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Page 30
* * * * *
[THE GARDEN.]
THE HORNBEAMS.
The genus Carpinis is widely distributed throughout the temperate
regions of the northern hemisphere. There are nine species known to
botanists, most of them being middle-sized trees. In addition to those
mentioned below, figures of which are herewith given, there are four
species from Japan and one from the Himalayan region which do not yet
seem to have found their way to this country; these five are therefore
omitted. All are deciduous trees, and every one is thoroughly
deserving of cultivation. The origin of the English name is quaintly
explained by Gerard in his "Herbal" as follows: "The wood," he says,
"in time, waxeth so hard, that the toughness and hardness of it may be
rather compared to horn than unto wood, and therefore it was called
horne-beam or hardbeam."
[Illustration: CARPINUS ORIENTALIS.]
_Carpinus Betulus_,[1] the common hornbeam, as is the case with so
many of our native or widely cultivated trees, exhibits considerable
variation in habit, and also in foliage characters. Some of the more
striking of these, those which have received names in nurseries, etc.,
and are propagated on account of their distinctive peculiarities, are
described below. In a wild state C. Betulus occurs in Europe from
Gothland southward, and extends also into West Asia. Although
apparently an undoubted native in the southern counties of England, it
appears to have no claim to be considered indigenous as far as the
northern counties are concerned; it has also been planted wherever it
occurs in Ireland.
[Footnote 1: IDENTIFICATION.--Carpinus Betulus, L., Loudon,
"Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum," vol. iii., p. 2004; Encycl.
of Trees and Shrubs, 917. Boswell Syme, "English Botany," vol.
viii., p. 176, tab. 1293; Koch, "Dendrologie," zweit. theil.
zweit. abtheil., p. 2: Hooker, "Student's Flora of the British
Islands," ed. 2, p. 365. C. Carpinizza, Host., "Flora Austriaca,"
ii., p. 626. C. intermedia. Wierbitzsky in Reichb Ic. fl. Germ. et
Helvet., xxii. fig. 1297.]
[Illustration: CARPINUS AMERICANA.]
Few trees bear cutting so well as the hornbeam, and for this reason,
during the reign of the topiarist, it was held in high repute for the
formation of the "close alleys," "covert alleys," or the
"thick-pleached alleys," frequently mentioned in Shakespeare and in
the works of other authors about three centuries ago. In the sixteenth
century the topiary art had reached its highest point of development,
and was looked upon as the perfection of gardening; the hornbeam--and
indeed almost every other tree--was cut and tortured into every
imaginable shape. The "picturesque style," however, soon drove the
topiarist and his art out of the field, yet even now places still
remain in England where the old and once much-belauded fashion still
exists on a large scale--a fact by no means to be deplored from an
arch�ological point of view. Dense, quaintly-shaped hornbeam hedges
are not unfrequent in the gardens of many old English mansions, and in
some old country farmhouses the sixteenth century craze is still
perpetuated on a smaller scale.
[Illustration: CARPINUS BETULUS, LEAF, CATKINS, AND FRUIT.]
Sir J.E. Smith, in his "English Flora," after enumerating the virtues
of the hornbeam as a hedge plant, gives it as his opinion that "when
standing by itself and allowed to take its natural form, the hornbeam
makes a much more handsome tree than most people are aware of." Those
who are familiar with the fine specimens which exist at Studley Park
and elsewhere will have no hesitation in confirming Sir J.E. Smith's
statement. The Hornbeam Walk in Richmond Park, from Pembroke Lodge
toward the Ham Gate, will recur to many Southerners as a good instance
of the fitness of the hornbeam for avenues. In the walk in question
there are many fine trees, which afford a thorough and agreeable shade
during the summer months.
[Illustration: CARPINUS VIMINEA.]
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