WHITE BEECH. 
11 
merit a decided preference over the Chincapin. The saplings of this 
species are laden with branches while they are no thicker than the finger, 
and are thus rendered too knotty for hoops. In,the Southern States, where 
the White Oak and the Hickories are comparatively rare, perhaps the 
Chincapin might be advantageously reared for this purpose in copses. 
But it is a tree of secondary importance, which can he recommended only 
to amateurs desirous of enriching their collections with a species of Chesnut 
interesting for the beauty of its foliage and the diminutive size of its fruit. 
PLATE CY. 
A branch with leaves and a barren ament of the natural size. Fig. 1, Full- 
grown fruit. Fig. 2, A nut. 
WHITE BEECH. 
Fagus svlvesteis. F. foliis acuminatis, obsolete dentatis , margine ciliatis. 
In North America and in Europe the Beech is one of the tallest and 
most majestic trees of the forest. Two species are found in Canada and 
in the United States, which have hitherto been treated by botanists as 
varieties ; but my own observations confirm the opinion of the inhabitants 
of the Northern States, who have long since considered them as distinct 
species and given them the names of White Beech and Red Beech, from 
the color of their wood. In the Middle, Western and Southern States, the 
Red Beech does not exist or is very rare, and the other species is known 
only by the generic name of Beech. I have retained for the White Beech 
the Latin specific name of Fagus sglvestris, which corresponds with the 
short description in the Flora Boreali- Americana , and have given to the 
Red Beech that of Fagus ferruginea, which accords with the descriptive 
phrase in the edition of 1805 of Willdenow’s Species Plantarum. 
* A deep, moist soil and a cool atmosphere are necessary to the utmost 
expansion of the White Beech, and it is accordingly most multiplied in the 
Middle and Western States. Though it is common in New Jersey, Penn- 
