THE BEECH. 3833 
enclosing the rich, brown, triangular fruits—the 
beech-nuts familiar to the schoolboy. The silky 
down on the incipient leaf gradually disappears as 
spring advances, and anon the leaf developes into 
its mature form and colour. In shape it is oval, 
pointed at the top, and fastened to the twig by a 
short stem. The venation is beautifully regular, 
and can be very distinctly seen on the under part 
of the leaf. On each side of the mid-vein, which 
is a continuation of the leaf-stalk, and proceeds 
in a straight line to the apex, veinlets branch in 
parallel lines to the unindented, but somewhat 
wavy leaf margin. The leafy substance is thin 
and hard, and beautifully polished on its upper 
surface ; and when it has arrived at perfection it 
assumes a rich hue of green. 
One peculiarity that must be noted in the Beech 
seed, or ‘mast,’ is that it does not long retain its 
capacity for germination ; so that unless it be sown 
not later than the spring succeeding the season of 
its ripening, there can be no certainty that it will 
grow. ‘The ‘seed leaves’ are remarkably pale in 
colour when they first appear above the ground. 
In ten years from planting the nut a young Beech 
