=Remarks.=--Specimens with the habit of retaining their branches which
lop downward, usually have thicker sap wood and are harder to split.
This form is popularly styled the white beech. The form with smooth tall
trunks with upright branches usually has more heart wood, splits more
easily and is popularly distinguished as red beech. The term yellow
beech is variously applied. This species is a large tree in all parts of
the State, although the largest specimens are found in the southeastern
part of the State. In the virgin forests trees almost 1 m. in diameter
and 30 m. high were frequent.
Beech was formerly used only for fuel, but in the last few decades it
has been cut and used for many purposes, and the supply is fast
diminishing. The beauty of this tree both in summer and winter, sunshine
or storm makes it one of the most desirable for shade tree planting, but
I have failed to find where it has been successfully used. It is one of
the few trees that does not take to domestication. When the original
forest is reduced to a remnant of beech, as a rule, the remaining beech
will soon begin to die at the top. It is difficult to transplant. When
planted the hole should be filled with earth obtained from under a
living tree, in order to introduce the mycorrhiza that is necessary to
the growth of the tree.
=2. CASTÀNEA.= The Chestnut.
=Castanea dentàta= (Marshall) Borkhausen. Chestnut. Plate 39. Large
trees with deeply fissured bark, smooth on young trees; young twigs more
or less hairy, soon becoming glabrous and a reddish-brown; leaves
lanceolate, average blades 13-22 cm. long, taper-pointed, wedge-shape or
obtuse at the base, coarsely serrate, teeth usually incurved, at
maturity glabrous on both sides; flowers appear after the leaves in the
latter part of June or early in July, the staminate catkins from the
axils of the leaves of the year's growth, 1.5-3 dm. long, pistillate
flowers in heads on short stalks in the axils of the leaves, usually on
the branch beyond the greater part of the staminate catkins; fruit a
globular spiny bur 5-7 cm. in diameter which contains the nuts; nuts
usually 1-3, rarely 5, flattened on one side, edible; wood light, soft,
not strong, checks and warps on seasoning, yellowish-brown, durable in
contact with the ground.
[Illustration: Plate 39.