THE EUROPEAN BEECH 



the east coast of central Korea, grows an endemic 

 Beech (F. multinervis) , recently discovered. It is 

 quite plentiful in forests of mixed broad-leaf trees on 

 volcanic soil. I collected a number of small plants 

 but the time was early June and I failed to get them 

 to America in a living condition. No Beech grows 

 in Korea, Manchuria, eastern Siberia, nor in China 

 until the central provinces are reached. But there 

 in Hupeh, Szechuan, Kweichou, and Yunnan three 

 species have been found, in fact in Yunnan, in about 

 Lat. 23 N., the Beech finds its southern limit. In 

 western Hupeh and adjoining parts of Szechuan the 

 three species grow together, though F. longipetiolata 

 is the more common and occurs at the lowest alti- 

 tudes. These three Beeches sorely puzzled me 

 (though really they are as distinct as they possibly 

 could be) and it was not until the eleventh and last 

 year of my travels in China that I was able clearly to 

 distinguish them. They were successfully trans- 

 ported to the Arnold Arboretum where I am happy 

 to say they are all growing to-day. The Formosan 

 Beech (F. Hayatae) is known only from a mountain 

 in the heart of the savage country where I was not 

 allowed to visit. No Beech has been found on the 

 vast Himalayan range, and this is rather curious since 

 so many Chinese types have their western limits of 

 distribution in Sikkim and Nepal. The tenth and 

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