CHAP. CV.

coryla'cete. pa'gus.

1981

is somewhat red, or of a rusty hue, when mature; whence the name. A trunkof this species, 1 ft. 3 in. or 1 ft. 6 in. in diameter, commonly consists of 3 in.or 4 in. of sap, and 1 ft. 1 in. or 1 ft. 2 in. of heart wood; the inverse of whichproportion is commonly found in the wood of the white beech. The distribu-tion of this tree in the United States is almost 1917

exclusively confined to the north-eastern pro-vinces, and Canada, Nova Scotia, and NewBrunswick. In the district of Maine, and in thestates of New Hampshire and Vermont, it is soabundant, as often to constitute extensive forests,the finest of which grow on fertile, level, or gentlysloping lands, which are proper for the cultivationof corn. The wood of this species is consideredstronger, tougher, and more compact than thatof the American white beech; and, in the districtof Maine and in British America, where the oakis rare, it is employed with the sugar maple and iyellow birch, or Petula excelsa, for the lower

f iart of the frame of vessels. As it is extremely . -iable to injury from worms, and speedily decays when exposeddryness and moisture, it is seldom used in the construction of houses; but,where nothing better can be procured, it is selected for making hoops. Shoe-lasts are made of it, and other minor articles; because, when perfectly sea-soned, it is not liable to warp. On the whole, the wood is inferior in compact-ness and solidity to the European beech, though planks of it, about 3 in.thick, are sometimes exported to Britain. The tree was introduced intoEngland by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy; and its foliage makes a very fineappearance, both in the Hammersmith Nursery and at Messrs. Loddiges’s.Though the leaves do not differ materially from those of the common beechduring summer, yet, in autumn, they become decidedly darker, and die off ofa rusty green, approaching, in F. f. caroliniana, to black. In America, thisspecies is subject to the attacks of Phaloe'na tessellaris (Abb. and Smith Ins., ii.t. 73.; and our fig. 1918.), the cream-barred, or beech, tussock moth, whichdevours the leaves. The caterpillar of this insect is brown, and the imagopale buff: it is most common in Georgia. On the whole, both the species andits varieties well deserve culture as ornamental trees of the middle size. They

al ternate

pS&jjp

mm

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are propagated by layers and grafting; and plants, in the London nurseries,are 5s. each ; at New York, 25 cents.