BEECH (Fagus Americana, Sweet). 50 to 80 feet. Com- 

 pact, round-topped tree with numerous horizontal and droop- 

 ing branches, ending in slim, silky-coated twigs, set with 

 pencil-like, pointed buds, 1 inch long in winter, shining, brown. 

 Bark close-grained, gray, often almost white, usually blotched 

 and roughened on old trunks by warty excrescences. Branches 

 smooth, gray, twigs brown, silky, smooth, lustrous. Wood 

 red, close-grained, hard, strong, not durable, lustrous when 

 polished, used for plane stocks, shoe lasts, chairs, tool -handles, 

 flooring, and for fuel. Leaves clustered on ends of short side 

 twigs; oblong-ovate, pointed, strongly veined, saw-toothed, 

 thin, smocth, dark bluish green above, yellow-green, lustrous, 

 at first hairy, beneath, petiole hairy. Flowers May, monce- 

 cious, staminate in pendant, yellow-green balls; pistillate 

 solitary or paired on silky stems in axils of upper leaves. 

 Fruit, paired triangular nuts in prickly, 4-valved pod or 

 husk. Kernel sweet, edible, in thin, brown shell. Dist.: 

 Rich bottom land, Nova Scotia to Lake Huron and northern 

 Wisconsin; south to Florida, Missouri, and Texas. Often 

 planted for shade and ornament, 



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