Miscellanecus. 463 



in the latter the teeth are so faintly marked that it is not always easy 

 to recognize this peculiarity. When this double direction exists in 

 a leaf, the extreme veins, which are the shortest, are straight, and 

 clearly terminate in a tooth, just as the central vein terminates in 

 the tooth of the extremity of the leaf. The other veins are curved 

 near the tooth in such a manner that the nearer we approacli the base 

 of the leaf the more do the veins correspond (or appear to corre- 

 spond) with the notches. The organogeny of the leaf would pro- 

 bably show that at first the veins of these species all answer to teeth, 

 and that the growth of tissue alone has caused them to deviate, ex- 

 cept at the extremity, where the leaf is less enlarged. 



Tlie direction of the veins furnishes, however, a good character 

 for distinguishing the Japanese Fagus Sieboldii and the F.ferruginea 

 (F. sylvestris, \Iirb.) from the European F. sylvatica. Linnaeus 

 regarded the North American Beech as belonging to the European 

 species, and in this he has been followed by some modern botanists. 

 Mr. Bromfield, who has carefully observed the American species, 

 admits the specific difference of the two Beeches (Hooker's Journal 

 of Botany, 1849, p. 112) ; but he has not noticed the difference of 

 the venation, which corroborates the other characters. In the North 

 American Beech, as in the Japanese species, all the lateral veins 

 evidently correspond in a straight line with the teeth, which are 

 always distinct and well-marked. In the European Beech the teeth 

 are less distinct, and often become mere undulations ; and the veins 

 are directed rather towards the notches, or at least become curved 

 near the teeth, with the exception of those of the apex of the leaf. 



The species which have all the lateral veins directed towards the 

 teeth arc, besides F. Sieboldii and F. ferruginea already mentioned, 

 F. obliqua, Mirb., F. Dombeyi, Mirb., F. fusca. Hook., and F. 

 Cunninghamii, Hook. Those in which all the lateral veins tend 

 towards the sinuses are F. antarctica, Forst., and F. Gunnii, Hook. 

 Those in which the majority of the veins are directed towards the 

 sinuses are F. sglvatica, F. alpina, Popp. & Endl., and F. procera, 

 Ptipp. & Endl. Lastly, in some species, which complete the genus, 

 the teeth are wanting or very indistinct, or the veins are much at- 

 tenuated, and sometimes the secondary ones become confounded 

 with the tcrtiarics in a complicated network ; in all these cases the 

 direction cannot be readily ascertained. This applies especially to 

 F. Sotandri, Hook., and F. cliffortio'idea, Hook., from New Zealand, 

 the leaves of which are entire. 



The two species in which the veins most evidently alternate with 

 the teeth (/*. antarctica and F. Gunnii) belong to the section of the 

 genus that includes those in which all the veins terminate in teeth, 

 such as F. Sieboldii and F. obliqua, as well as our European Beech ; 

 these have the young leaf folded, in the bud, on each lateral vein. 

 The direction of the veins is therefore a purely specific character ; 

 and this should warn palaeontologists not to lay too much stress 

 upon the details of venation as indicative of genera. Nevertheless 

 the direction of the veins relatively to the teeth or sinuses deserves 

 mention in the specific characters, especially of fossil species. 



