mattress would have become hard and musty. They have a pleasant
restorative scent, something like that of green tea. When we think how
many poor people lie on musty mattresses, or have none at all, whilst
the beech-leaves lie in the woods and go very slowly to decay, we see
one more of the many instances of people remaining uncomfortable when
they need not be so, because of their ignorance. The fact that
beech-leaves are very slow to rot makes them useful in the garden for
mulching and protecting plants from frost.

In Scotland the beech-chips and branches are burned to smoke herrings,
and pyroligneous acid (a form of which is probably known to any of our
young readers who suffer from toothache as _creosote_!) is distilled
from them. Mr. Loudon tells us that the word "book" comes from the
German word _buch_, which, in the first instance, means a beech, and was
applied to books because the old German bookbinders used beech-wood
instead of paste-board for the sides of thick volumes. Beech-wood is
especially good for fuel. Only the sycamore, the Scotch pine, and the
ash give out more heat and light when they burn. Beech-nuts--or
beech-mast, as it is called--are eaten by many animals. Pigs, deer,
poultry, &c., are turned into beech-woods to fatten on the mast.
Squirrels and dormice delight in it. In France it is used to make
beech-oil. This oil is used both for cooking and burning, and for the
latter purpose has the valuable property of having no nasty smell.

Of the beauty of the beech as a forest-tree--let artists rave! Its
smooth and shapely bole does not tempt the sketcher's eye alone. To the
lover and the school-boy (and, alas! to that inartistic animal the
British holiday-maker) it offers an irresistible surface for cutting
names and dates. Upon its branches and beneath its shadow grow many
_fungi_, several of which are eatable. Truffles are found there; those
underground dainties which dogs (and sometimes pigs!) are trained to
grub up for our benefit. They discover the whereabouts of the truffle by
scent, for there is no sign of it above ground. Nothing else will grow
under beech-trees, except holly.

Scarcely less charming than the beech-forests are beech-hedges. They cut
and thrive with cutting like yew-hedges.

"Little woods" of beech are common in Buckinghamshire. They are chiefly
grown for the charcoal, which is valuable for gunpowder.

"Copper-Beeches"--red-leaved beech-trees, very beautiful for ornamenta