BEECH. 



[66] 



Family: AMENT ACE AE [Translator's note: now FAGACEAE]. 

 Reproductive system: MONOECIE, POLYANDRY. 



The common beech, Fagus sylvestris [Translator's note: now Fagus sylvatica], 

 Linn., is one of the most beautiful trees in our forests. It has a straight trunk covered with 

 smooth gray bark. I've seen some in parts of Normandy and in the cool mountainous 

 regions of Provence that are eighty and a hundred feet tall. The tree is crowned with a 

 broad, bushy rounded top. The leaves are oval, wide, somewhat dentate, bright green on 

 top and slightly downy underneath. In autumn they take on red and yellowish colors that 

 make an exceptionally picturesque impression. Some gardens have a cultivated variety 

 with leaves that are a deep puqjle from the time that they come out. The flowers are 

 monoecious. The male catkins are pendent and composed of flowers with six not very 

 indented lobes and eight stamens. The female flowers are arranged in pairs and are 

 enclosed in an involucre with four lobes covered with soft spines. The unusual calyx has 

 six sections. The style has three stigmata, and the ovary has three compartments with two 

 ovules in each one. Two of the compartments usually fail to develop; the third contains a 

 smooth triangular nut with a single compartment. It's covered with a tough skin and 

 contains one or two angular seeds. 



FLOWERS: in May. 



RANGE: France and a part of Europe. It mainly prefers mountain slopes and 

 limestone hills. 



NOMENCLATURE. Fagus is from a Greek word meaning to eat, because its fruit is 

 nutritious. From Fagus came the words fau, fayard, and fames for its fruits. German, die 

 buche, der buchbaum. Dutch, buikeboom. English, the beech tree. Italian. // faggio. 

 Russian, buk. Hungarian bikfa. Tatar, biuk. 



