Handbook of Trees of the Northerx States and Canada. VS. 



The Beech is one of tlie most distinct and 

 beautiful trees of our eastern American forests, 

 sometimes surpassing 100 ft. in heiglit and 

 with straight columnar trunk 3 or 4 ft. in 

 thickness vested in its trim smooth bluish 

 gray bark. When isolated it develops a 

 rounded or broad upright spreading top of 

 many branches and slender branchlets. It in- 

 habits rich well-drained uplands and slopes, in 

 the north in company with the Sugar Majdc, 

 Birches, Hop Hornbeam, Basswood, Hemlock, 

 etc. and in the south is found along tlie borders 

 of swamps and bottom-lands. It often in old 

 age sends up many shoots from its roots which 

 form a thicket about its base, and as tiie 

 parent declines the fittest of these survive and 

 grow into trees to take its jjlace. It is a 

 beautiful tree at all times, each successive 

 season of the year giving to it a peculiar 

 charm, and not the least of these is its leaHess 

 condition in winter. Its nuts form the chief 

 article of food for many denizens of the forest 

 and they are sometimes gathered and sold in 

 northern markets. 



The wood, a cubic foot of which, when abso- 

 lutely dry, weighs 42.89 lbs., is used in the 

 manufacture of furniture, wooden-ware, plane- 

 stoeks, etc., and for fuel.'- 



Lraves ovate-oblong, .S-6 in. long, acuminate, 

 wedge-shaped, rounded or cordate at base, coarsely 

 serrate, a vein torniinaling in each tooth, pale 

 green and silky toiucnlcisc when they unfold, but 

 linally glabrous dark green above, paler and with 

 hairs in the axils and on the midribs beneath : 

 petioles short. Floivcrs appear after the leaves 

 unfold. Fruit: nut about % in. long; involucre 

 covered with many sleuder prickles, witb stout 

 peduncles and persisting open upon the branchlets 

 late into the wiuter.^ 



1. Syn. Fagus ferruginca Ait. Fagus atro- 

 punicea (Marsh.) Sudw. 



2. A. W., I, 16. 



'.i. For genus see p. 420. 





