514 FAGACEAE. 
x. FAGUS L. Sp. Bl 907- | 20753. 
Trees, with smooth light gray bark, and’serrate straight-veined leaves. Flowers appear- 
ing with the leaves, the staminate in slender-peduncled pendulous globose heads, the pistillate 
about 2 together in short-peduncled subulate-bracted involucres in the upper axils. Stamin- 
ate flowers yellowish-green, subtended by deciduous bracts, consisting of a campanulate 
4-8-lobed calyx, and 8-16 stamens with filiform filaments. Pistillate flowers with a 6—-lobed peri- 
anth adnate to a 3-celled ovary; ovules 2 in each cayity, usually 1 only of each ovary maturing; 
styles 3, filiform. Nut coriaceous, sharply 3-angled, enclosed in the 4-valved bur. [Name 
from the Greek, to eat, referring to the esculent nuts. ] 
About 4 species, natives of the northern hemisphere. Only the following is native in North 
America. 
1. Fagus Americana Sweet. American Beech. (Fig. 1225.) 
Fagus Americana [latifolia] Muench. Hausv. 5: 
162. 1770. 
Fagus Americana Sweet, Hort. Brit. 370. 1826. 
Fagus ferruginea Ait. Hort. Kew. 3: 362. 1789. 
A large forest tree, with maximum height of 
about 120°, and a trunk diameter of 414°, the 
lower branches spreading. Leaves ovate or 
ovate-oblong, firm, acuminate at the apex, ob- 
tuse or narrowed at the base, 2’-414’ long, 1/- 
3/ wide, densely silky when young, glabrous or 
nearly so when mature, green on both sides, not 
shining, rather coarsely serrate; petioles 2’’-6/’ 
long; heads of staminate flowers 6’’—9’’ in dia- 
meter, hanging on peduncles 1/-3/ long; bur 
6/’-10’ high, densely tomentose, its soft 
prickles recurved or spreading; nut pubescent, 
or at length nearly glabrous, brown; seed 
sweet. 
In rich soil, Nova Scotia to Ontario and Wiscon- 
sin, south to Florida and Texas. Wood hard, 
strong, tough, close-grained; color light or dark 
red; weight 43 lbs. per cubic foot. April-May. 
Nuts ripe Sept.—-Oct. Leaves of seedlings and 
young shoots are sometimes pinnatifid. 
2. CASTANEA Adans. Fam. Pl. 2: SY © tikes 
Trees or shrubs, with serrate straight-veined leaves, their teeth sharply acuminate. 
Flowers appearing after the leaves, the staminate in erect or spreading narrowly cylindric 
interrupted axillary yellowish aments, several in the axil of each bract, the bracts fugacious, 
the pistillate borne in prickly involucres at the bases of the staminate aments or in separate 
axils. Staminate flowers 2-bracteolate, consisting of a mostly 6-lobed campanulate perianth 
and numerous stamens, sometimes also with an abortive ovary; filaments filiform, long-ex- 
serted. Pistillate flowers 2-5 (commonly 3) in each involucre, consisting of an urn-shaped 
6-lobed perianth adnate to the mostly 6-celled ovary, and usually with 4-12 abortive stamens; 
ovules 2 in each cavity, 1 ovule only of each ovary usually maturing; styles as many as the 
cavities of the ovary, slender, exserted; stigmas minute. Pistillate involucre enlarging and 
becoming a globose mostly 4-valved very prickly bur in fruit, enclosing 1-several nuts. Nut 
rounded or plano-convex, 1-seeded, the shell coriaceous. Seed large, sweet. Style mostly 
persistent. [Name Greek, from a city in Thessaly. ] 
_ Four or five species, natives of the northern hemisphere. Besides the following, another occurs 
in the southeastern United States. 
Leaves green on both sides; nuts usually 2-5 in each involucre; large tree. 1. C. dentata. 
Leaves densely white-tomentose beneath; nut usually solitary; shrub or small tree. 2. C. pumila. 
