North Persia, is a peculiar species. Radde,[1] while not admitting it to be a distinct species, considers that it is a form which approaches the Japanese Fagus Sieboldi, Endl., rather than the typical European beech, which occurs in the Crimea. Specimens in the Kew herbarium from the Caucasus, Paphlagonia, Phrygia, and Ghilan (a province of North Persia), differ markedly in fruit from the common beech. This tree occurs throughout the whole of the Caucasus, both on the north and south sides, often ascending to the timber line, but descending in Talysch to the sea-level. On the north side of the Caucasus the beech reaches to 5900 feet altitude; while in the Schin valley, on the south side of the range, it attains 7920 feet. It occurs mixed with other trees, or forms pure woods of considerable extent. It sometimes occurs in the forests in the form of gigantic bushes (springing from one root), of which the individual stems measure 6 feet in girth, and are free from branches to 30 or 40 feet. The largest trees recorded by Radde were:—one 380 years old, 7 feet in girth, and 123 feet high; and another 250 years old, 8 feet 4 inches in girth, and 120 feet high, which contained 370 cubic feet of timber.
This species has been introduced into cultivation on the Continent, and is said[2] to have a crown of foliage more slender and more pyramidal than the common beech.
Fagus japonica. Small Beech of Japan. (Native name, Inubuna.)
- Fagus japonica, Maximowicz, Mél. Biol. xii. 542 (1886).
- Shirasawa, Iconographie des Essences Forestières du Japan, vol. i. t. 35, figs. 1–13 (1900).
This species is much rarer in Japan than Fagus Sieboldi, and was not seen by Elwes or Sargent, who says that it had not been collected since a collector in Maximowicz's employ found it on the Hakone mountains, and in the province of Nambu. Very little is known about it, and it has not been introduced into Europe. Shirasawa, however, says it has the same distribution as Fagus Sieboldi, and grows almost always in mixture with it, but beginning at a lower level; and that it often occurs in a bushy form, and does not attain the dimensions of the other species.
Fagus Sieboldi. Common Beech of Japan. (Native name, Buna.)
- Fagus Sieboldi, Endlicher, Gen. Suppl. iv. 2, 29 (1847).
- Fagus sylvatica, L., γ asiatica, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, 119 (1864).
- Fagus sylvatica, L., δ Sieboldi, Maximowicz, Mél. Biol. xii. 543 (1886).
Shirasawa, l.c. t. 35, figs. 14–26.
This is the common beech which occurs in Japan, and it is considered by Japanese botanists[3] to be only a variety of the European beech. Shirasawa[4] has given some details concerning its distribution, in connection with a figure which illustrates well the botanical characters of the species. Sargent[5] was doubtful if the common beech in Japan was not quite identical in all respects with the European beech.
Elwes saw it in many places in Central Japan, but not in Hokkaido. Near Nikko it grows to a large size at 2000-4000) feet, but not in pure woods, being, so
