43 
sis, pagnyensis, miltonensis, etc.) The Fern-leaf Beech (var. hetero- 
phylla) is distinguished by its variously shaped leaves, which on the 
same branch are long and narrow, and usually more or less deeply 
lobed, pinnate or laciniate. Various names (vars. asplenifolia, incisa, 
laciniata, salicifolia and comptoniaefolia) have been given to forms of 
this variety, but the variation is often so slight that it seems wise to 
call all the forms of the European Beech with cut or laciniate leaves 
var. heterophylla. The largest specimen of this tree in the United 
States grows on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, on the 
grounds of the Redwood Library and Reading Room. A form of 
the European Beech (var. fastigiata) on which all the branches grow 
erect and form a narrow pyramidal head promises to be a handsome 
and useful addition to the trees with this habit, like the fastigiate Red 
and Sugar Maples, the fastigiate European Oak and the fastigiate 
Tulip-tree, European Hornbeam, etc. The original fastigiate Beech is 
growing at Dawyck in Peeblesshire, Scotland, and is a comparatively 
recent addition to the Arborbtum collection. In the variety rotundi- 
folia of the European Beech we have a handsome tree, probably always 
of small size, with nearly round leaves closely set on the branches and 
usually not more than an inch in diameter, a good tree to plant where 
there is not room for the large-growing Beech-trees. The least attract- 
ive of all the forms of the European Beech, the var. cristata, is a tall 
narrow tree with short-stemmed leaves, deeply lobed and more or less 
contorted, interesting as a monstrous form but of no value among orna- 
mental trees. 
Fagus orientalis is a native of southwestern Asia where it is distrib- 
uted from Asia Minor to northern Persia. From the European Beech 
it differs chiefly in the lower prickles of the fruit which are changed 
into oblong linear lobes. The plants which have been grown in the 
Arboretum for eight years have not suffered from cold or heat, but 
are still too young to give an idea of the value of this tree in the 
United States. 
Chinese Beech-trees. These do not occur north of the central prov- 
inces where three species have now been found, Fagus longipetiolata, 
F. Engleriana, and F. lucida. The first Wilson found to be the com- 
mon Beech of central and western China, where it grows with Oaks, 
Maples and other deciduous leafed trees. This Beech is usually a small 
tree fifty or sixty feet tall, but in western Szech’uan, where Wilson 
saw the largest specimens, it is a stately and handsome tree with a 
single trunk rarely divided near the base and covered with very pale 
gray bark. Fagus Engleriana is common on the high mountains of 
northwestern Hupeh and eastern Szech’uan where it often forms pure 
forests. Wilson found that the trunk of this tree almost invariably 
divides at the base into several diverging stems which do not attain 
much thickness or any great height, the tallest of which there is a 
record being not over seventy feet high, trees of half that height or 
less being more common. Fagus lucida is distinguished from the other 
Chinese species by the duller gray bark of the trunk which does not 
separate at the base and by its thick and spreading branches which form 
