470 



AMENTACE^. [Fagus. 



becoming abortiye. Stigmas 8, filiform. Nuts triquetrous, in 

 pairs within the enlarged prickly involucre." — Br. Fl. 



1. V. sylvatica,Li. Common Beech. " Leaves ovate glabrous 

 obsoletely dentate, their margins ciliated." — Br. Fl. p. 403. E. 

 B. t. 1846. 



In woods and on steep chalky hills ; not unfrequeut. FL May. Fr. Septem- 

 ber, Outolier. Tj . 



E. Med. — On the down above Nunwell. In Cowpit-cliff wood. By Godshill. 

 East-end, indigenous.? Cleveland wood, abundantly; indigenous i" Appuldur- 

 combe park, but perhaps planted. 



A beautilul and stately tree, from 50 to 80 or 100 feet high, with roots running 

 nearly horizontally or even partly above the surface, the bark very smooth, cine- 

 reous, the extremities of the spreading crooked branches virgate, flexuose, emit- 

 ting at each angle of flexure a solitary, alternate, linear-laiioeolate, acute leaf-bud 

 about |ths of an inch in length. Leaves from about 1 J or 2 to 3J or 4 inches 

 long, and from 1 to 2^ or 3 inches wide, bright (often deep) green above, paler 

 beneath, firm or subcoriaceous, shining and glabrous when young, sprinkled with 

 silky hairs, varying iu form from ovate to elliptical or even inclining to lanceo- 

 late, ovate or somewhat acuminate, soujetimes bluutish, obsoletely sinuato-dentate 

 and waved along the margin, which is fringed with fine white silky hairs; more 

 rarely distinctly aud acutely dentato-serrate, rounded or tapering and wedge- 

 shaped, often oblique at the base, the disk subplicate, with straight parallel ribs 

 hairy along their prominent under side, aud with small silky tufts iu their axils. 

 Petioles very short, 4 or 5 lines in length, silky-pilose, rounded. Stipules long, 

 linear-lanceolate, pale tawny, very thin and membranous, caducous. Staminate 

 flowers in small, pale greenish yellow, loosely sutiglobose and somewhat com- 

 pressed catkins, about ^ an inch iu diameter, pendulous from common, compressed, 

 very silky peduncles, of about i- to 1^ inch in length, 3, 4, or 5 together from the 

 same buds as the leaves, and having mostly one or two linear, deciduous, tawny 

 bracts a short distance below the flowers. Perianth shortly pedicellate, very silky, 

 campanulate, cleft, the segments acute. Stamens 5—12 (Sm.), mostly about 9 (?) 

 a little longer than the perianth ; anthers elliptic-ohlong, greenish yellow, 2-celled, 

 bursting laterally ; poWfn pale yellow. Pistillate flowers situated just above the 

 staminate, terminal or subterniinal, their common involucre usually solitary or on 

 an erect, stout, silky and bluntly angular peduncle of about -J- an inch in length; 

 subglobose, thick and leathery, deeply cleft into 4 roundish lobes closing over the 

 two included germeus, silky tomentose within, beset externally with numeious 

 patent, spreading or recurved, subulate scales, of a light purplish colour and 

 downy, flat, soft and pliant, and which cannot therefore be called prickles, but 

 more resemble the involucral bracts of many Compositae. Germens 2, greenish, 

 sessile, ovate and acutely triquetrous, with depressed sides and thin prominent 

 angles ; a little silky above, closely applied to each other by one of their faces, 

 and crowned by the 6 erect, subulate and downy segments of the closely investing 

 or adnate calyx. Stigmas 3, greenish, subulate, spreading and recurved, pro- 

 truded from the involucre. Nuts 2, chestnut-brown, rather more than i an inch 

 in length, ovoid and acutely triquetrous, the angles winged above the depressed 

 faces, somewhat grooved and in their upper part silky pubescent, and penicillate 

 at the apex; firmly enclosed in the enlarged, much- indurated, almost woody and 

 capsnle-like involucre, which is covered with a tawny pile, its segments at length 

 widely spreading or reflexed. Cotyledons large, fleshy, conduplicate, plaited. 

 The nuts are often abortive, though the testa appears as large and well filled as 

 usual, but on being broken open no trace of any portion of the seed is to be found 

 excepting the hairy funiculus. 



I have sometimes suspected the Beech might not be truly indigenous in this 

 island, though unquestionably so on the mainland of Hampshire, where, as iu 

 Sussex and other southern counties of England, it forms vast natural woods of 

 great magnificence and beauty, which, from their occupying in general the sloping 



