162 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



ing to Bull, as 65 to 100, and its ashes furnish a great quantity 

 of potash. 



The beech is of very rapid growth. But it is seldom found 

 over two and a half or three feet in diameter, and is universally 

 considered a comparatively short-lived tree. Large trees are 

 very often found decayed at heart ; and it probably reaches 

 maturity and begins to decay, in less than two centuries. 



From its rapid growth and thick shade, it recommends itself 

 as a screen against wind, to give shelter to a garden. But it 

 has the disadvantage that nothing will grow under it, nor well, 

 very near it. It is wanting in gracefulness, but there is an 

 animating play of light from its polished leaves, and this, con- 

 trasting with its great depth of shade, makes it an agreeable 

 object. 



I have been unable to find more than one kind of beech in 

 Massachusetts. The workers in the wood speak commonly of 

 the white and the red ; and I have often gone in pursuit of the 

 varieties. But I have not succeeded in detecting any specific 

 difference, and believe the appearance in the wood, which has 

 given rise to these names, to be produced by the more or less 

 rapid maturation of the wood. The heart wood is of a reddish 

 hue. Where it predominates, the log is called red beech. 

 Timber, in which the white sap wood is most conspicuous, is 

 called white beech. 



The beech is said never to be struck by lightning. In trav- 

 elling through a forest country, many oaks may be found which 

 have been so struck, but never a beech. 



The beech of Europe differs so little from varieties of the 

 American, that some botanists think them one species. There 

 is doubtless a resemblance. But I am inclined to consider them 

 distinct ; much more distinct, certainly, than any varieties which 

 I have been able to find in New England, are from each other. 

 The leaves of the European beech are well characterized by 

 Willdenow as "ovate, smooth, obsoletely dentate, and ciliate 

 on the margin." They are acute at each extremity. Those of 

 our beech are narrow at base, and usually heart-shaped, decid- 

 edly serrate or sometimes dentate, acuminate, and ciliate only 



