91 
FAGACEA. Tue Bercu Famity. 
Trees with watery juice; leaves alternate, pinnately-veined; flow- 
ers of two kinds; fruit a l-seeded nut. This is the most important 
family of trees occurring in the State. 
Staminate flowers in heads on drooping peduncles; nuts 
triangular, inclosed in a woody husk armed with re- 
CIBC OSDEICKIES Mists Memeeee aerate tie ala ale, woyke mele. 1 Fagus. 
Staminate flowers in slender catkins; nuts not as above. 
Nuts inclosed in a woody husk armed with numerous 
Stralehtypricklesia: saaccrpriustav es cli ocr entail iers 2 Castanea. 
Nuts seated in a scaly and woody cup................ 3 Quercus. 
1. FAGUS. Tue Beecu. 
(From the Greek word phago, to eat, because the nuts were formerly used as food.) 
Trees with pale smooth bark; buds long, acute, chestnut-brown; 
staminate flowers in globose heads, stamens 8-16, pistillate flowers 
2-4 in a cluster in the axils of the upper leaves; nuts usually 2 in an 
oval shell, which opens to discharge the nuts. 
Fagus grandifolia Ehrhart. Brecu. Rep Beech. WuitEe BEEcu. 
YeLLow Besecu. Plate 41. Bark light to a dark gray; twigs red- 
dish-brown the first year, turning to gray; leaves ovate to oblong- 
ovate, usually rather long taper-pointed, wedge-shaped to cordate 
at base, regularly and usually minutely serrate, the veins ending in 
the apex of the teeth, silky when young, at maturity becoming smooth 
above and nearly so beneath, blade 6-13 em. (214-5 inches) long; 
flowers appear in May; nuts 1-1.5 em. (34-1 inch) long, triangular, 
reddish-brown, pubescent. 
Distribution. Nova Scotia, Ontario and Wisconsin, south to the 
Gulf States and west to Texas. Found in all parts of Indiana, 
though not frequent in the prairie region of the northwestern part 
of the State. It is frequent to very common in almost all parts of 
the State on high ground. In point ‘of number it ranks first of 
Indiana trees. It is usually associated with sugar maple, buckeye, 
ironwood, white ash, red oak, linden and yellow poplar. Among the 
hills in the southern part of the State the oak is the dominant stand 
on the south slope of the hills and the beech the dominant stand on 
the north side. In Jackson, Scott and some adjacent counties it 
adapts itself to wetter conditions and is found in the flats associ- 
ated with sweet gum and pin oak. It grows to be a large tree in 
our area, reaching a height of 35 m. (115 feet) and a diameter of a 
meter (39 inches). 
