16. FAGUS FERRUGINEA AMERICAN BEECH. 63 



USES. The timber of this species is of comparatively little economic 

 value, excepting for fuel and in the manufacture of casks, tubs etc., 

 and occasionally for interior finishing, chairs, etc. 



It is a beautiful shade-tree, and its acorns are eagerly sought after by 

 cattle and other domestic animals. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. So far as known, none are possessed by 

 this species. 



GENUS FAGUS, TOURN. 



Leaves undivided, strongly straight-veined, plaited lengthwise in the slender 

 pointed buds, and growing in a light slender spray. Flowers appearing with the 

 leaves. Sterile flowers yellowish, from, the lower axils of the leaves of the season, 

 in loose heads suspended by long slender peduncles and with deciduous, scale-like 

 bracts; calyx 5-7-cleft, bell-shaped; stamens 5-16, with slender filaments and 2-celled 

 anthers. Fertile flowers in pairs at the end of short peduncles, each pair invested with 

 a4-lobed involucre composed of more or less united, linear, soft, prickly scales; calyx 

 with usually six minute, awl-shaped lobes; ovary 3-celled with 2 ovules in each cell; 

 styles 3, thread-like. Fruit a sharply 3-angled, 1 -seeded nut, enclosed, two together, 

 within the involucral burr, which opens at maturity by 4 valves; embryo esculent 

 and of very pleasant flavor; cotyledons thick. 



(Fagus is probably from Gk., tpayeiv, to eat, in allusion to the edible fruit.) 



16. FAGUS FERRUGINEA, AIT. 

 AMERICAN BEECH. 



Ger., Amerikanisclie Buche; Fr., Hetre d' Amerique; Sp., Hay a 



Americana. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves oblong ovate, about one-half as wide as long, with 

 short petioles, taper-pointed, obtuse or slightly cordate at the base, toothed with 

 remote teeth, furnished with silky white hairs when young, but at length nearly 

 glabrous, remaining late on the tree, sometimes during a part of the winter; buds 

 with brown imbricated scales; stipules long and slender, falling early. Flowers in 

 May; the sterile cluster, with peduncle, about 2 in. long, pubescent. Fruit a small, 

 ovoid, triangular nut, the prickles of its burr mostly recurved or spreading. 



(The specific name, ferruginea, is a Latin adjective meaning dusky, ferruginous.) 



A neat, handsome tree, always recognizable by its smooth, unbroken, 

 bluish-gray bark. Occasionally a specimen is found 100 ft. (30 m.) or 

 more in height, and its round, smooth trunk 4 ft. (1.22 m.) in diameter, 

 but more commonly it is much smaller. 



HABITAT. Canada and north-eastern United States, westward as far 

 as Wisconsin, and southward among the Alleganies to Georgia. Very 

 common in the northern forests, growing in rocky and not very moist 

 soil, and attaining, perhaps, its greatest development in Wisconsin, 

 Michigan and in the forests generally about the Great Lakes. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood hard, tough, rather close-grained, 

 strong, inclined to check in drying, taking a very smooth and beautiful 

 polish; color reddish-brown of various shades; sap-wood nearly white, 

 medullary rays large and conspicuous. Specific Gravity, 0.6883; Per- 



