Fagus 



those of any tree ordinarily cultivated in England, being about f inch long. The 

 buds of the European beech are wider at the middle than at either end ; while in the 

 American beech they are as narrow in the middle as they are at the base. 



Varieties 



A great number of varieties of the common beech occur, some of which have 

 originated wild in the forests, whilst others have been obtained in cultivation. 



Van purpurea, Aiton, Purple Beech. A complete account of the origin of 

 this variety appeared in Garden and Forest} 1 894, p. 2. From this it would appear 

 that a purple beech ^ discovered in the eighteenth century in the Hanleiter forest 

 near Sondershausen in Thuringia, is the mother tree of those which now adorn 

 the pleasure grounds of Europe and America. This is the only authenticated 

 source from which horticulturists have derived their stock. The purple beech was, 

 however, long known before the Thuringian tree was discovered. In Wagner's 

 Historia naturalis Helvetice curiosa (Zurich, 1680) mention is made of a beech 

 wood at Buch, on the Irchel mountain in Zurichgau (commonly called the Stammberg), 

 which contains three beech trees with red leaves, which are nowhere else to be found. 

 These three beeches are again referred to in Scheuzer's Natural History of Switzer- 

 land, published in 1 706 ; and the legend is stated that according to popular belief five 

 brothers murdered one another on the spot where the trees sprang up. Offspring of 

 these trees were carried into a garden, where they still retained their purple colour. 

 The purple beech has also been observed in a wild state in the forest of Darney in 

 the Vosges. 



The purple beech has delicate light red-coloured foliage, which is of a pale claret 

 tint in the spring, becoming a deep purple in summer. In early autumn the leaves 

 almost entirely lose their purple colour, and change to a dark dusky green. The 

 buds, young shoots, and fruits are also purple in colour. The involucres are 

 deep purple brown in autumn, becoming browner with the advance of the season. 

 The purple beech often fails to fruit regularly ; still many individuals of this variety 

 do produce fruit, and this has been sown, and in some cases produced plants almost 

 all with purple leaves, not 5 per cent reverting to green.' The colour in the leaves, 

 etc., is due to a colouring matter in the cells of the epidermis. The variety submits 

 well to pruning or even to clipping with the shears ; and may therefore, if necessary, 

 be confined within narrow limits or grown as a pyramid in the centre of a group 

 of trees. 



A fine purple beech* grows in Miss Sulivan's garden, Broom House, Fulham, 

 which is 82 feet high and 12 feet 2 inches in girth. 



' See also Gartenflara, 1893, p. 150. 



This tree is still living. See Lutze, Mitth. des Thuringer Bot. Vereines, 1892, ii. 28. 



' Elwes saw at the Flottbeck Nurseries near Hamburg, formerly occupied by the celebrated nurseryman John Booth, a 

 fine hedge of purple beech, which Herr Ansorge told him was raised from a cross between the purple and the fern-leaved 

 beeches. Of the produce of this cross 20 to 30 per cent came purple, but none were fern-leaved. This coincides exactly 

 with his own experience in raising from seed. But in Miitheihmgen Deutschen Dendrologischen Gesellschaft, 1904, p. 198, 

 Graf von Schwerin describes as A. sylvatica ansorgei a hybrid from these two varieties which seems to combine the characters 

 of both. 



< Figured in Card. Chron. 1898, xxiv. 305. See also ibid. 1903, xxxiii. 397, for notes on sub-varieties of the purple beech. 



