the foliage. The male catkins hang from the axils of the lower leaves on the shoot, whilst the female inflorescences, each consisting of two or three flowers invested by a single "cupule," rise erect from those of the leaves nearer the growing end of the shoot. When the four-sided "cupule" of rigid bracts, covered with recurved hooks and enclosing two or three triangular fruits of a rich chestnut color, grows to a larger size and turns brown, it not only becomes conspicuous, but causes a great litter on the lawn on which the tree may chance to stand.

The closely matted roots and the dense shade, rather perhaps than any poisonous exhalations, or even than mere drip, render the Beech generally fatal to grass, and injurious even to evergreens growing beneath it. The well-drained soil in which it delights is by it drained yet more thoroughly; so that it has a marked power of holding the ground against other species, as noticed by both Evelyn and Gilpin. This has earned for it the evil reputation of symbolizing selfish ambition, the ambition of a forest prince who, in his rivalry of the monarch Oak, "bears no rival near the throne." Though its leaves enrich the soil, this characteristic renders it perhaps better suited to the grove, the wilderness, or a corner of the park than to the garden lawn. Hollies and other evergreens, bracken and brambles will grow beneath its shade, and it must not be forgotten that it is a tree which, for the development of its highest beauty, should occupy an isolated position.

In spring and summer beneath the Beech-tree's shade wander those abusers of "our young trees," who, from the time of Paris and CEnone to that of Orlando and Rosalind and onwards, have been tempted by its smooth bark to make it the medium of perpetuating their love. Well might Campbell put into the mouth of a Beech-tree the complaint that

"Youthful lovers in my shade
Their vows of truth and rapture made,
And on my trunk's surviving frame
Carved many a long-forgotten name."

As the tree grows, the letters engraved upon it grow also.

As Ovid says:--

"Incisae servant a te mea nomina fagi,
Et legor CEnone, falce notata tua;
Et quantum trunci, tantum mea nomina crescunt."

"The Beeches, faithful guardians of your flame,
Bear on their wounded trunks CEnone's name;
And as the trunks, so still the letters grow."

The annual growth of bark strives to hide the wound of the knife, and ultimately the inscribed name will become buried in the heart of the old tree, to remain ages after that of the lover shall have ceased to beat.

It is in autumn, however, that the beauty of the Beech stands pre-eminent. As Dr. Edwin Lees has eloquently put it, "The autumnal splendor of every other tree fades before that of the Beech, which continues the longest of all, and under particular circumstances is of the most brilliant description. This arises from its lucid leaves, which vary in hue from auburn to gold color and umber, reflecting back the level rays of the descending sun, and thus burning with pre-eminent luster, like a sudden illumination. Blazing characters irradiate the grove wherever the Beech presents, in spectral pomp, its vivid outline; and if a passing rain-cloud, shrouding for a moment the tree-tops, bear upon its purple breast the glowing Iris, with one limb intermingled with the golden foliage, the splendid effect will long rest upon the memory of the spectator."

Nor can the peculiar beauty of the reddish-leaved variety well known as the Copper Beech be here omitted. One of the earliest recollections of being struck by a contrast of colors that occurs to the mind of the present writer, is that of an escaped canary-bird alighting amid the red-purple leaves of this variety; and often since then has he spent hours, basking in the sunshine, amidst the broom on Hampstead Heath, in enjoyment of the combination of the Copper Beech and the blaze of the "Laburnum, dropping wells of fire," relieved by the bright greenery and the snowy clusters of the Guelder-rose.

The light brown, hard, and moderately heavy timber of the Beech is close and even in texture, with a fine silky grain, and, being easily worked and fairly strong and durable, is in demand for a variety of purposes. 

The brown nuts or "mast," were once very valuable as a source of rustic wealth, when Gurth and Wamba pastured the swine of the Saxon Thane in the forest, and was used in France as a food for poultry and pheasants.

Palm Trees

Pine Trees

Oak Trees

Maple Trees

Willow Trees

Apple Trees

Trees Home