112 Rhodora [JuLy 
Massacuusetts: South Braintree, May 30, 1907 and Bee Hill near 
Williamstown, June 28, 1904, Alfred Rehder. Rope Istanp: Tiver- 
ton, Aug. 1879, C. S. Sargent. In cultivation at the Arnold Arboretum 
and also in Germany: Muskau (Silesia), Arboretum, July 23, 1901, 
Alfred Rehder. 
The specimen from Rhode Island approaches the southern form 
by its very broad leaves and the somewhat shorter prickles. The 
specimens from the Arnold Arboretum from Muskau, which lack the 
fruits, are more densely pubescent than the other specimens and. very 
like the pubescent form of the southern variety, but the foliage is that 
of the northern form. 
Though the American Beech is usually considered a very homo- 
genous species, the comparison of a large amount of material from 
the whole range of the species shows that this is not the case and that 
some authors, particularly the younger Michaux, have shown a very 
good judgment in distinguishing a northern and a southern Beech and 
that furthermore the description by some old authors as Aiton and 
Willdenow of the leaves as tomentose or pubescent beneath was quite 
correct as regards the technical meaning of these words and did not 
refer to the silky hairs of the young leaves. My attention was first 
drawn to these variations when I found several years ago a pubescent 
form in cultivation in Germany. As I recently consulted the Gray 
Herbarium with the intention to pursue the matter further, I learned 
from Professor Fernald that he also had made investigations in this 
respect, the results of which proved almost identical with the con- 
clusions I had reached. 
The distinction of the two geographical varieties with pubescent 
and glabrous forms presents no difficulties, but the nomenclature 
seems somewhat complicated. During the nomenclatural unrest 
of the two last decades the names F. americana, F. atropunicea, and 
F. latifolia, combinations based on older trinomials, had been sub- 
stituted for the well known F. ferruginea by various American authors, 
but according to the Vienna rules the oldest binomial available is F. 
grandifolia of Ehrhart, which is one year older than Aiton's F. ferru- 
ginea. By this nomenclatorial change we avoid the rather awkward 
situation that a very rare form should constitute the type of this widely 
distributed American tree, for F. ferruginea Aiton is apparently based 
on one of the hitherto almost unknown pubescent forms of the Beech. 
This is shown by the description ‘‘foliis subtus tomentosis" in Hortus 
