FAGUS 551 



itself a colony of stems ; young shoots at first clothed with long hairs, which 

 soon fall away. Leaves ovate or oval, 2 to 5 ins. long, | to 2^ ins. wide, taper- 

 pointed, usually wedge-shaped at the base, coarsely toothed, at first clothed 

 with silky hairs, but soon dark green and quite smooth above except along the 

 midrib ; paler below, and with tufts of hairs in the vein-axils and along the 

 midrib ; stalk J in. or rather more long ; veins usually eleven to fifteen pairs. 

 Fruits about f in. long ; the three-angled nuts enclosed by a downy, prickly 

 husk, the prickles much recurved. 



Native of Eastern N. America : introduced in 1766. The American beech, 

 like so many other trees of its region, has never been much of a success in 

 Britain. It is easily distinguished from F. sylvatica by the suckering habit, 

 the narrower, more pointed, regularly toothed leaves, with more numerous veins. 



F. JAPONICA, Maximowicz. JAPANESE BEECH. 



Little is known of this beech in this country, and so far as I am aware, 

 it was not introduced in a living state until 1907, when it was sent to Kew by 

 Prof. Sargent. In 1910, the Japanese authorities of the Shepherd's Bush 

 Exhibition of that year brought over a few sn nil trees. It is a small deciduous 

 tree, often, it is said,' a bush ; the quite young shoots are furnished with silky 

 hairs. Leaves oval to' ovate, sometimes rather diamond-shaped, tapered at 

 both ends, but more abruptly towards the base ; 2 to 4^ ins. long, i to if ins. 

 wide ; wavy at the margin, rather glaucous beneath ; although silky at first, 

 the leaf becomes smooth by autumn ; stalk \ to f in. long ; veins nine to 

 thirteen. Male flowers on a slender stalk i^ to i\ ins. long. Nuts triangular, 

 J> in. long, in. wide ; the lobes of the husk little more than half as long as the 

 nut, downy, and covered with short stiff spines ; the stalk slender, I to i^ ins. 

 long. Its most distinctive characters appear to be the relative shortness of the 

 husk to the nut, the long fruit-stalk, and the shallow undulations of the leaf- 

 margin. 



F. SlEBOLDII, Endlicher: SlEBOLD'S BEECH. 

 (F. sylvatica var. Sieboldii, Maximowicz^ 



A deciduous tree, 100 ft. high, very closely allied to F. sylvatica. Leaves 

 ovate to rhomboidal, the base tapered, rounded or slightly heart- shaped, the 

 apex pointed ; 2 to 4 ins. long, i to 2^ ins. wide ; margins 'wavy, edged with fine 

 hairs ; silky hairy on the veins beneath ; stalk j to f in. long ; veins in. seven 

 to ten pairs. Nut triangular, f in. long ; the husk hard and woody, downy, 

 furnished with long bristles, those near the base enlarged into linear or 

 spathulate appendages \ in. long ; fruit-stalks stout, thick, and about \ in. long. 



Native of Japan, where it forms considerable forests. The tree "itself and 

 its timber are similar in most respects to the British tree. Botanically, it 

 differs chiefly in the leaflike appendages attached to the base of the husk ; the 

 latter also is more truncate, and less tapered at the base than in F. sylvatica. 



F. SYLVATICA, Linn&US. COMMON BEECH. 



A deciduous tree up to 100 ft. high, occasionally almost 150 ft, with a 

 smooth grey trunk, sometimes of enormous thickness 6 to 8 ft. through ; 

 young shoots at first silky hairy, soon becoming smooth. Leaves oval, 

 inclined to ovate, pointed, unequally rounded at the base, ordinarily 2 to 3^ 

 ins. long, i^ to 2| ins. wide, but as much as 5 ins. by 3 ins. ; obscurely toothed 

 or merely" unevenly undulated at the margin ; midrib and veins hairy, 

 especially beneath ; stalk downy, J to in. long. Nut triangular, in. long, 

 usually a pair enclosed in a hard, woody, pear-shaped, four-lobed husk, 



