640 CUPULIFERZ. [Hagus. 
1, FAGUS, Linn. 
Trees or rarely shrubs. Leaves evergreen or deciduous ; stipules 
caducous. Flowers moncecious. Males: In pendulous few- or 
many - flowered heads or solitary; bracts scale- like, caducous. 
Perianth campanulate, 4-6-lobed; lobes imbricate. Stamens 8-16 
or more; filaments filiform, exserted; anthers oblong, obtuse or 
sagittate at the base, loculicidally dehiscent. Females: Minute, 
2-4 sessile within a 4-lobed involucre composed of numerous scales 
grown together at the base. Perianth-tube trigonous, adnate to 
the ovary; limb shortly 3-5-lobed. Ovary inferior, 3-celled; 
styles 3, linear; ovules 2 in each cell, pendulous from the top. 
Fruiting involucres enlarged and hardened, more or less clothed 
externally with scales or prickles, ultimately splitting almost to the 
base into 4 (rarely 3) valves. Nuts enclosed within the involucre, 
trigonous, 3-celled; cells 1-seeded. Seed pendulous; cotyledons 
plaited. 
A genus of about 18 species, found in the temperate and colder regions of 
both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It is now often divided into 
two separate genera: one, Fagus proper, including the beeches of the Northern 
Hemisphere, which have comparatively large leaves, many-flowered male heads 
or catkins, and large fruiting involucres; the other, Nothofagus, comprising the 
species from the Southern Hemisphere, in all of which the leaves are small, the 
male heads 1-3-flowered, and the fruiting involucres very small indeed. 
A. Fruiting twolucres clothed with recurved linear processes. 
Leaves 4-4 in., ovate-rhomboid, coriaceous, doubly crenate 1. F. Menziesu. 
B. Fruiting involucres with flat transverse lamella. 
Leaves 3-14 in., broadly ovate, obtuse, thin, veined, pubes- 
cent, deeply serrate ae Ac a6 5° 2. FS fasea: 
Leaves ?-lin., oblong, apiculate, entire or obscurely 
toothed towards the tip ‘5S 3. F. apiculata. 
Leaves 3—} in., ovate, acute, entire, glabrous above, fulvous 
beneath. Involucre 4-valved : 4. F. Blairii. 
Leaves }-#in., oblong, obtuse, entire, elabrous above, 
white beneath. Involucre 3-valved .. 5. F. Solandri. 
Leaves 4-2in., ovate, acute, rounded or cordate at the 
base, glabrous above, white ‘beneath. Involucre 3-valved 6. F. cliffortioides. 
1. F. Menziesii, Hook. f. in Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 652.—A tall 
forest-tree 60-80 ft. or even 100ft. high; trunk 2-5 ft. diam. or 
more; bark white and silvery, especially in young trees; branchlets 
clothed with fulvous pubescence. Leaves evergreen, shortly petio- 
late, 44in. long, broadly ovate-deltoid or rhomboid or almost 
orbicular, obtuse, shortly unequally cuneate at the base, thick 
and coriaceous, rigid, glabrous except the petiole, irregularly 
doubly crenate; margins thickened; stipules membranous, red- 
dish, pubescent. Male flowers solitary, on short curved peduncles 
in the lower axils of the branchlets. Perianth 4—6-lobed. Stamens. 
6-12. Female involucres in the upper axils, 2-3-flowered. Fruit- 
ing involucres ++ in. long, faintly pubescent ; lobes with 5-7 trans- 
