COMMON BEECH. 



30/ 



orange brown, and, during the youth of the tree, are 

 usually retained over the winter, or until the sap begins 

 to move in the ensuing spring. 



The male catkins, or barren flowers, are of a brown 

 colour, round-stalked, and drooping ; the fertile ones, placed 

 on the branch above them, are solitary and on shorter 



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stalks. The calyx of the fruit is four cleft, covered with 

 simple pliant prickles; the stigmas, three in each flower, 

 spreading, acute, and downy. The nuts are two, each 

 with three very sharp angles, and crowned with the inner 

 calyx. These ripen in autumn, 

 and generally fall from the 

 calyx, (which bursts open at 

 the upper extremity and re- 

 mains attached to the branch,) 

 in October and November, and 

 are commonly known by the 

 name of beech mast. They con- 

 tain a sweet, oleaginous kernel, 

 of pleasant flavour and not un- 

 wholesome quality, and amongst animals are a favourite 

 food of swine, deer, badgers, squirrels and dormice, while 



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