152 MONOECIA— POLYANDRIA. Fagus. 



rudiments of stamens, among the wool at the base of the styles. 

 Nuts large, broadly ovate, generally 2, flat on the inner side, 

 attached by a broad scar to the bottom of the greatly enlarged 

 outer calyx, whose outside is copiously armed with complicated 

 sharp prickles. 

 Chesnuts afford a wholesome and grateful food to many quadru- 

 peds, as well as to mankind. Cultivation renders them larger, 

 but the wild sort is equally good. 



2. F. sylvatica. Common Beech. 



Leaves ovate, obsoletely serrated. Prickles of the outer 



calyx simple. Stigmas three. 

 F. sylvatica. Lbm. Sp. PL 1416. fVilld. v. 4. 459. Baumz. 1 13. 



Fl.BrA028. Engl. Bot. v. 26. t. 1846. Hook. Scot. 274. Sibth. 



Oxon. 152. Fl.Dan.t.]283. 

 F. n. 1 622. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 292. 

 Fagus. Rail Syn. 439. Bauh. Hist. v. l.p.2.l\ 7.f. 1 18. Trag. 



Hist. 1 1 07. /. Matth. Valgr v. 1 . 185. /. Camer. Epit. 1 1 2./. 



Dod. Pempt. 832. f. Ger. Em. 1444. f. 

 Beech tree. Hunt. Evel. Sylv. 136./. 



In woods, especially on chalky hills. It is remarkable, as Ray ob- 

 serves, that Csesar asserts there is no Beech timber in Britain. 

 Comm. de Bello Gallico, book 5. sect. 10. 



Tree. April, May. 



A handsome umbrageous tree, with a smooth bark, and shining 

 leaves, which remain during winter, in a dry state, on the 

 branches, and are very long in decaying after their fall. Hence 

 they form a thick bed, through which grasses, and herbaceous 

 plants in general, perhaps, do not readily penetrate j though 

 Orchidece ,anA some parasitical vegetables, flourish most in Beech 

 woods. Seedlings of this tree, with their pale cotyledons, look 

 not unlike some kinds of Fungus. The leaves are 2 or 3 inches 

 long, slightly and unequally serrated, with a silky marginal 

 fringe, and downy veins. Barr.^. brown, 3 or 4 in each round. 

 Stalked, drooping head, or catkin. Fertile ones above them, so- 

 litary, on stouter stalks. Cal. of the fruit 4-cleft, clothed with 

 simple pliant prickles. Stigmas 3 in each flower, spreading, 

 acute, downy. Nuts 2, with 3 equal, very sharp, angles, and 

 crowned with the inner calyx, as Gsertner properly, 1 now think, 

 denominates it. I have profited of the light thrown by this 

 learned botanist upon Quercus, Fagus, and their allies, though 

 I cannot concur with him in separating Castaneu from Fagus. 

 No genus, I think, can be more natural than Fagus, as esta- 

 blished by Linnaeus. There is no shadow of a character to di- 

 stinguish Castanea, but number in the parts of fructification, 

 which, in this tribe, is of all things most uncertain ; see Introd. 

 to Botany, ed.5. 383. I " condemn" nobody j but Gsertner, like 



