* Fagus 



its best in the northern deciduous forest, where it is a stately tree, e.g. at Lake 

 Superior. The finest individual trees occur on the small hills of the Mississippi 

 valley, but the timber is not so good as that of trees farther north. Pure woods of 

 American beech rarely if ever occur.^ Elwes saw the American beech principally 

 near Boston and in Canada, and remarked one peculiarity which may not be found in 

 all places. This was its tendency to throw up suckers from the roots, a feature which 

 is very marked in Professor Sargent's park at Brookline, and in the beautiful grounds 

 of the Arnold Arboretum, There is a group of beech here by the side of a drive, 

 of which the largest was 65 feet by 7 feet 8 inches, surrounded by a dense thicket 

 of suckers. Beech seedlings, however, seem to be much less common here than in 

 Europe, and on moist ground are often suppressed by maple and other trees. The 

 rate of growth of young trees in the Arboretum was about equal to that of the 

 European beech at twenty years, and the bark of the latter was darker in colour. 

 Near Ottawa Elwes gathered ripe fruit of the American beech ^ which here is not a 

 large or tall tree in the end of September ; the mast was smaller and less abundant 

 than in the European beech, and the tree as near Boston did not seem to have the 

 same tendency to outgrow and suppress other hardwoods which it shows in Europe. 

 The roots, judging from seedlings sent from Meehan's nurseries at Philadelphia, 

 are larger, deeper, and less fibrous than those of the European beech, though this 

 may be caused by a deep soil. A good illustration of the American beech in the 

 open is given in Garden and Forest, viii. 125, taken from a tree at South Hingham, 

 Massachusetts. 



The American beech is rare in collections in England. We have only seen speci- 

 mens at Kew Gardens, Beauport, Tortworth, and Eastnor Castle. In no case do 

 these attain more than 15 feet in height. As the tree, no doubt, was often planted 

 even a century ago, and no large trees are known to exist in this country, it is very 

 probable that, like many other species from the Eastern States, it will never reach 

 timber size in this climate. The specimen from Eastnor Castle has very dull green 

 leaves, somewhat cordate at the base, and probably belongs to the following variety. 



Var. caroliniana, Loudon, ex Lodd. Cat. (1836). In cultivation in Europe, dis- 

 tinguished from the common form by the leaves being more rounded at the base, 

 said to be more dwarf in height, and to come out in leaf fifteen days before 

 ordinary Fagus ferrugmea? 



Fagus orientalis. Caucasian Beech. 



Fagus orientalis, Lipski, Acta. Hort. Petrop. xa. 300 (1897). 



Fa^s sylvcUica, Linnaeus, j8 macropkylla, DC, and -/ asiatica, DC. (ex parte). Prod, xvi 2, 

 119 (1864). 



Lipski says that the beech which occurs in the Caucasus, Asia Minor, and 



But Sa^ent says that it attains its laigest size in the rich land of the Lower Ohio valley, and in the Soathem 

 Alleghanies, and that it often fonns pure forests. He quotes an old author (Morton) as follows : " Beech there is of two 

 sottes, red and white, very excellent for trenchers or chaires, also for oares," and says that these different coloured woods, 

 recognised by lumbermen, are produced by individual trees, which are otherwise apparently identical, and for which Michanz 

 and Pursh tried to find botanical characters which he cannot allow to be specific 



* Sargent says that the sweet nuts are sold in Canada, and in some of the middle and western states. 

 Jooin, " Les HHres" in Le Jardin (1899), p. 42. 



