BEECH
(Fagus Atropunicea)

There is only one beech in the United States, and four or five in Europe and Asia. The southern portion of South America has several species which usually pass for beech. One or more of them are evergreen. Old world species are sometimes planted in parks and cemeteries in this country, but as forest trees they have no importance in the United States and probably never will have. It becomes a simple matter, therefore, to deal with the tree in this country. It is alone, and has no nearer relatives than the chestnuts, chinquapins, and the oaks, all of which are members of the same family, and the beech gives the name to the family—FagaceÆ. The blue beech, which is common in most states east of the Mississippi river and in some west, is not a member of the same family, though it looks enough like beech to be closely related to it.

The name has come down from remote antiquity. It is one of the oldest names in use. It is said to have descended through thousands of years from old Aryan tribes of Asia which were among the earliest to use a written language. For the want of better material, they cut the letters on beech bark, and a piece of such writing was called “boc.” It was but a step from that word to book—a collection of writings. Both beech and book came from the same word “boc” and the connection between them is very evident. The pronunciation has been little changed by the Germanic races during thousands of years, but the Romans translated it into Latin and called it “liber,” from which we have the word library. Doubtless in very ancient times, say 5,000 years before the building of Solomon’s temple, the libraries beyond the Euphrates river consisted of several cords of trimmed and lettered beech bark. Such material being perishable, it has wholly disappeared. The matter is not now directly connected with the lumber interests, but it increases one’s respect for beech to know how important a part it must have played in the ancient world, whereby it stamped its name so indelibly upon the language of the most intelligent portion of the human race.

The word buckwheat has the same origin. It means beech wheat, so named because the grains are triangular like beech nuts. The tree is always known as beech in this country, though it may have a qualifying word such as red, white, ridge.

It usually grows in mixed forests of hardwoods, but it is often found in the immediate presence of hemlock and spruce, grows from Maine to Florida, and west to Arkansas. Considerable areas are often occupied by little else. This is attested by the frequency with which such names as “beech flat,” “beech ridge,” “beech woods,” and “beech bottom” are encountered in local geography. Perhaps the finest examples of beech growth in the United States occur in the higher altitudes of the lower Appalachian range in eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina, where trees are frequently encountered, showing a bole of perfectly symmetrical form, of from three to more than four feet in diameter, and of a sheer height of seventy feet before a limb is encountered. The wood which grows in this section is nearly as hard as that of the North, but that growing on lower levels in the South is of a much softer texture and lighter color, the heart being pinkish rather than reddish-brown.

Beech is one of the truly beautiful trees of the forest. In the eyes of many, the beech is as much to be admired as the American elm or sugar maple. Certainly in spring when it is covered with its staminate blossoms, it is a splendid sight, and its perfect leaves are seldom spotted or eaten by insects. In winter, it is particularly interesting. Its beautiful bark then appears very bright. After its fine leaves have fallen, though many of them, pale and dry, cling to the branches throughout the winter, the structure of its massive head is seen to advantage. In the Canadian markets and those of many of the middle and western states, its nuts are gathered and sold in considerable quantities. These nuts are favorite food of both the red and gray squirrel and these rodents collect them in considerable quantities during the late fall, and store them in tree hollows for their winter’s supply of food. It often happens, in felling beech trees in the winter, that shelled beech nuts to the quantity of a quart or more will be found secreted in some hollow by these provident little animals.

Formerly beech was little used for lumber, but was long ago given an important place as firewood and material for charcoal. Its excellent qualities as lumber have now made it popular in most markets. The sapwood is comparatively thin and the heart is very much esteemed for many purposes. Many millions of feet of it are converted into flooring and the “pure red” product is very highly esteemed for ornamental floors. It has not as good working qualities as maple, but still it stays in place even better than does that famous flooring material. Nearly all the large flooring factories of the North, whose principal output is maple, have a side line of beech flooring, and in the South, notably in Nashville, a considerable quantity of the wood is made into flooring. In full growth this beautiful tree is round topped, with wide spreading and horizontal branches, and shows a normal altitude of about sixty feet. In this form of growth branches appear on the body very close to the ground, and their ends often trail upon it. In its forest form, where trees of any sort are of commercial importance, it often attains a height of ninety or 100 feet, with smooth rounded bole as symmetrical as the pillar of a cathedral, with a diameter of from two to four feet. Its time to bloom is April or May, and its nuts ripen in October. The bark is a light bluish-gray, and remarkably smooth; the leaves are simple, alternate, with very short petioles, oblong with pointed apex and rounded or narrowed base. The ribs are straight, unbranching, and terminate in remote teeth. The fruit is a pair of three-sided nuts with a sweet and edible kernel which grows in a four-celled prickly burr, splitting when ripe.

Beech is an excellent fuel and it has long been used for that purpose. It is so regularly dispersed over the country that most neighborhoods were able to get it in the years when families cut their own firewood. Later, when charcoal was burned to supply primitive iron furnaces, before coke could be had, beech was always sought for. Still later, when large commercial plants were built to carry on destructive distillation of wood, beech was still a favorite. Its modern uses are many. There is scarcely a plant east of the Rocky Mountains, engaged in the manufacture of hardwood commodities, which does not use beech. In Michigan alone nearly 30,000,000 feet a year are demanded by box makers, and more than that much more by manufacturers of other commodities. It is widely employed for furniture, filing cabinets, vehicles, interior finish, agricultural implements, woodenware, and musical instruments. It is one of the heaviest and strongest of the common hardwoods, and gives long service when kept dry, but does not last well in damp situations.

Beech is strictly a forest tree. This does not mean that it will not grow in the open, but when it does grow there it makes poor lumber, short and limby. The seedlings must have shade if they are to do any good, but after they attain a certain size they can endure the light. The roots lie close to the surface of the ground, and the trampling of cattle often kills large trees.

Blue Beech (Carpinus caroliniana) is not in the beech family, but the name by which it is commonly known, and its resemblance to beech, justify its consideration with beech. The bluish color of the bark is responsible for its common name, but it is known by several others, among them being water beech, because it often grows on or near the banks of streams, and it seldom seems more at home than when it is hanging over the bank of a creek where shade is deep and moisture plentiful. It is often called hornbeam and ironwood, and it is closely related to hop hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana). It grows from Quebec, to Florida and from Dakota to Texas, reaching its largest size in eastern Texas where it is sometimes sixty feet high and two in diameter, though this size is unusual. Few trees develop a bole less acceptable to lumbermen. In addition to being short, crooked, twisted, and covered with limbs, it is nearly always ribbed and fluted, so that a log, even if but a few feet long, is apt to be almost any shape except round. The thick sapwood is pale white, heart pale brown. The annual rings are usually easily seen, but they are vague, because of so little difference between the springwood and summerwood; diffuse-porous; medullary rays thin and usually seen only in the aggregate as a white luster where wood is sawed radially. The uses of this wood are many, but the amounts very small. It is made into singletrees and ax and hammer handles in Michigan, wagon felloes in Texas and other parts of the Southwest; levers and other parts of agricultural implements in various localities. It seldom goes to sawmills, is generally marketed in the form of bolts, and is hard, stiff, and strong.