CUPULIFERZ. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 29 
lustrous, and about three quarters of an inch long; the shell is crustaceous, and coated on the inner 
surface with appressed rufous tomentum which is thickest toward the apex. 
covered by a dark red-brown coat. 
Fagus Americana, although less common than several Oaks, is one of the most widely distributed 
trees of eastern North America, inhabiting the rich soil of uplands and mountain slopes, where it often 
forms nearly pure forests of considerable extent, and sometimes at the south the bottom-lands of streams 
and the margins of swamps. From the valley of the Restigouche River it ranges to the northern shores 
of Lake Huron! and northern Wisconsin, and southward to western Florida and through southern 
Tihnois and southeastern Missouri to the valley of the Trinity River in Texas. The Beech attains its 
largest size in the forests which cover the rich intervale lands of the valley of the lower Ohio River,’ 
on the slopes of the southern Alleghany Mountains, which it ascends nearly to their summits, and on 
the bluffs of the lower Mississippi, where, associated with the Evergreen Magnolia, it grows in great 
perfection. 
The sweet seed is 
The wood of Fagus Americana is hard, strong, tough, very close-grained, and susceptible of 
receiving a beautiful polish ; it is not durable, however, in contact with the ground, and is difficult to 
season, being inclined to check badly in drying. It is dark or often light red, varying greatly in color 
in different localities,® with thin nearly white sapwood composed of from twenty to thirty layers of 
annual growth, and contains broad conspicuous medullary rays. The specific gravity of the absolutely 
dry wood is 0.6883, a cubic foot weighing 42.89 pounds. It is largely used in the manufacture of 
chairs, shoe-lasts, plane-stocks, and the handles of tools, and for fuel. 
The sweet nuts are gathered in the forest, and sold in the markets of Canada and of some of the 
western and middle states. 
Confounded by early European travelers in America with the Beech-tree of the Old World, from 
which it differs im its paler bark and lighter green and more sharply serrate leaves, Fagus Americana 
was first distinguished by Clayton in the Flora Virginica, published in 1739. It was cultivated in 
Europe soon after the middle of the eighteenth century,’ and was first described from trees growing in 
German gardens. 
The Beech, with its noble habit, its smooth pale bluish gray bark and its cheerful foliage, is one of 
the most beautiful inhabitants of the forests of eastern North America. It is delightful in early spring 
when the lengthening buds display the closely folded leaves between their delicate lustrous brightly 
tinted scales, and when, a few days later, it is covered with graceful drooping clusters of staminate 
flowers. The tender green of its vernal leaves enlivens the forest when the Oaks and Hickories are but 
just beginning to awaken from their winter slumbers; and the contrasts of light and shade, as the sun 
plays through its wide-spreading branches, increase its beauty when it is clothed with the deep green 
foliage of summer or with its brilliant yellow autumnal garment. But it is in winter, when the color of 
its bark is brightest, when the structure of its head is plainly seen, and the fine spray of its slender 
shining branchlets is thrown into clear relief against the sky, that the Beech displays its greatest 
beauty ; and then the charm of this tree is unsurpassed by that of any other inhabitant of the forest or 
the park.® 
1 Brunet, Cat. Vég. Lig. Can. 50.— Bell, Rep. Geolog. Surv. and the younger Michaux and Pursh tried to find botanical char- 
Can. 1879-80, 52°. — Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. 444. 
2 Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. v. 85; Bot. Gazette, viii. 350. 
8 « Beech there is of two sorts, redd, and white very excellent 
for trenchers, or chairs and also for oares, may be accompted.” 
(Thomas Morton, New English Canaan, 43 [Force Coll. Hist. 
Tracts, iii. No. 2].) 
These different colored woods of the American Beech are pro- 
duced by individual trees which are otherwise apparently iden- 
tical, and have always been recognized by American lumbermen ; 
acters by which the trees producing them could be distinguished. 
4 Fagus vulgaris, Clayton, Fl. Virgin. 118. 
Fagus foliis ovatis obsolete serratis ; fructu triangulo, Romans, Nat. 
Hist. Florida, 28. 
5 Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 362.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. iii. 1890, f. 
1917. 
6 Garden and Forest, viii. 125, f. 19. — Rothrock, Forest Leaves, v. 
40, f. 
