3? A G U S sy lv a tic a .
Beech-tree.
M 0 N0 EC1A Polyandria.
G en. Char. Male, Cal. bell-shaped, 5-cleft. Cor.
none. Stam. 5— 12. Female, Cal. 4-cleft. Cor.
none. Styles 2 or 3, 3-cleft. Nuts 2 or 3, invested
with the leathery prickly calyx.
S pec. Char . Leaves ovate, obsoletely serrated. Prickles
of the fruit simple.
Syn. Fagus sylvatica. Linn. Sp. PL 1416. Sm. FI.
Brit. 1023. Huds. 422. With. 444. Hull. 213.
Sibth. 152. Abbot. 210.
Fagus. Iiaii Syn. 439.
HIS handsome tree prefers a rich calcareous soil, forming
in many parts of England very fine luxuriant woods, peculiarly
dry and pleasant to walk in, and usually affording the botanist
several interesting plants under their' shade, as the Monotropa,
Pyrolce, and some rare Orchidece. Grasses do not thrive beneath
this tree. The wood is hard, but neither tough, nor
lasting in the open air. The Beech makes excellent cut hedges
for shelter, as the old leaves remain, though faded, through
winter. It blossoms in April or May. The nuts, called
Beech Mast, are eaten by hogs. Hill the poet had a project
for extracting oil from them, which did not answer.
The bark is peculiarly smooth and beautiful. Leaves shining,
waved, scarcely serrated, finely fringed. Flowers in little
round hairy heads on long stalks, the female ones, not the
male, terminal, both abounding with lanceolate bracteas.
Stamens from 5 to 12. Calyx of the male with from 5 to 7
lobes, and a barren pistil. Calyx of the fruit ovate, silky,
muricated with simple pliant prickles. Germens 2, triangular,
crowned with a few scales, and consisting of 3 cells, with
rudiments of 2 seeds in each. Only one of these 6 becomes a
ripe seed, the rest being abortive and their cells obliterated, as
happens in the nuts of Quercus, Cornus and Olea. Gartner
names the scales of the germen a calyx, in which we think
him mistaken, but it is a point of some difficulty. His makino-
the Chesnut, t. 886, a distinct genus, is one of those glaring
errors of a great man, which should teach all naturalists caution,
and more especially candour.
Feb. i.ibeS.F vblisTul Tty Ja. f Sowaby