FAGUS 



THE NORTHERN BEECHES 



Fagus, Linnaeus, Syst. ed. i. V. Monxcia (1735); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Plant, iii. 410 (1880). 



The genus, as understood by Bentham and Hooker, included all the beeches, those 

 of the southern as well as of the northern hemisphere. Blume' separated the 

 southern beeches as a distinct genus, Nothofagus ; and his arrangement, on account 

 of its convenience, will be followed by us. Fagus belongs to the family Quercineae, 

 which includes the oaks, chestnuts, castanopsis, and beeches. The genus, limited to 

 include only the northern beeches, consists of large trees with smooth bark and 

 spindle-shaped buds arranged alternately on the twigs in two rows. Leaves : 

 deciduous, simple, pinnately-nerved, folded in the bud along the primary nerves. 

 Flowers monoecious : the staminate flowers numerous in pendulous globose heads, 

 the pistillate flowers in pairs in involucres. The male flower has a 4 to 8 lobed calyx 

 with 8 to 16 stamens. The female flower has a 6 lobed calyx, adnate to a 3 celled 

 ovary, with 2 ovules in each cell ; styles 3, filiform. On ripening, the involucre is 

 enlarged, woody, and covered with bristly deltoid or foliaceous processes; it dehisces 

 by 4 valves, allowing the 2 fruits enclosed to escape. Each fruit is 3 angled and 

 contains i seed, which has no albumen. 



Seven distinct species of Fagus have been described, of which three, the Euro- 

 pean beech, the American beech, and the peculiar Fagus japonica are recognised by 

 all botanists as good species. The Caucasian beech, the two Chinese beeches, and 

 the common beech of Japan are considered by some authorities to be mere varieties 

 of Fagus sylvatica ; but these can all readily be distinguished, and in the following 

 account will be treated as independent species. 



Key to the Species of Fagus. 



I. Nuts projecting out of the top of the involucre. 



I. Fagus japonica. Japan. 



Involucre very small, covered externally with small deltoid processes, and borne 

 on a very long slender stalk. Leaves with 10-14 pairs of nerves, which bend 

 round before quite reaching the slightly undulating margin. 



Blume, in Mus. Lugd, Bat, i. 306. 



