BEECH 



The genus has several evergreen species. These are all 

 found in the southern hemisphere, in Terra-del-Fuego, New 

 Zealand, and Australia. Traces of Fagus have been dis- 

 covered in the cretaceous rocks of the Dakota group, in the 

 miocene of Alaska and in the gold-bearing gravels of Cali- 

 fornia ; existing once over a broad territory from which it has 

 now entirely disappeared. 



There was so firm a belief among the Indians that a 

 beech tree was proof against lightning, that on the approach 

 of a thunder-storm they took refuge under its branches with 

 full assurance of safety. This belief seems to have been 

 adopted by the early settlers of this country and it is very 

 common to hear a farmer say, " A beech is never struck by 

 lightning." This popular belief has recently had scientific 

 verification. As a result of careful experiments it has been 

 found that the beech really does resist the electric current 

 much more vigorously than the oak, poplar or willow. The 

 general conclusion from a series of experiments is that trees 

 "poor in fat" like the oak, willow, poplar, maple, elm and 

 ash oppose much less resistance to the electric current than 

 trees " rich in fat " like the beech, chestnut, linden and 

 birch. Of course varying conditions modify the practical 

 working of these facts, but the Indians' conclusion was well 

 founded. 



Of cultivated beeches the most popular is the well-known 

 Purple or Copper Beech. Individual trees of this variety 

 have appeared at different times in the forests of Europe. In 

 a natural history published in 1680, three beech trees with red 

 leaves were recorded as growing in a wood near Zurich. 

 Twenty-five years later a popular legend had grown up that 

 these red-leaved beeches marked a place where five brothers 

 had murdered each other. Most of the Purple Beeches now 

 cultivated are believed to be derived from a tree discovered 

 in the last century in a forest at Thuringia, which is supposed 

 to be about two hundred years old, and is still alive. 



The beech tree figures in ancient literature because of its 

 shade ; the ancient writers from Virgil down were continually 



383 



