THE BEECH 43 



handles, chairs, and the like, and there is no more perfect 

 fuel than seasoned beech wood. 



It is unreasonable to think that any but the blind could h ve 

 where beech trees grow and not know these trees at a glance. 

 The bark is close, unfurrowed, gray, often almost white, and 

 marked with blotches, often nearly round of paler hue. 



The branches are dark and smooth and the twigs pol- 

 ished to the long, pointed winter buds. Throughout, the 

 ti*ee is a model of elegant attire, both in color and texture 

 of the investing bark. 



In the growing season the leaves are the tree's chief at- 

 traction. They are closely plaited, and covered with 

 silvery down, w^hen the bud scales are pushed off in the 

 spring. In a day, the protective fuzz disappears, and the 

 full-grown leaf is seen, thin, strongly feather-veined, uni- 

 formly green, saw-toothed. Summer shows the foliage 

 mass almost as fresh, and autumn turns its green to pale 

 gold. Still unblemished, it clings, often until the end of 

 winter, lighting the woods with a ghostly glow, as the rain 

 fades the color out. The silky texture is never quite lost. 



The delicate flowers of the beech tree are rarely seen, 

 they faJe so soon; the stamen tassels drop off and the 

 forming nuts, with their prickly burs, are more and more in 

 evidence in the leaf angles near the ends of new shoots. 

 With the first frost the burs open, the four walls part, re- 

 leasing the two nuts, three-angled, like a grain of buckwheat. 



The name of this grain was suggested by its resemblance 

 in form to the beechnut, or "buck mast," sweet, nutritious 

 food of so many dwellers in the forest. Buck mast was the 

 food of man when he Uved in caves and under the forest 

 cover. We know that beechnuts have a rich, delicate 

 flavor tliat offsets the disadvantages of their small size 



