_Of the Beech._
I. The beech, [_fagus_] (of two or three kinds) and numbred amongst the
glandiferous trees, I rank here before the martial ash, because it
commonly grows to a greater stature. But here I may not omit a note of
the accurate critic Palmerius, upon a passage in Theophrastus,{75:1}
where he animadverts upon his interpreter, and shews that the ancient
Φηγὸς was by no means the beech, but a kind of oak; for that the
figure of the fruit is so widely unlike it, that being round, this
triangular; and both Theophrastus and Pausanias make it indeed a species
of oak, (as already we have noted in cap. III.) wholly differing in
trunk, as well as fruit and leaf; to which he adds (what determines the
controversie) ξύλον τῆς φηγοῦ ἰσχυρότατον καὶ ἀσηπέσατον, &c. _that
it is of a firmer timber, not obnoxious to the worm_; neither of which
can so confidently be said of the beech. Yet La Cerda too seems guilty
of the same mistake: But leaving this, there are of our _fagi_, two or
three kinds with us; the mountain (where it most affects to grow) which
is the whitest, and most sought after by the turner; and the campestrial
or wild, which is of a blacker colour, and more durable. They are both
to be rais’d from the mast, and govern’d like the oak (of which amply)
and that is absolutely the best way of furnishing a wood; unless you
will make a nursery, and then you are to treat the mast as you are
instructed in the chapter of ashes, sowing them in autumn, or later,
even after January, or rather nearer the spring, to preserve them from
vermin, which are very great devourers of them. But they are likewise to
be planted of young seedlings, to be drawn out of the places where the
fruitful trees abound. In transplanting them, cut off only the boughs
and bruised parts two inches from the stem, to within a yard of the top,
but be very sparing of the root: This for such as are of pretty stature.
They make spreading trees, and noble shades with their well furnish’d
and glistering leaves, being set at forty foot distance, but they grow
taller, and more upright in the forests, where I have beheld them at
eight and ten foot, shoot into very long poles; but neither so apt for
timber, nor fuel: The shade unpropitious to corn and grass, but sweet,
and of all the rest, most refreshing to the weary shepherd--_lentus in
umbra_, ecchoing Amaryllis with his oten pipe. Mabillon tells us in his
Itinerary, of the old beech at Villambrosa, to be still flourishing,
(and greener than any of the rest) under whose umbrage the famous eremit
Gualbertus had his cell.
This tree planted in pallisade, affords a useful and pleasant skreen to
shelter orange and other tender case-trees from the parching sun, &c.
growing very tall, and little inferior to the horn-beam, or Dutch-elm.
In the valleys (where they stand warm, and 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 high hills, and chalky
mountains especially, for tho’ they thrust not down such deep and
numerous roots as the oak; and grow to vast trees, they will strangely
insinuate their roots into the bowels of those seemingly impenetrable
places, not much unlike the fir it self, which with this so common tree,
the great Cæsar denies to be found in Britanny; _Materia cujusque
generis, ut in Gallia, præter fagum & abietem_: But certainly from a
grand mistake, or rather, for that he had not travelled much up into the
countrey: Some will have it _fagus_ instead of _ficus_, but that was
never reckon’d among the timber-trees: Virgil reports it will graff with
the chesnut.
2. The beech serves for various uses of the housewife;
Hence in the world’s best years the humble shed,
Was happily, and fully furnished:
Beech made their chests, their beds and the joyn’d-stools,
Beech made the board, the platters, and the bowls.{77:1}
With it the turner makes dishes, trays, rimbs for buckets, and other
utensils, trenchers, dresser-boards, &c. likewise for the wheeler,
joyner, for large screws, and upholster for sellyes, chairs, stools,
bedsteads, &c. for the bellows-maker, and husbandman his shovel and
spade-graffs; floates for fishers nets instead of corks, is made of its
bark; for fuel, billet, bavin and coal, tho’ one of the least lasting:
Not to omit even the very shavings for the fining of wines. Peter
Crescentius writes, that the ashes of beech, with proper mixture, is
excellent to make glass with. If the timber lie altogether under water,
’tis little inferior to elm, as I find it practised and asserted by
shipwrights: Of old they made their _vasa vindemiatoria_ and _corbes
messoriæ_ (as we our pots for strawberries) with the rind of this beech,
nay, and vessels to preserve wine in, and that curiously wrought cup
which the shepherd in the Bucolicks wagers withal, was engraven by
Alcimedon upon the bark of this tree: And an happy age it seems:
........No wars did men molest,
When only beechen-bowls were in request.{78:1}
Of the thin _lamina_ or scale of this wood (as our cutlers call it) are
made scabards for swords, and band-boxes, superinduc’d with thin leather
or paper, boxes for writings, hat-cases, and formerly book-covers. I
wonder we cannot split it our selves, but send into other countries for
such trifles. In the cavities of these trees, bees much delight to hive
themselves: Yet for all this, you would not wonder to hear me deplore
the so frequent use of this wood, if you did consider that the industry
of France furnishes that country for all domestick utensils with
excellent wallnut; a material infinitely preferable to the best beech,
which is indeed good only for shade and for the fire, as being brittle,
and exceedingly obnoxious to the worm, where it lies either dry, or wet
and dry, as has been noted; but being put ten days in water, it will
exceedingly resist the worm: To which, as I said, it is so obnoxious,
that I wish the use of it were by a law, prohibited all joyners,
cabinet-makers, and such as furnish tables, chairs, bed-steads, cofers,
screws, &c. They have a way to black and polish it, so as to render it
like ebony, and with a mixture of soot and urine, imitate the wall-nut;
but as the colour does not last, so nor does the wood it self (for I can
hardly call it timber) soon after the worm has seiz’d it, unless one
spunge and imbibe it well with the oyl of spike, where they have made
holes. Ricciolus indeed much commends it for oars; and some say, that
the vast Argo was built of the _fagus_, a good part of it at least, as
we learn out of Apollonius; this will admit of interpretation; the
_fagus_ yet by Claudian is mentioned with the alder,
So he that to export o’re sea his wares
A vessel builds, and to expose prepares
His life to storms, first beech and elder cuts,
And measuring them, to various uses puts.{79:1}
But whilst we thus condemn the timber, we must not omit to praise the
mast, which fats our swine and deer, and hath in some families even
supported men with bread: Chios indured a memorable siege by the benefit
of this mast; and in some parts of France they now grind the buck in
mills: It affords a sweet oyl, which the poor people eat most willingly:
But there is yet another benefit which this tree presents us; that its
very leaves (which make a natural and most agreeable canopy all the
summer) being gathered about the fall, and somewhat before they are much
frostbitten, afford the best and easiest mattrasses in the world to lay
under our quilts instead of straw; because, besides their tenderness and
loose lying together, they continue sweet for seven or eight years
long, before which time straw becomes musty and hard; they are thus used
by divers persons of quality in Dauphine; and in Swizzerland I have
sometimes lain on them to my great refreshment; so as of this tree it
may properly be said,
The wood’s an house; the leaves a bed.{80:1}
Being pruin’d it heals the scar immediately, and is not apt to put forth
so soon again as other trees.
The stagnant water in the hollow-trees cures the most obstinate tetters,
scabs, and scurfs, in man or beast, fomenting the part with it; and the
leaves chew’d are wholsome for the gums and teeth, for which the very
buds, as they are in winter hardned and dried upon the twigs, make good
tooth-pickers. Swine may be driven to mast about the end of August: But
it is observ’d, that where they feed on’t before it be mature, it
intoxicates them for a while; and that generally their fat is not so
good and solid, but drips away too soon. In the mean time, the kernels
of the mast are greedily devour’d by squirels, mice, and above all, the
dormice, who harbouring in the hollow-trees, grow so fat, that in some
countries abroad, they take infinite numbers of them, (I suppose) to
eat; and what relief they give thrushes, black-birds, feldefares and
other birds, every body knows. See Mithiolus in _dioscord._ l. 1. of
what they suffer in Carinthiæ, Carniola, and Itiria. Supplement to this
Tract. _vid._ Ray’s tom. III. Lib. XXV. Dendrologia Fago. tom. II. p.
1382.
FOOTNOTES:
{75:1} Theophrast. l. 3. c. 9.
{77:1}
Hinc olim juvenis mundi melioribus annis,
Fortunatarum domuum non magna supellex
Tota petebatur; sellas, armaria, lectos,
Et mensas dabat, & lances & pocula fagus, _&c._
_Couleij Pl._ l. 6.
{78:1}
.........Nec bella fuerunt,
Faginus adstabat dum scyphus ante dapes.
_Tibul._
{79:1}
Sic qui vecturus longinqua per æquora merces
Molitur tellure ratem, vitamque procellis
Objectare parat, fagos metitur, & alnos,
Ad varium rudibus silvis accommodat usum, &c.
{80:1}
..........Silva domus, cubilia frondes.
_Juvenal._