THE BEECH. 
23 
flowers are gathered together in a hanging purplish-brown 
rounded tassel with yellow anthers. The female flowers, to the 
number of two, three, or four, are clustered in a “ cupule ” of 
overlapping scales, like those of the Oak. But in the Beech the 
“ cupule ” becomes a bristly closed box, which afterwards opens 
Leaves, flowers, and fruit of Beech. 
A, female ; B, male flowers. 
by one end splitting into four triangular silk-hair-lined valves, 
which turn back and reveal the three-sided, sharp-edged “ mast.” 
This mast was formerly a very valuable product of the Beech- 
woods, when herds of swine were turned in them to feed upon 
the fallen Beech-nuts. Agricultural methods have changed ; 
D 
