NOTHOFAGUS 



Nothofagus, Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. i. 307 (1850); Oerstedt, Vidensk. Selsk. Skrift. V. ix. 331 

 (1873); Solereder, System. Werth Holzstrudur, 253 (1885); Krasser, ^. K.-K. Naturhist. 

 Hofmuseums, Wien, xi. 149 (1896). 



Calucechinus and Calusparassus, Hombron et Jacquinot, Voy. Pole. Sud. Atlas, tt. 6-8 (1853). 



Lopkozonia, Turczaninow, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. xxxi. 396 (1858). 



Fagus, section Nothofagus, Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL iii. 410 (1880). 



This genus comprises the beeches inhabiting extra-tropical South America, Australia, 

 Tasmania, and New Zealand, and was formerly considered to be a section of the 

 genus Fagus, which, however, as now limited, includes only the species of the 

 northern hemisphere. The two genera are distinguished as follows : 



Nothofagus. Trees or shrubs, with deciduous or evergreen foliage.^ Flowers 

 monoecious or rarely dioecious, either solitary or in groups of threes. Fruit : involucre, 

 two-, three- or four-valved, usually bearing externally transverse entire, toothed or 

 lobed lamellae, with or without gland-tipped processes ; or in rare cases the valves 

 are smooth and without appendages ; nuts, solitary or three in each involucre. 



Fagus. Trees with deciduous foliage. Flowers monoecious ; the staminate 

 numerous in globose heads, the pistillate in pairs. Fruit : involucre, covered 

 externally with bristly, deltoid or foliaceous processes ; nuts, two in each involucre. 



About seventeen " distinct species of Nothofagus are known, constituting three 

 natural sections, based on the characters of the foliage : 



I. Leaves deciduous, soft in texture, folded in bud along the lateral nerves, 

 crenate or serrate in margin. 



1. Nothofagus anlarctica, Oerstedt. Large tree, S. America. Introduced into 

 cultivation. Leaves ovate, f to i inch long ; lateral nerves three to five pairs ; 

 margin slightly lobed, unequally crenate, with three to five teeth between the ends 

 of each adjacent pair of nerves. 



2. Nothofagus Montagnei^ Reiche. Shrub or low tree. Chonos Archipelago. 

 Not introduced. A little-known species, of which I have seen no specimen ; leaves 

 \ inch long, firmer in texture and more conspicuously veined above than those of 

 the preceding species, from which it is also distinguished by the yellow -coloured 

 pubescence on the branchlets. 



Bunbury, in Bot. Fragments, 322 (1883), writes an interesting article on the different types of foliage which are met 

 with in this genus. 



' N. alpina, Reiche (Fagus alpina, Poeppig ct Endlicher), is a doubtful species. 



' Calucechinus Montagnei, Hombron et Jacquinot, loc. cit. t. 7 (1853). Fagus Montagnei, Philippi, Linnaa, xxix. 45 



(i8S7). 



545 



