158 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



II. 2. THE BEECH. FAG US. Tournefort. 



Lofty, spreading trees of the cool regions of Europe and 

 America, distinguished for their smooth ashen or bluish grey 

 bark, and three-cornered oily nuts, protected by a bristly or 

 prickly, four-cleft bur. The leaves are annual, alternate and 

 plaited while in the bud, which is sessile, and covered with 

 imbricate scales. The male flowers are in roundish, tassel-like 

 aments, dependent by a long, silken thread. The females, in 

 roundish, sessile aments. Of this genus, there are only five or 

 six species yet known ; one is the common beech of Europe, 

 and the western part of Asia, and of this, the American is 

 supposed to be a variety ; two are found in Chili ; one or two, 

 possibly three, are natives of Terra del Fuego. 



The American Beech. F. Sylvatica, L, var. Americana, Nut- 

 tall. Sylvestris. Michaux. 



Figured in Michaux ; Sylva, III, Plate 107; Abbott's Insects of Georgia, II, 



Plate 75. 



For depth of shade, no tree is equal to the beech, and as it is 

 singularly clean and neat, and the leaves are liable to the attack 

 of few insects, and remain on the branches longer than those of 

 any deciduous tree, giving a cheerful aspect to the wood in 

 winter, it deserves cultivation near houses. 



The roots do not penetrate deeply, but extend, just below the 

 surface, to some distance on every side. The stem is remark- 

 able for its smooth bark, of a whitish or bluish grey, or lead 

 color, sprinkled with ash. When growing freely, it is an erect, 

 often fluted column of eight or ten to twenty feet, at which 

 height, it throws out, in every direction, many long, diverging 

 or radiating arms, stretching upwards and outwards, at a large 

 angle with the trunk. The lower branches of the lower of 

 these, gradually become horizontal, while the upper ones ramify 

 so as to form a broad, round, dense head. In the thick woods, 

 it shoots up in a straight, erect trunk, to a height of sixty or 

 seventy feet, clear, or with here and there a small, slender 

 branch. The branches of the tree growing freely, or on the 

 edge of a wood, are sometimes large, but more frequently small, 



