BEECH FAMILY 



The beech tree has evidently been the shining mark of 

 lovers from earliest days. 



Or sliLiU I rather the sad verse repeat 

 Which on the beech's bark I lately writ? 



—Virgil. 



On the smooth beechen rind the pensive dame 

 Carves in a thousand forms her Tancred's name. 



— Tasso. 



It is perhaps scarcely necessary to say that the beech tree 

 of ancient literature is not the American beech but Firgi/s 

 sylvatica, the common beech of Europe. Our beech differs 

 from the European species in its paler bark and the lighter 

 green of its leaves. 



CHESTNUT 



CastiiiL'a dcnicila. Castcliica vcsca. 



From Castanea a town in Thessal)', or from another town of that 

 name in Pontus. New York Indians call the chestnut, 0-heh- 

 yah-tah, Prickly Bur. 



Occasionally one hundred feet high ; grows rapidly and lives to 

 great age. Very common on glacial drift of northern states, rarely 

 found on limestone soils. Has stout tap root and thick rootlets. 

 Juices are astringent. Attains its greatest size in western North 

 Carolina and eastern Tennessee. 



Bark. — Grayish brown divided by shallow irregular fissures into 

 broad flat ridges. Branchlets at first light yellow green, finally 

 olive green and ultimately dark brown. 



Wood. — Reddish brown, sapwood lighter; light, soft, coarse- 

 grained, not strong, easily split and very durable in contact witli the 

 soil; largely used in manufacture of cheap furniture, interioi" of 

 houses, railway ties, fence posts and rails. Sp. gr., 0.4504 ; weight 

 of cu. ft., 28.07 lbs. 



Winter Buds. — Dark chestnut brown, ovate, acute, one-fourth an 

 inch long ; all lateral. 



Leaves. — Alternate, oblong-lanceolate, six to eight inches long, 

 acute or wedge-shaped base, coarsely serrate, acute or acuminate. 

 Feather-veined ; midrib and veins prominent on the under side. 

 Convolute in the bud, late in unfolding ; vhcn full grown are a dark 

 shining green abo\ e, a paler green beneath. In autumn they turn a 



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