CHAPTER III. 



THE BBBCHITUT. 



Fagus, Linn. The Beech. - The Latin name of the 

 genus {Fagus) supposed to be an equivalent of the Greek 

 phegos, an oak, or it may be derived from phago, to eat ; 

 the nuts of this tree having been used as food by man 

 in all ages and countries where it is a native. The 

 modern English name, beech, was probably derived 

 from the Anglo-Saxon bece or hoc; in Dutch it is beuk; 

 French, hetre ; Icelandic, heyk; Danish, log; Swedish, 

 loh ; German, huche or iuoche; Eussian, buk; Italian, 

 faggioj Armenian, /ao; and in Welsh ffawydd. 



The beech belongs^ to the order Cupuliferm, or oak 

 family. The genus contains about fifteen species of 

 handsome deciduous and evergreen trees, or shrubs, very 

 widely distributed throughout the temperate and colder 

 regions of both the northern and southern hemispheres. 

 Male flowers are bell-shaped, in long-stalked drooping 

 heads; calyx five to seven cleft, containing numerous 

 stamens. Female flowers two to four in a cluster on the 

 summit of the scaly-bracted peduncle ; the inside scales 

 uniting, forming a four-lobed involucre of imbricated 

 bracts, the whole becoming at maturity a somewhat 

 prickly, scaly bur, within which are found a pair of 

 sharp-edged triangular nuts', containing a tender and 

 sweet-flavored kernel. 



History of the Beech. — The common beeches of 

 both Europe and North America are so closely related 

 that the two species may be considered as one for all 

 practical purposes, such as propagation, cultivation, and 



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