acorns, that it would grow and bear well in northern sections where
the best nuts we have do not grow well, but also that it was so small as
to practically nullify the above mentioned excellent qualities. If we
ever get a beechnut the size of a chestnut we shall have a most needed
addition to our nut bearing trees, but there has been so little hope of
finding such that no one has paid much attention to the beech. As a
matter of fact not within the last ten years have there been any prizes
offered for beechnuts except those provided by the writer at his own
expense, neither have there been at any time during the writer's
recollection any varieties suggested excepting one or two by Omer R.
Abraham, Martinsville, Ind., which nobody has growing, so far as known
to the writer.

It was thought that there might be a large fruited species of beech
growing in some part of the world as is the case with the chestnut,
walnut, hickory and hazel, and that it would only be necessary to import
it to get what was needed, or at least to make a good start in getting
what was needed. Rehder in his wonderfully helpful "Manual of Cultivated
Trees and Shrubs" gives seven species of beech, one in America, Fagus
grandiflora, one in Europe, F. sylvatica, two in Japan, F. sieboldii and
F. japonica, two in China, F. longipetiolata and F. engleriana and one
in Asia Minor, F. orientalis. These are growing in the Arnold Arboretum
and leaves, buds and fruits are to be seen in the herbarium there. A day
spent there, however, half in the arboretum and half in the herbarium,
convinced the writer that there is at present no large fruited species
of beech known to botanists. There is an incompletely known species of
Chinese beech, F. lucida, whose fruit is not in the Arnold Arboretum.
While it is of course possible that there may yet be a large fruited
species somewhere in the world, still the relatively slight differences
in the leaf, bud and fruit of the seven species already known makes this
seem improbable and leads us to conclude that the genus "Fagus" is the
most uniform in the species that make it up of any genus of nut bearing
trees. This seemingly reduces us to the necessity of seeking variation
in species already known.

Fagus sylvatica has been by all odds longest in cultivation and many
varieties are known. Rehder lists 17 principal varieties with many other
sub varieties. These have leaves varying in color, purple, copper color,
pinkish, yel