156 THE TREE BOOK 



off. Their mission is finished. Beech scales 

 begin to loosen when the wood violets are bloom- 

 ing. But they are loth to fall, and /cling to the 

 twig by their silky fringes, giving the tree a 

 decoration of golden-brown tiU the spring winds 

 finally send them scattering. 



When the leaves are about one-third grown, 

 the beech hangs out little head-like clusters of 

 stamens from the bases of the new shoots. The 

 pistillate flowers appear in a pair of scaly cups 

 borne on short little stems in the axils of the 

 leaves. The fruit is a' burr of bristly prickles, 

 and when ripe splits into four valves, showing a 

 pair of three-sided, shiny brown nuts, each 

 about half an inch in length. The nuts are 

 sweet and of a delicious flavor. All the wood- 

 land creatures relish them, and "beech mast," 

 as they are familiarly called, is said to make, the 

 finest pork in the world. Beech nuts have long 

 been used in the old world as food for man. 

 They are sold regularly in the French Canadian 

 markets, and also in various localities in our 

 own Middle and Western states. The English 

 named them "buckmast," because deer eat 

 them. It is said that buckwheat is so called 

 because its three-cornered seeds are like minia- 

 ture beechnuts. 



In the early days beechnut oil was widely 



