80 
HEW SYLVA 
FAGUS and CASTANEA. 
The Beech and Chesnut trees so unlike and 
easily known by their fruits had been kept sep- 
arate by the old Botanists, but Linneus took the 
fancy to unite them under his Fagus. — This 
linnean blunder was never assented to by the 
French Botanists, and now after 100 years the 
two genera are again acknowledged. But as 
to our American Sp. they are yet miscalled and 
deemed the same as the European ; which is 
erroneous, none of our trees being quite identic! 
I must therefore revise them and add some 
new kinds. 
688. Fagtjs alba Raf. sylvatica of Amer. 
bot. not L. nor Europe. Bark smooth white, 
branchlets terete cinereous, leaves on short pe- 
tiols ovate lanceol. dentate ciliate, acute at 
both ends, green concolor, aments on short pe- 
duncles, nuts ovate mucronate obtusely trigone 
• — Our white Beech tree, common all over N. 
America, 56 to 60 feet, high, leaves 2 or 3 in- 
ches long. Dioical or polygamous, 
689. Fagus heterophyla Raf. Bark and 
branches grey, branchlets terete, leaves subpe- 
tiolate ovate obovate rhomboidal and elliptic, 
acute at both ends, remotely uncinate serrulate 
above, sometimes jagged on one side, margin 
and nerves pilose, surface yellowish green con- 
color, aments on long filiform pilose peduncles, 
nuts ovate angles obtuse — Our Grey Beech is a 
rare tree, smaller than the last, occasionaly 
met in the dry hills of the Alleghanies, leaves 
thin about biuncial of a yellowish cast, quite en- 
tire till the middle then serrulate and subacu- 
minate. 
690. Fagus ierruginea Ait. purpurea qf 
