PABA. 



PAHL011E. 



GOO 



F 



Tj'ABA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Legwidnosa. 

 -*- It has a tubular 5-cleft or 5-toothed calyx, with the two superior 

 teeth shortest. The style is villoua at the apex. The legume is 

 large and coriaceous, lined with short hairs, and containing several 

 large flat seeds. The leaves are almost without tendrils, and the 

 stem is erect. The flowers are white or red. 



F. tulywit, the Common Bean, has thick leaves with 2-5 broad 

 oval mucronate leaflets. It has semi-sagittate oval stipules, and the 

 teeth of the calyx are almost linear. 



This plant is much cultivated, and subject to considerable variety. 

 Its seeds differ, being sometimes round and comparatively small, at 

 other times large and flat. The flowers are mostly white, with a 

 blackish-blue silky spot in the middle of the two lateral petals called 

 wings. The Common Bean is said to be found wild in Persia, not 

 far from the Caspian Sea, but it is one of those plants, which, having 

 from time immemorial been cultivated by man, may have any- 

 where been introduced by his agency. It does not occur wild 

 in the countries of Europe, where it grows most luxuriously 

 uuder the care of man. For an account of the culture and pro- 

 perties of this plant and its uses, see BEANS, in ARTS AND Sc. Div. 



FABACE^E, Leyuminow Plants, a name proposed by Lindley in 

 his ' Vegetable Kingdom' for the natural order Leguminoste. [LEOU- 

 IfUUL] 



FABOI'DEA, Mr. Bowerbank's generic title for Seed-Vessels found, 

 in the London Clay of Sheppey. (' Fossil Fruits of the London Clay.') 



FJ3CULA. [STARCH.] 



FAGOPYRUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Pvlyyonacea. It has a 5-parted perianth, 8 stamens, 3 styles, a 

 1-seeded trigonous nut, a central embryo, and large foliaceous 

 contorto-plicate cotyledons. There is but one British species of this 

 plant, the F. etculentum. This is the Polygonum Fayopyrum of Smith, 

 and known as the common Buck-Wheat. It has an erect stem with- 

 out prickles, the flowers in cymose panicles, 8 stamens, leaves cordate, 

 sagittate, acute, a triquetrous acute nut, with entire angles. This is a 

 valuable plant, as it grows on the worst and poorest soils, and is often 

 sown as food for game. Though now admitted into the British Flora, 

 there can be no doubt that it was originally a native of Persia and 

 other Asiatic countries. It was introduced into Europe by the Cru- 

 saders ; and hence in many parts of France, where it is commonly 

 grown, is called Saracen Corn ; and so much is it esteemed in Belgium, 

 that M. Bory St.-Vincent says he was shown the tomb of the person 

 who is reported to have first brought it into that country. [BUCK- 

 WHEAT, in ARTS AND So. Div.l 



(Babington, Manual of British Botany ; Burnett, Outlines of 

 Botany.) 



FAGUS (from Qaryu, to eat), a genus of Plants belonging to the 

 natural order Corylacect. This order is characterised by its male 

 flowers being arranged in catkins, and the female flowers being 

 solitary or on spikes, and the fruit surrounded by a coriaceous 

 involucre. The genus Fayta has its stamens in a globose catkin ; the 

 perianth 5-6-fid ; the stamens 8 to 15 in number; the pistilliferous 

 flowers are 2 together, and contained within a 4-leaved prickly 

 involucre ; the stigmas 3 ; the ovaries 3-cornered and 3-celled ; the 

 fruit is a nut, which by the suppression of the ovules and cells is only 

 1- or 2-seeded. The species are large handsome deciduous trees, 

 natives of Europe, North and South America, and Australia. The 

 best known species is the Common Beech, which is a native of Great 

 Britain. 



F. tylvatica, the Wood-Beech or Common Beech. It has ovate 

 glabrous obsoletely-dentate leaves, ciliated on then- margins. It is a 

 tree varying from 60 to 100 feet in height. It is a native of various 

 parts of Europe besides Great Britain, and a variety is found in North 

 America. London, in his 'Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum,' 

 gives the following varieties : 



F. i. pnrpurea, the Purple-Beech, which has the buds and young 

 shoots of a rose-colour. 



F. . cuprea, the Copper-Coloured Beech, in which the young 

 snoots and leaves are of a paler colour than in the last. 



F. I. folii variegatii, the Variegated Beech, in which the leaves are 

 white and red, interspersed with streaks of red and purple. 



F. I. heleroji/iylla, the Cut-Leaved Beech, in which the leaves are 

 separated in various ways. 



P. I. crittata, the Curled-Leaved Beech. The leaves are curled up 

 in this variety. 



F. . pendtda, the Weeping Beech, in which the branches are 

 pendulous. 



F. i. A mericana, the White Beech. This is the American form of 

 the Common Beech. 



The Beech is remarkable for its smooth thin bark, which becomes 

 white when fully exposed to the air. In the midst of it those knobs 

 called embryo-buds, or abortive branches, are more often found than 

 in any other tree. They aro sometimes used. by cabinet-makers and 



HAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. II. 



turners on account of their hardness. At the Great Exhibition of 

 185.1 a chair was exhibited composed entirely of these knobs. The 

 leaves are shining and thin, changing to a brown or russet colour in 

 the autumn, and often remaining on the tree throughout the winter. 

 Its branches are numerous, and its foliage so dense that other plants 

 do not thrive under it ; so that there is seldom any vegetation seen on 

 the ground in a beech forest. The Monotropa Hi/popithys, Bird's- 

 Nest Orchis as it is called, is often found parasitical upon its roots. 

 The fruits contain a nut or seed, which when ripe frequently drops 

 out, leaving the husk upon the tree. The seeds are not disagreeable 

 to the taste. Squirrels are fond of them, and are often found seeking 

 them on these trees. The beech-trees in the forests of Germany 

 generally attain the age of about 200 years. There is one in Windsor 

 Forest which is supposed to have been in existence before the Norman 

 Conquest. 



The wood of the Beech-Tree when green is harder than that of any 

 of our forest-trees. It is .very generally used in the arts for all 

 purposes where strength is required, and where the action of water is 

 to be resisted. On the Continent, and especially in France, one of the 

 most important uses of this wood is for making wooden shoes called 

 sabots. They have the property of not absorbing water, and surpass 

 the sabots of all other wood, except those made of walnut, which are 

 much dearer. 



As fuel the wood of the Beech is superior to that of most other 

 trees. It is consumed for this purpose to a great extent in France 

 and Germany. It burns rather rapidly, but throws out a great deal 

 of heat, and makes a clear bright flame. 



The fruit, the nut of which is called Beech-Mast in England, and 

 la Faine in France, has a taste somewhat approaching to that of the 

 hazel-nut. It forms an excellent food for swine, but the flesh of those 

 which are fattened upon it does not keep so well as that of those fed 

 on adorns. Beech-mast is sought after by wild animals, such as 

 badgers, dormice, &c. Beech-oil, expressed from the nuts, is used in 

 cooking, also for burning in lamps. For useful plantations the Beech 

 is not highly prized ; it is chiefly valuable as an ornamental tree for 

 the park and the lawn. It is subject to the attacks of comparatively 

 few insects ; those which do infest it belong chiefly to the Lepidoptera, 

 and are in the caterpillar state. The fungi which grow on the Beech 

 in Great Britain are rather numerous : various species of Ayaricus, 

 Boletus, Polyporus, Peziza, Strvmatosphceria, and Stilbum are men- 

 tioned. The most remarkable fungi growing beneath the Beech-Tree 

 are Geoglossum viride, Helvella esculenta, and Morchella esculenta, the 

 commom Morel. The last two species are celebrated luxuries for the 

 table. Morchella esculenta grows in great abundance in the woods of 

 Germany and France, particularly after any of the trees have been 

 burned down. This having been observed, led in Germany to the 

 practice of burning the trees in order to produce Morels, and conse- 

 quently great numbers of them were destroyed till it was forbidden 

 by law. 



F. feii'ui/inea, the American Ferruginous-Wooded Beech, is a North 

 American timber-tree, so much resembling the common European 

 Beech as to be considered by some to be only a variety of it. It has 

 ovate acuminate thickly-toothed leaves, downy beneath, ciliate on 

 the margin. The American Beech is easily known from the European 

 one by its much shorter obtusely-pointed buds, with short roundish 

 convex scales, which terminate almost abruptly, and are inclosed in 

 numerous short loose scales. There are two varieties of this species 

 F. Carolmiana and F. latifolia. 



F. obliqua, the Oblique-Leaved Beech, is a native of Chili. It has 

 ovate-oblong oblique leaves, somewhat rhomboid, blunt, doubly ser- 

 rated, entire at the base, attenuated into the petiole, somewhat 

 downy. 



F. betuloides, the Birchlike or Evergreen Beech, grows at Port 

 Famine, Straits of Magalhaens, in the greatest abundance. It attains a 

 very large size, trees of three feet in diameter being common, and 

 there being many with trunks four feet in diameter. This Beech is 

 also a native of Van Diemen's Laud, where it is called the Myrtle- 

 Tree by the colonists. It has ovate-elliptic leaves, obtuse, creuulate, 

 leathery, shining, glabrous, round at tbe base, on short footstalks. The 

 branches are divaricate, tortuous, brownish, the young ones pubescent, 

 the leaves ciliate, alternate, from 4 to 10 lines long, and from 3 to 8 

 lines broad. The flowers are axillary. It is an evergreen tree, and 

 forms vast forests in Tierra del Fuego, where it is a native. 



F. antarctica, the Antarctic Beech, is a native of Tierra del Fuego. 



F. Dombeyii, Dombey's or the Myrtle-Leaved Beech, is a tall tree, a 

 native of Chili, where it is known by the name of Coigue, and furnishes 

 excellent wood for the purposes of construction. 



F. dubia, the Dubious Beech, is thought only to be a variety of 

 F. betuloides. By some botanists, however, it is considered a distinct 

 species, and is described as such. 



FAHLORE, Faklcrz, Gray Copper Ore. Of this there are two varie- 

 ties, the arsenical and the autimonial : the former occurs crystallised 



2 T 



