Handbook of Tkees of the NoETiiEj;:sr States and Canada. 133 



The Beech is one of the most distinct and 

 beautiful trees of our eastern American forests, 

 sometimes surpassing 100 ft. in height and 

 with straight columnar trunk 3 or 4 ft. in 

 thickness vested in its trim smooth bluish 

 gray bark. When isolated it develops a 

 rounded or broad upright spreading top of 

 many branches and slender branehlets. It in- 

 habits rich well-drained uplands and slopes, in 

 the north in company with the Sugar Maple, 

 Birches, Hop Hornbeam, Basswood, Hemlock, 

 etc. and in the south is found along the borders 

 of swamps and bottom-lands. It often in old 

 age sends up many shoots from its roots which 

 form a thicket about its base, and as the 

 parent declines the fittest of these survive and 

 grow into trees to take its place. It is a 

 beautiful tree at all times, each successive 

 season of the j-ear giving to it a peculiar 

 charm, and not the least of these is its lea Hess 

 condition in winter. Its nuts form the chief 

 article of food for many denizens of the forest 

 and they are sometimes gathered and sold m 

 northern markets. 



The wood, a cubic foot of which, when abso- 

 lutely dry, weighs 42.89 lbs., is used in the 

 manufacture of furniture, wooden-ware, plane- 

 stocks, etc., and for fuel.- 



Leavcs ovate-oblong, 3-6 in. long, acuminate, 

 wedge-sbaped, rounded or cordate at base, coarsely 

 serrate, a vein terminating in each tootb. pale 

 green and .silky tomentose when they untold, but 

 tinally glabrous dark green above, paler and with 

 hairs in the a.fils and on the midrib.s beneath : 

 petioles short. Floirrrs appear after the leaves 

 untold. Fruit: nut about % in. long; involucre 

 covered with many sleoder prickles, with stout 

 peduncles and persisting open upon the brancblets 

 late into the winter.' 



1. Syn. Fagiis ferruginca Ait. Fagus atro- 

 punicea (Marsh.) Sudw. 



2. A. W., I, 16. 



3. For genus see p. 429. 



