218 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Fagus antarctica, G. Forster. 



From S. Chili to Fuegia. This deciduous beech is the hardiest of 

 all, still being arborescent at Cape Horn [Sir 3. Hooker]. Wood 

 rather heavy, but somewhat brittle [Admiral King] ; with F. 

 betuloides the most southern of arboreus plants. 



Fagus betuloides, Mirbel. 



Patagonia and Fuegia down to Cape Horn. An evergreen Beech* 

 on the branches of which a peculiar edible fungus, Cyttaria Darwinii 

 (Berkeley) occurs. It seems quite feasible, that the Cyttaria-fungs 

 could be transferred from some beeches to others of different countries. 

 Cyttaria Hookeri lives on Fagus antarctica (Forster). C. Darwinii 

 forms for some months of the year a large share of the vegetable food 

 of the Fuegians [Hieronymus]. 



Fagus Cunningham!, Hooker. 



The Victorian and Tasmanian Beech. The Myrtle-wood of local 

 trade. A magnificent evergreen-tree, attaining large dimensions, not 

 rarely to 200 feet in height, with a basal stem-girth of 40 feet, but 

 living only in cool, damp, rich forest-valleys, and bearing through 

 several months annually any periodic snow. Mr. C. French observed 

 a tree on the Upper Latrobe-River 46 feet in stem-circumference. 

 The wood resembles that of the European Beech, thus is easily 

 worked, much used by carpenters and other artisans, and particularly 

 liked for saddle-trees and for staves of casks. Recommended also 

 for smoking meat. Average weight of a cubic foot, when quite dry, 

 55 Ibs. or 0*830 specific gravity. It remains to be ascertained by 

 actual tests in the forests, whether the allied tall evergreen New Zealand 

 Beeches possess any advantage over this species for forest-culture ; 

 they are Fagus Menziesii, the Red Birch of the colonists ; F. fusca 

 and F. cliffortioides (J. Hooker), the Black Birches and F. Solandri 

 (Hooker) the White Birch ; they ascend to 4,000 feet in the 

 Northern Islands. A magnificent and peculiar beech, Fagus Moorei 

 (F. v. Mueller), occurs in New South Wales and Southern Queens- 

 land on high mountains ; it attains a stem-diameter of 7 feet 

 [A. Rudder]. Its timber is hard, tough and fine-grained [J. Duff]. 

 Cyttaria Gunnii (Berkeley) is the Raspberry-fungus of the Tas- 

 manian and Victorian evergreen Beech ; a Cyttaria occurs also on 

 the New Zealand Beeches, as ascertained by the author of this work ; 

 it has since been described as C. Purdiei by Mr. J. Buchanan. These 

 fungs are edible in a raw state, and are most palatable (so far as C. 

 G'unnii is concerned) before approaching full ripeness [Rob. Lucas]. 

 Many kinds of birds feed on the seeds in whatever country Beech- 

 forests occur. 



Fagus Dombeyi, Mirbel. 



The Evergreen Beech of Chili, called there the Coigue or Coihue. 

 Of grand dimensions. Canoes can be made out of its stem, large 



