4 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



North Persia, is a peculiar species. Radde/ while not admitting it to be a distinct 

 species, considers that it is a form which approaches the Japanese Fagus Sieboldi, 

 Endl., rather than the typical European beech, which occurs in the Crimea. Speci- 

 mens in the Kew herbarium from the Caucasus, Paphlagonia, Phrygia, and Ghilan 

 (a province of North Persia), differ markedly in fruit from the common beech. This 

 tree occurs throughout the whole of the Caucasus, both on the north and south sides, 

 often ascending to the timber line, but descending in Talysch to the sea-level. On 

 the north side of the Caucasus the beech reaches to 5900 feet altitude ; while in the 

 Schin valley, on the south side of the range, it attains 7920 feet. It occurs 

 mixed with other trees, or forms pure woods of considerable extent. It sometimes 

 occurs in the forests in the form of gigantic bushes (springing from one root), 

 of which the individual stems measure 6 feet in girth, and are free from branches 

 to 30 or 40 feet. The largest trees recorded by Radde were : one 380 years old, 

 7 feet in girth, and 123 feet high; and another 250 years old, 8 feet 4 inches in 

 girth, and 120 feet high, which contained 370 cubic feet of timber. 



This species has been introduced into cultivation on the Continent, and is said ' 

 to have a crown of foliage more slender and more pyramidal than the common beech. 



Fagus japonica. Small Beech of Japan. (Native name, Inubuna.) 



Fagus japonica, Maximowicz, Mel. Biol. xii. 542 (1886). 



Shirasawa, Iconographie des Essences Forestiires du Japan, vol. i. t. 35, figs. 1-13 (1900). 



This species is much rarer in Japan than Fagus Sieboldi, and was not seen by 

 Elwes or Sargent, who says that it had not been collected since a collector in 

 Maximowicz's employ found it on the Hakone mountains, and in the province of 

 Nambu. Very little is known about it, and it has not been introduced into Europe. 

 Shirasawa, however, says it has the same distribution as Fagtis Sieboldi, and grows 

 almost always in mixture with it, but beginning at a lower level ; and that it often 

 occurs in a bushy form, and does not attain the dimensions of the other species. 



Fagus Sieboldi. Common Beech of Japan. (Native name, ^a.) 



Fagus Sieboldi, Endlicher, Gen. Suppl. iv. 2, 29 (1847). 

 Fagus sylvatica, L., y asiatica, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, 119 (1864). 

 Fagus sylvatica, L., S Sieboldi, Maximowicz, Mil. Biol. xii. 543 (1886). 



Shirasawa, I.e. t. 35, figs. 14-26. 



This is the common beech which occurs in Japan, and it is considered by 

 Japanese botanists' to be only a variety of the European beech. Shirasawa* has 

 given some details concerning its distribution, in connection with a figure which 

 illustrates well the botanical characters of the species. Sargent ^ was doubtful if the 

 common beech in Japan was not quite identical in all respects with the European 

 beech. 



Elwes saw it in many places in Central Japan, but not in Hokkaido. Near 

 Nikko it grows to a large size at 2000-4CXX) feet, but not in pure woods, being, so 



' Radde, Pflanzenverbrtitung in dm Kaukasusldndern, 182 (1S99). ^ Schneider, Laubhohkunde, 152. 



' Matsumura, Shokubutsu-mei-i, 123. Shirasawa, I.e. 86. ' Sargent, Feresl Flora of Japan, 70. 



