356 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
are curled up. In others, as S. pendulata, the branches are pen- 
dulous, or weeping. 
The smooth thin bark of the Beech is apt to develop the knobs 
called embryo-buds, or abortive branches, which are sometimes 
used by cabinet makers. Its branches are numerous, and its 
foliage dense and shady, so that the Bird’s-nest Orchis is often 
found under its shade, parasitical on its roots; among which also, 
but not upon them, the common Morel flourishes in the Beech 
forests of France and Germany. 
The Chestnut (Castanea vulgaris) is a tree of rapid vegetation, 
and endowed with great longevity. It attains a height of 20 to 
Fig. 386.—Inflorescence bud of the Horse- 
Chestnut. 
unequal linear bracteoles. Each female flower consists 
ovarium, surmounted by a calycinal limb, having five to elg 
0 feet, occasionally pre- 
senting an enormous cir- 
cumference. Its leaves are 
large, petiolate, oblong, 
acutely lanceolate, deeply 
dentate, coriaceous, smooth 
and shining, with prom 
nent secondary parallel — 
nerves, accompanied by 
two caducous stipules. 
The flowers are utr 
sexual, and appear after 
the leaves. The male 
flowers are very small cal- oe 
kins, each flower bemg — 
composed of five or S¥¥ 
divisions, with as many o : 
more stamens, having br 
; 
| 
locular anthers opening 
The female — 
externally of a lower : 
ht lobes; 
