BEECH CHESTNUT OAK 



343 



1. FAGUS. BEECH. 



Tall forest trees with light bark, and prominent parallel side- veins in 

 the leaves: sterile flowers in a small, pendulous head, with 5-7-cleft calyx 

 and 8-16 stamens: fertile flowers 2, in a close involucre, ripening into 2 

 three-cornered "beech nuts" in a 4-valved bur. 



F. grandifolia, Ehrh. American beech. Close-grained, hard-wood tree, 

 with light colored bark: leaves ovate-oblong and acuminate, coarsely serrate, 

 usually with 9 or more pairs of nerves: nuts ripening in the fall, and much 

 sought by boys and squirrels. A common forest tree. 



F. sylvatica, Linn. European beech. Fig. 151. Often planted, particularly 

 in the form of the purple-leaved and weeping beech: foliage differs in being 

 mostly smaller, ovate or elliptic, small-toothed, with 9 or less pairs of nerves. 



2. CASTANEA. CHESTNUT. 



Forest trees, with rough, furrowed bark: Sterile flowers with 4-7-lobed 

 calyx and 8-20 stamens in very long, erect or spreading catkins, which 

 appear in clusters in midsummer: fertile flowers about 3 in an involucre, 

 producing "chestnuts" in a spiny bur. 



C. dentata, Borkh. American chestnut. Fig. 267. Tall, straight- 

 grained tree, with large, broad and thin, oblong-lanceolate leaves, which are 

 taper-pointed, and have large teeth with spreading spines: nuts usually 1 in. 

 or less across, sweet. Grows as far west as Michigan, and south to 

 Mississippi. 



C. sativa, Mill. European chestnut. Less tall: leaves smaller and 

 narrower, more pubescent when young, not long-acuminate, the teeth smaller 

 and their spines more incurved: nuts 1 in. or more across, not so sweet as 

 those of the American chestnut. Europe. Very com- 

 monly planted. 



500. Quercus alba. 501. Quercus macrocarpa. 502. Quercus Prinus. 



3. QUERCUS. OAK. 



Strong, close-grained trees, with mostly laterally-lobed leaves: sterile 

 flowers in clustered hanging catkins, with a 4-7-lobed calyx, and 3-12 sta- 

 mens: fertile one in a shallow involucre which becomes the cup of the 

 acorn, the stigma 3-lobed: fruit an acorn. See Fig. 228, which represents 

 a form of the English oak (Q. Robur) often planted in choice grounds. 



a. White oak group, distinguished by its light gray scaly bark, rounded lobes 

 or teeth of the leaves, and the acorns maturing the first year. (Q. virens 

 has nearly or quite entire leaves.) 

 Q. alba, Linn. White oak. Fig. 500. Leaves obovate, 5 or 6 in. 



long, the lobes usually 7 and at equal distances apart, and the sinuses 



