American Beech 



269 



I. AMERICAN BEECH 



GENUS FAGUS [TOURNEFORT] LINN^US 



Species Fagus grandifolia Ehrhart 

 Fagus jerruginea Aiton. Fagus americana Sweet 



MAGNIFICENT tree, inhabiting rich soils, frequently forming 

 almost pure forests, ranging from Nova Scotia to Ontario, Wisconsin, 

 Florida and Texas; its maximum height is about 40 meters, with a 

 trunk diameter of 1.5 m. 

 The trunks, when crowded in the forest, are tall and slender, but when growing 

 in the open they are short and low-branched, the branches widely spreading, or 

 drooping. The wide-spreading roots grow close to the surface of the ground and 

 produce many young trees, often surrounding the main one with a dense thicket. 

 The bark is about i cm. thick, very close, quite smooth, and light gray. The 

 twigs are slender, sometimes zigzag, green 

 and hairy, soon becoming smooth, dark yel- 

 low, with Kghter yellow lenticels, and pass 

 through various shades of red and brown 

 to gray. The winter buds are often 2.5 

 cm. long, taper- pointed, and covered with 

 bright brown scales. The leaves are very 

 silky when unfolding, becoming stiff and 

 leathery, ovate, oval or oblong-ovate, 5 to 

 14 cm. long, usually short taper-pointed, 

 gradually narrowed and wedge-shaped or 

 rounded, or somewhat heart-shaped at the 

 base, sharply toothed on the margin, light 

 green, becoming dull blue-green above, 

 yellowish green, shining and prominently 

 nerved beneath; leaf -stalk grooved and 

 slender, 1.5 to 2 cm. long; stipules thin, red- 

 dish, often 2 cm. long, soon falling off. The foliage turns bright yellow before 

 falling in the autumn. The flowers appear when the leaves are partly unfolded, 

 the staminate in globose drooping catkins on hairy stalks 2 to 4 cm. long, with 2 

 awl-shaped deciduous bracts near the middle; the perianth is somewhat bell- 

 shaped, 4- to 8-lobed, the lobes ovate to oblong, blunt, 3 to 4 mm. long, hairy 

 outside; stamens 8 to 10, their filaments thread-hke, nearly twice the length of the 

 perianth; anthers light green. The pistillate flowers are usually 2 together on 

 club-shaped, woolly stalks 12 to 14 mm. long, in the axils of the unfolding 

 upper leaves and surrounded by an involucre of accrescent scales, which are 

 whitish hairy and tinged with red; the hairy perianth is 4- or 5-lobed, the lobes 

 linear-lanceolate, and sharp-pointed. The ovary is inferior, 3-celled; styles 3, 



Fig. 228. — American Beech. 



