low and whitish spotted with green, beside the usual green,
also in shapes of leaves, some very narrow almost linear, some very
small and deeply toothed, others large and roundish up to 3 in. broad
and 5 in. long. The varieties vary in bark from the smooth bark typical
of the beech to bark like that of the oak. They also vary in habit of
growth, being mostly erect but some pendulous and some dwarf with
twisted contorted branches. But no one seems to have ever heard of a
large fruited beech.

It is inconceivable however, that a tree can vary in every particular
except in the fruit and it is believed that it only requires sufficient
searching to find large fruited varieties. There are difficulties,
however, in the way of finding unusual beeches which do not occur with
walnuts, chestnuts and hickories, which are trees where the nuts have
such merit that they are usually spared even if in the middle of a
cultivated field, while the beech is usually a forest tree. A nut
contest brings hundreds and thousands of walnuts and hickories but only
very few beechnuts. Correspondence with the forestry departments of
every state having such departments generally evinced interest in the
search for a large fruited beech, but those replying universally
disclaimed any knowledge of such.

While it is believed that there are such in America, perhaps as many or
more than in Europe, and efforts should be made here to find such, there
are many reasons for believing that a search in Europe will be more
immediately productive of results than will the search here. The beech
is much more esteemed in Europe than here and has been extensively
planted in forests that for centuries have been operated for constant
production of timber. It is believed that the contents of those forests
are as a class better known to their keepers, at least the beeches there
are better known than in the forests in the United States. The number of
propagated ornamental varieties noted in the second paragraph gives
evidence of this. The history of one or two of these varieties will make
this clearer.

Three beeches with red or copper colored leaves as far back as 1680 were
recorded as growing in a wood near Zurich, Switzerland. Most of the
purple beeches now growing are believed to have been derived from a
single tree discovered in the last century in a forest in Thuringia in
Germany. There may be or may have been many such in America but they
would not have appeared va