158 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
I. 2 THE BEECH. FAGUS. Tournefort. 
Lofty, spreading trees of the cool regions of Europe and 
America, distinguished for their smooth ashen or bluish grey 
bark, and three-comered oily nuts, protected by a bristly or 
prickly, four-cleft bur. The leaves are annual, alternate and 
plaited while in the bud, which is sessile, and covered with 
imbricate scales. The male flowers are in roundish, tassel-like 
aments, dependent by a long, silken thread. 'The females, in 
roundish, sessile aments. Of this genus, there are only five or 
six species yet known; one is the common beech of Europe, 
and the western part of Asia, and of this, the American is 
supposed to be a variety; two are found in Chili; one or two, 
possibly three, are natives of Terra del Fucgo. 
Tue American Brecn. F. Sylvatica, L, var. Americana, Nut- 
tall. MSylvestris, Michaux. 
Figured in Michaux; Sylva, III, Plate 107; Abbott’s Insects of Georgia, I, 
Plate 75. 
For depth of shade, no tree is equal to the beech, and as it is 
singularly clean and neat, and the leaves are liable to the attack 
of few insects, and remain on the branches longer than those of 
any deciduous tree, giving a cheerful aspect to the wood in 
winter, it deserves cultivation near houses. 
The roots do not penetrate deeply, but extend, just below the 
surface, to some distance on every side. The stem is remark- 
able for its smooth bark, of a whitish or bluish grey, or lead 
color, sprinkled with ash. When growing freely, it is an erect, 
often fluted column of eight or ten to twenty fect, at which 
height, it throws out, in every direction, many long, diverging 
or radiating arms, stretching upwards and outwards, at a large 
angle with the trunk. The lower branches of the lower of 
these, gradually become horizontal, while the upper ones ramify 
so as to form a broad, round, dense head. In the thick woods, 
it shoots up in a straight, erect trunk, to a height of sixty or 
seventy feet, clear, or with here and there a small, slender 
branch. The branches of the tree growing freely, or on the 
edge of a wood, are sometimes large, but more frequently small, 
