DENDROLOGY. 153 



On the banks of the Ohio the white beech attains the height of 

 more than 100 feet with a circumference of 8 to 11 feet. In 

 these forests, where these trees vegetate in a deep and fertile 

 soil, their roots sometimes extend to a great distance even with 

 the surface, and being entangled so as to cover the ground, they 

 embarrass the steps of the traveller and render the land peculiarly 

 difficult to clear. This tree is more slender and less branchy 

 than the red beech ; but its foliage is superb, and its general 

 appearance magnificent. The leaves are oval-acuminate, smooth, 

 shining and bordered in the spring with a soft, hairy down. The 

 sexes are borne by different branches of the same tree. The 

 barren flowers are collected in pendulous, globular heads and 

 the others are small and of a greenish hue. They put forth in 

 May. The fruit is an erect capsule covered with loose, flexible 

 spines, which divides itself at maturity into four parts, and gives 

 liberty to two triangular seeds. The bark upon the trunk of 

 beeches is thick, gray, and, on the oldest stocks, smooth and 

 entire. 



The perfect wood of the white beech bears a small proportion 

 to the sap, and frequently occupies only 3 inches in a trunk 18 

 inches in diameter. On the banks of the Ohio and in some parts 

 of Kentucky, where the oak is too rare to afford bark enough for 

 tanning, the deficiency is supplied by that of this wood ; the 

 leather made with it is white and serviceable, though avowedly 

 inferior to what is prepared with the bark of the oak. The beech 

 wood employed for fuel, bears a small proportion to the oak and 

 the hickory ; hence we presume that it is comparatively little 

 esteemed. Its uses in the arts are similar to those of the red 

 beech. 



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