BEECH 
The genus has several evergreen specie_. These are all 
found in the southern hemisphere,—in Terra-del-Fuego, New 
Zealand, and. Australia. Traces of Fagus have been dis- 
covered in the cretaceous rocks of the Dakota group, in the 
miocene of Alaska and in the gold-bearing gravels of Cali- 
fornia; existing once over a broad territory from which it has 
now entirely disappeared. 
There was so firm a belief among the Indians that a 
beech tree was proof against lightning, that on the approach 
of a thunder-storm they took refuge under its branches with 
full assurance of safety. This belief seems to have been 
adopted by the early settlers of this country and it is very 
common to hear a farmer say, ‘“‘A beech is never struck by 
lightning.” This popular belief has recently had scientific 
verification. Asa result of careful experiments it has been 
found that the beech really does resist the electric current 
much more vigorously than the oak, poplar or willow. The 
general conclusion from a series of experiments is that trees 
“poor in fat” like the oak, willow, poplar, maple, elm and 
ash oppose much less resistance to the electric current than 
trees “rich in fat” like the beech, chestnut, linden and 
birch. Of course varying conditions modify the practical 
working of these facts, but the Indians’ conclusion was well 
founded. 
Cf cultivated beeches the most popular is the well-known 
Purple or Copper Beech. Individual trees of this variety 
have appeared at different times in the forests of Europe. In 
a natural history published in 1680, three beech trees with red 
leaves were recorded as growing in a wood near Zurich. 
Twenty-five years later a popular legend had grown up that 
these red-leaved beeches marked a place where five brothers 
had murdered each other. Most of the Purple Beeches now 
cultivated are believed to be derived from a tree discovered 
in the last century in a forest at Thuringia, which is supposed 
to be about two hundred years old, and is still alive. 
The beech tree figures in ancient literature because of its 
shade ; the ancient writers from Virgil down were continually 
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