the honey-bee stands pre-eminent as the most serviceable to mankind; from the day on which the little labourer leaves its home for the first time in search of food, its mission is undoubtedly useful. Launched upon an unknown world, and guided by unerring instinct to the very flowers it seeks, the bee fertilizes fruit and flowers while winging its happy flight among the blossoms, gathering pollen for the nurslings of its own home and honey for the use of man. Nothing seems to be lost, nor can any part of the bee's work be accounted labour in vain; the very wax from which the insect builds the store-combs for its food and the cells in which its young are hatched and reared is valuable to mankind in many ways, and is regarded to-day no less than in the past ages as an important commercial product. The hive bee is, moreover, the only insect known to be capable of domestication, so far as labouring under the direct control of the bee-master is concerned, its habits being admirably adapted for embodying human methods of working for profit in our present-day life.diab In dealing with the practical side of apiculture it will not be necessary to do more than mention the salient points to be considered by those desirous of acquiring more complete knowledge of the subject. Authoritative text-books specially written for the guidance of bee-keepers are numerous and cheap, and on no account should any one engage in an attempt to manage bees on modern lines without a careful perusal of one or more of these. Bearing this in mind the reader will understand that so much of the natural history of the honey-bee as is necessary for eluci dating the practical part of our subject may be comprised in (1) the life of the insect, (2) its mission in life, and (3) utilizing to the utmost the brief period during which it can labour before being worn out with toil. Lot FIG. 23.-Foundation Machine. degree and in FIG. 24.-Hive bee (Apis mellifica). differs greatly in a Arbon my None somewhat curious (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and fashion. For in Practical.) Loss of Queens stance, the queen (or "king" of the hives as it was termed erage by our forefathers) is of paramount importance at certain Dungad seasons, her death or disablement during the period when the male element is absent meaning extinction of the whole colony. Fecundation would under such conditions be impossible, and without this the eggs of a resultant queen will produce nothing but drones. During the summer season, however (from May to July), when drones are abundant, the loss of a queen is of comparatively little moment, as the workers can transform eggs (or young larvae not more than three days old), which would in the ordinary course produce worker bees, into fully-developed queens, capable of fulfilling all the maternal duties of a mother-bee. The value of this wonderful provision of nature to the bee-keeper of to-day may be estimated from the fact that bees managed according to modern methods are necessarily subject to so much manipulating or handling, that fatal accidents are as likely to happen in bee-life as among human beings. Mahzigo w d4f (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical) pod placed the resources of his enormous factory at his disposal), devised and perfected machinery-driven by motor power-for manufacturing foundation by what is known as the "Weed" process. By this process "dipping" is abolished, and in its latest form sheets of wax of any length are produced, passed between engraved rollers 6 in. in diameter, cut to given lengths, trimmed, counted and paper-tissued ready for packing, at a rate of speed previously undreamt of. Ad Practical Management of Bees.--Among the world of insects Authorities differ with regard to the age during which the queen-bee is useful to the bee-keeper who works for profit. Under normal conditions the insect will live for three, four of sometimes five years, but the stimulation given, together with the high-pressure system followed in modern bee-management, | comes the almost human foresight with which the bee prevents exhausts the period of her greatest fecundity in two years, so the inevitable chaos created by an overcrowded home. There that queens are usually superseded after their second season is no cell-room either for storing the abundant supply of food has expired and egg-production gradually decreases. This can constantly being brought in, or for the thousands of eggs which hardly cause wonder if it is borne in mind that for many weeks a prolific queen will produce daily as a consequence of general during the height of the season a prolific queen will deposit eggs prosperity; therefore unless help comes from without an exodus at the rate of from two to three thousand every twenty-four is prepared for, and what is known as "swarming" takes hours. place. The drone. Drones (or male bees) are more or less numerous in hives according to the skill of the bee-keeper in limiting their production. It is admitted by those best able to judge that the proportion of about a hundred drones in each hive is conducive to the prosperity of the colony, but beyond that number they are worse than useless, being nonproducers and heavy consumers. Thus in times of scarcity, which are not infrequent during the early part of the season, they become a heavy tax upon the food-supply of the colony at the critical period when brood-rearing is accelerated by an abundance of stores, while shortness of food means a fallingoff in egg-production. The modern bee-keeper, therefore, allows just so much drone comb in the hive as will produce a sufficient number of drones to ensure queen-mating, while affording to the bees the satisfaction of dwelling in a home equipped according to natural conditions, and containing all the elements necessary to bee-life. The action of the bees themselves makes this point clear, for when the season of mating is past the drone is no longer needed, the providing of winter stores taking first place in the economy of the hive. So long as honey is being gathered in plenty drones are tolerated, but no sooner does the honey harvest show signs of being over than they are mercilessly killed and cast out of the hive by the workers, after a brief idle life of about four months' duration. Thus the "lazy yawning drone," as Shakespeare puts it, has a short shrift when his usefulness to the community is ended. Finally we have the aptly named worker-bee, on whom devolves the entire labour of the colony. The worker-bee is incapable of egg-production and can therefore take no part in the perpetuation of its species, so that individually its value to the community is infinitesimal. Yet it forms an item in a commonwealth, the members of which are in all respects equally well endowed. They are in turn skilled scientists, architects, builders, artisans, labourers and even scavengers; but collectively they are the rulers on whom the colony depends for the wonderful condition of law and order which has made the bee-community a model of good government for all mankind. Then so far as regards longevity, the period of a worker-bee's existence is not measured by numberLongevity ing its days but simply by wear and tear, the marvellous in bees. intricacy and wonderful perfection of its framework being so delicate in construction that after six or seven weeks of strenuous toil, such as the bee undergoes in summer time, the little creature's labour is ended by a natural death. On the other hand, worker-bees hatched in the autumn will seven months later be strong with the vigour of lusty youth; able to take their full share in the labour of the hive for six weeks or more in the early spring, which is the most critical period in the colony's existence; hence the value to the apiarist of bees hatched in the autumn. The worker bee. The mission of the worker-bee is work; not so much for itself as for the younger members of the community to which it belongs. We cannot claim for it the virtue of strict honesty with regard to the stranger, but for its own "kith and kin" it is a model of socialism in an ideal form, possessing nothing of its own yet toiling unceasingly for the good of all. The increasing warmth of each recurring spring finds the bee awake, and full of eagerness to be up and doing; its sole mission being apparently to accomplish as much work as possible while life lasts. The earliest pollen is sought out from far and near, and has its immediate effect upon the mother bee of the colony. If healthy and young she begins egg-laying at once, and brood-rearing proceeds at an ever-increasing rate as each week passes, until the hive is brimming over with bees in time for the first honey flow. Then Swarm Ing. It would be difficult to imagine anything more exhilarating to a beginner in bee-keeping than the sight of his first hive in the act of swarming. The little creatures are seen rushing in frantic haste from the hive like a living stream, filling the air with ever-increasing thousands of becs on the wing. The incoming workers returning pollen-laden from the fields, carried away by the prevailing excitement, do not stop to unload their burdens in the old home, but join the enthusiastic emigrants, tumbling over each other pell-mell in the outrush; among them the queen of the colony will in duc course have taken her place, bound like her children for a new home. It soon becomes apparent to the onlooker when the queen has joined the flying multitude of bees in the air, for they are seen to be closing up their ranks, and in a few moments begin to form a solid cluster, usually on the branch of a small tree or bush close to the ground. When this stage of swarming is reached the bee-keeper has but to take his hiving skep, hold it under the swarm, and shake the bees into it, preparatory to transferring them into a frame-hive already prepared for their reception. The process of hiving a swarm is very simple Hiving and need not occupy many moments of time under ordinary conditions, but so many unlooked-for contingencies may arise that the apiarist would do well to prepare himself beforehand by carefully reading the directions in his text-book. swarms. The illustration given in fig. 25 will serve more readily than words to enlighten the would-be bee-keeper. It shows a portion of honeycomb (natural size) not precisely as it appears when the frame containing it is lifted out of the hive, but as would be seen on two or more combs in the same hive, namely, the various cells built for-and occupied by-queens, drones and workers; also the larvae or grubs in the various stages of transformation FIG. 25.-Honeycomb. Metamorphoses of the Honey Bee. (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical) from egg to perfect insect, with the latter biting their way out of sealed cells. It also shows sealed honey and pollen in cells, &c. To familiarize himself with the various objects depicted, all of which are drawn from nature, will not only help the reader to understand the different phases of bee-life during the swarming season, but tend to increase the interest of beginners in the pursuit. "Early drones, early swarms" was the ancient bee-man's favourite adage, and the skilled apiarist of to-day methods. forage la FIG. 26.-Bee-Smoker. experiences the same pleasurable thrill as did the skeppist of face from stings when working among bees; as experience is old at the sight of the first drone of the year, which betokens gained the veil is not always used. The man who is hasty and an early swarm. As the drones increase in number queen-cells nervous in temperament, who fears an occasional sting, and are formed, unless steps be taken to turn aside the swarming resents the same by viciously killing the bee that inflicts it impulse by affording additional room beforehand in the hive. will rarely make a good apiarist. The methods of handling bees The above brief outline of the guiding principles of natural vary in different countries, this being in a great measure swarming is merely intended as introductory to the fuller accounted for by the number of hives kept. Very few apiaries information given in a good text-book. in the United Kingdom contain more than a hundred hives: Management of an Apiary.—The main consideration in estab- consequently the British bee-keeper has no need for employing lishing an apiary is to secure a favourable location, which means the forceful or “ hustling" methods found necessary in America, a place where honey of good marketable quality may be gathered where the honey-crop is gathered in car-loads and the British from the bee-forage growing around without any planting on hives numbered by thousands. It naturally follows and the part of the bee-keeper himself. It is impossible to deal that bee-life is there regarded very slightly by com- American here with the varying conditions under which apiculture is parison, and the “ bee-garden" in England becomes carried on in all parts of the world, but, as a rule, the same the “ bee-yard " in America, where the apiarist when at work principle applies everywhere. The bee industry prospers greatly must thoroughly protect himself from being stung, and, safe in America, where amid the vast stretches of mountain in his immunity from damage, cares little for bee-life in getting Bee and canyon in California the bee-forage extends for through his task, the loss of a few the U.S.A. miles without a break, and the climatic conditions hundred bees being considered of are so generally favourable as to reduce to a minimum no account. There are, however, the chances of the honey crop failing through adverse weather. other reasons, apart from humanity, The bee-keeper's object is to utilize to the utmost the brief to account for the difference in space of a worker-bee's life in summer, by adopting the best handling bees as advocated in methods in vogue for building up stocks to full strength before the United Kingdom. The great the honey-gathering time begins, and preparing for it by the majority of apiaries owned by exercise of skill and intelligence in carrying out this work. British bee-keepers are located in In the United Kingdom there is a difference of several weeks close proximity to neighbours; in the honey season between north and south. Swarming consequently a serious upset among usually begins in May in the south of England, and in mid-July the bees would in many cases inin the north of Scotland, the issue of swarms coinciding with the volve an amount of trouble which early part of the main honey flow. The weather is naturally should if possible be avoided; more precarious in autumn than earlier in the year, and chances therefore quietness and the exerof success proportionately smaller for northern bee-men, but cise of care when manipulating are the disadvantage to the latter is more than compensated for always recommended by teachers, by the heather season, which extends well into September. and practised by those who wisely (Redrawn from the ABC e Ber With regard to the British bee-keeper located in the south, take their lessons to heart. Culture published by the A. L. Root the early fruit crop is what concerns him most, and Having made himself proficient Co, Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.) where pollen (the fertilizing dust of flowers) is plentiful in practical bee-work and chosen a suitable location for his bees will make steady progress. If pollen is scarce, his apiary, the bee-keeper should carefully select the para substitute in the form of either pea-meal or wheaten flour ticular type of hive most suited to his means and must be supplied to the bees, as brood-rearing cannot make requirements. This point settled, uniformity is Choosing headway without the nitrogenous element indispensable in the secured, and all loose parts of the hives being food on which the young are reared. But the main honey-crop interchangeable time will be saved during the busy season of both north and south is gathered from the various trifoliums, when time means money. Beginning with not too many among which the white Dutch or common clover stocks he can test the capabilities of his location before The queen (Trifolium repens) is acknowledged to be the most investing much capital in the undertaking, so that by utilizing important honey-producing plant wherever it grows. the information already given and adopting the wise adage In the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand" make haste slowly” he will realize in good time whether it and in many other parts of the world honey of the finest quality will pay best to work for honey in comb or extracted honey is obtained from this" queen of bee-plants," and in lesser degree in bulk; not only so, but the knowledge gained will enable from other clovers such as sainfoin, alsike (a hybrid clover), him to select such appliances as are suited to his needs. As a rule, trefoil, &c. it may be said that the man content to start with an ! Before undertaking the management of a modern apiary, the apiary of moderate size-say fifty stocks—may Bagerie bee-keeper should possess a certain amount of aptitude for realize a fair profit from comb-honey only; but so profit. the pursuit, without which it is hardly possible to succeed. He limited a venture would need to be supplemented must also acquire the ability to handle bees judiciously and by some other means before an adequate income could be secured. well under all imaginable conditions. In doing this it is needful On the other hand, the owner of one or two hundred colonies to remember that bees resent outside interference with either would find it more lucrative to work for extracted honey and send their work or their hives, and will resolutely defend themselves it out to wholesale buyers in that form. By so doing a far when aroused even at the cost of life itself. Experience has also greater weight of surplus per hive may be secured, and extracted proved that, when alarmed, bees instinctively begin to fill their honey will keep in good condition for years, while comb-honey honey-sacs with food from the nearest store-cells as a safeguard must be sold before granulation sets in. At the same time it against contingencies, and when so provided they are more is but fair to say that bee-culture in the United Kingdom, if amenable to interference. The bee-keeper, therefore, by the limited to honey-production alone, is not sufficiently safe for judicious application of a little smoke from smouldering fuel, entire reliance to be placed on it for obtaining a livelihood. blown into the hive by means of an appliance known as a bee- The uncertain climate renders it necessary to include either smoker, alarms the bees and is thus able to manipulate the frames other branches of the craft less dependent on warmth and of comb with ease and almost no disturbance. The smoker sunshine, or to combine it with fruit-growing, poultry-rearing, (fig. 26) devised by T. F. Bingham of Farwell, Michigan, U.S.A., &c. Under such conditions the bees will usually occupy a good is the one most used in America and in the United Kingdom. position in the balance-sheet. No other protection is needed beyond a bee-veil of fine black Another indispensable feature of good bce-management is Det, which slipped over a wide-brimmed_straw hat protects the forethought," coupled with order and neatness; the rule of Value of pollen. a location. plants. Bee-keep " a place for everything and everything in 's place" prepares | alvei was given to it by Cheyne and Cheshire, whose views were the bee-keeper for any emergency; constant watchfulness is in agreement with those of Dr Cohn. also necessary, not only to guard against disease in his hives, but to overlook nothing that tends to be of advantage to the bees at all seasons. Among the many ways of saving time nothing is more useful than a carefully-kept note-book, wherein are recorded brief memoranda regarding such items as condition of each stock when packed for winter, amount of stores, age and prolific capacity of queen, strength of colony, healthiness or otherwise, &c., all of which particulars should be noted and the hives to which they refer plainly numbered. It also enables the bee-keeper to arrange his day's work indoors while avoiding disturbance to such colonies as do not need interference. In the early spring stores must be seen to and replenished where required; breeding stimulated when pollen begins to be gathered; and appliances cleaned and prepared for use during the busy season. Need of forethought. The main honey-gathering time (lasting about six or seven weeks) is so brief that in no pursuit is it more important to "make hay while the sun shines," and if the bee-keeper Length of beson needs a reminder of this truism he surely has it in the example set by his bees. As the season advances and the flowers yield nectar more freely, visible signs of combbuilding will be observed in the whitened edges of empty cells in the brood-chambers; the thoughtful workers are lengthening out the cells for honey-storing, and the bee-master takes the hint by giving room in advance, thus lessening the chance of undesired swarms. In other words, order and method, combined with the habit of taking time by the forelock, are absolutely necessary to the bee-keeper, seeing that the enormous army of workers under his control is multiplying daily by scores of thousands. As spring merges into summer, sunny days become more frequent; the ever-increasing breadth of beeforage yields still more abundantly, and the excitement among the labourers crowding the hives increases, rendering room in advance, shade and ventilation, a sine qua non. It requires a level head to keep cool amongst a couple of hundred strong stocks of bees on a hot summer's day in a good honey season. Swarm preven tion. Moreover, it will be too late to think of giving ventilation at noontide, when the temperature has risen to 80° F. in the shade; the necessary precautions for swarm prevention must therefore be taken in advance, for when what is known as the "swarming fever" once starts it is most difficult to overcome. The well-read and intelligent bee-keeper, content to work on orthodox lines, will be able to manage an apiary-large or smallby guiding and controlling the countless army he commands in a way that will yield him both pleasure and profit. All he needs is good bee weather and an apiary free from disease to make him appreciate bee-craft as one of the most remunerative of rural industries; affording a wholesome open-air life conducive to good health and yielding an abundance of contentment. Diseases of Bees.-It is quite natural that bees living in colonies should be subject to diseases, and only since the introduction of movable-comb hives has it been possible to learn something about these ailments. The most serious disease with which the bee-keeper has to contend is that commonly known as "bee-pest" or "foul brood," so called because of the young brood dying and rotting in the cells. This disease has been known from the earliest ages, and is probably the same as that designated by Pliny as blapsigonia (Natural History, bk. xi. ch. xx.). Coming to later times, Della Rocca minutely describes a disease to which bees were subject in the island of Syra, between the years 1777 and 1780, and through which nearly every colony in the island perished. From the description given it was undoubtedly foul brood, and the bee-keepers of the island became convinced, after bitter experience, that it was extremely contagious. Schirach also mentioned and described the disease in 1769, and was the first to give it the name of "foul brood." Still later, in 1874, Dr Cohn, after the most exhaustive experiments and bacteriological research, realized that the disease was caused by a bacillus, and-nine years later-the name Bacillus The illustration (fig. 27) shows a portion of comb affected with foul brood in its worst form. The sealed cells are dark-coloured and sunken, pierced with irregular holes, and the larvae in all stages from the crescent-shaped healthy condition to that in which the dead larvae are seen lying at the bottom of the cells, flaccid and shapeless. The remains then change to buff colour, afterwards turning brown, when decomposition sets in, and as the bacilli present in the dead larvae increase and the nutrient matter is consumed, the mass in some cases becomes sticky and ropy in character, making its removal impossible by the bees. In course of time it dries up, leaving nothing but a brown scale adhering to the bottom or side of the cell. In the worst cases the larvae even die after the cells are sealed over; a strong characteristic and offensive odour being developed in some phases of the disease, noticeable at times some distance away from the hive. Two forms of foul brood have been long known, one foul smelling, the other odourless; and investigations made during 1906 and 1907 showed that the etiology of the disease is not by FIG. 27.-Foul Brood (Bacillus alvei). any means simple, but that it is produced by different microbes, The brood of bees, when healthy, lies in the combs in compact masses, the larvae being plump and of a pearly whiteness, and when quite young curled up on their sides at the base of the cells. When attacked by the disease, the larva moves uneasily, stretches itself out lengthwise in the cell, and finally becomes loose and flabby, an appearance which plainly indicates death. When the disease attacks the larvae before they are sealed over Bacillus alvei is present, usually associated with Streptococcus apis, which latter imparts a sour smell to the dead brood. In cases where the disease is odourless the larvae are attacked after the cells are sealed over, and just before they change to pupae, when they become slimy, sputum-like masses, difficult to remove from the cells. Under these conditions Bacillus brandenburgiensis is found, although Bacillus alvei may also be present. The two bacilli are antagonistic, each striving for supremacy, first one then the other predominating. Various other microbes are also present in large numbers, but are not believed to be pathogenic or disease-producing in character. It is, therefore, seen that at least three different microbes play an important part in the same disease. The danger of contagion lies in the wonderful vitality of the spores, and their great resistance to heat and cold. Dr Maassen records a case where he had no difficulty in obtaining cultures from spores removed from combs after being kept dry for twenty years. It should be borne in mind that the disease is much easier to cure in the Ionyós of Theophrastus was probably the sweet chestnut (Aesculus) carlier stages while the bacilli are still rod-shaped than when the rods have turned to spores. Since the bacterial origin of foul brood has been established, the efforts of some bacteriologists have been employed in finding a simple remedy by means of which the disease may be checked in its earliest stages, and in this an appreciable amount of success has been attained. Nor has foul brood in its more advanced forms been neglected, all directions for treatment being found in text-books written by distinguished writers on apiculture in the United Kingdom, America and throughout the European continent. The only other disease to which reference need be made here is dysentery, which sometimes breaks out after the long confinement becs are compelled to undergo during severe winters. This trouble may be guarded against by feeding the bees in the early autumn with good food made from cane sugar, and housing them in well-ventilated hives kept warm and dry by suitable coverings. When bees are wintered on thin, watery food not scaled over, and are unable for months to take cleansing flights, they become weak and involuntarily discharge their excrement over the combs and hive, a state of things never seen in a healthy colony under normal conditions. The stocks of bee-keepers who attend to the instructions given in text-books are rarely visited by this disease. The above embraces all that is necessary to be said in relation to diseases, though bees have been subject to other ailments such as paralysis, constipation, &c. In the Isle of Wight a serious epidemic broke out in 1906 which caused great destruction to bee-life in the following year. The malady was of an obscure character, but its cause has been under investigation by the British Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and by European bacteriologists in 1908. AUTHORITIES.-Though in modern times a great deal has appeared in the daily newspapers on the subject, it is a notable fact that not a tithe of the wonderful things published in such articles about becs and bee-keeping is worthy of credence or possesses any real value. Indeed, a pressman possessing any technical knowledge of the subject-beyond that obtainable from books-would be a rara avis. The account given above is the result of forty years' practical experience with bees in England, the writer having for a great portion of the time been connected editorially with the only two papers in that country entirely devoted to bues and bee-keeping; The British Bee Journal (weekly, founded 1873), and Bee-keepers' Record (monthly, founded 1882), the former being the only weekly journal in the world. The following books on the subject may be consulted for further details:-François Huber, New Observations on the Natural History of Bees; T. W. Cowan, British Bec-keepers Guide-Book, The Honey Bee, its Natural History, Anatomy and Physiology; Langstroth on the Honey Bee, revised by C. Dadant & Son; A. I. Root, A B C and X Y Z of Bee-culture: F. R. Cheshire, Bes and Bee-keeping; Dr Dzierzon, Rational Bee-keeping; E. Bertrand, Conduite du rucher; A. J. Cook, Manual of the Apiary; Dr C. C. Miller, Forty Years among the Bees; F. W. L. Sladen, Queen-rearing in England; S. Simmins, A Modern Bee Farm. (W. B. CA.) BEECH, a well-known tree, Fagus sylvatica, a member of the order Fagaceae to which belong the sweet-chestnut (Castanea) and oak. The name beech is from the Anglo-Saxon boc, bece or beace (Ger. Buche, Swedish, bek), words meaning at once a book and a becch-tree. The connexion of the beech with the graphic arts is supposed to have originated in the fact that the ancient Runic tablets were formed of thin boards of beech-wood. "The origin of the word," says Prior (Popular Names of British Plants), " is identical with that of the Sanskrit bōkō, letter, bōkōs, writings; and this correspondence of the Indian and our own is interesting as evidence of two things, viz. that the Brahmins had the art of writing before they detached themselves from the common stock of the Indo-European race in Upper Asia, and that we and other Germans have received alphabetic signs from the East by a northern route and not by the Mediterranean." Beech-mast, the fruit of the beech-tree, was formerly known in England as buck, and the county of Buckingham is so named from its fame as a becch-growing country. Buckwheat (Buoheweizen) derives its name from the similarity of its angular seeds to beech-mast. The generic name Fagus is derived froin payer, to eat; but the of the Romans. Beech-mast has been used as food in times of distress and famine; and in autumn it yields an abundant supply of food to park-deer and other game, and to pigs, which are turned into beech-woods in order to utilize the fallen mast. In France it is used for feeding pheasants and domestic poultry. Well-ripened beech-mast yields from 17 to 20% of non-drying oil, suitable for illumination, and said to be used in some parts of France and other European countries in cooking, and as a substitute for butter. The beech is one of the largest British trees, particularly on chalky or sandy soils, native in England from Yorkshire southwards, and planted in Scotland and Ireland. It is one of the common forest trees of temperate Europe, spreading from southern Norway and Sweden to the Mediterranean. It is found on the Swiss Alps to about 5000 ft. above sea-level, and in southern Europe is usually confined to high mountain slopes; it is plentiful in southern Russia, and is widely distributed in Asia Minor and the northern provinces of Persia. It is characterized by its sturdy pillar-like stem, often from 15 to 20 ft. in girth, and smooth olive-grey bark. The main branches rise vertically, while the subsidiary branches spread outwards and give the whole tree a rounded outline. The slender brown pointed buds give place in April to clear green leaves fringed with delicate silky hairs. The flowers which appear in May are inconspicuous and, as usual with our forest trees, of two kinds; the male, in long-stalked globular clusters, hang from the axils of the lower leaves of a shoot, while the female, each of two or three flowers in a tiny cup (cupule of bracts), stand erect nearer the top of the shoot. In the ripe fruit or mast the four-sided cupule, which has become much enlarged, brown and tough, encloses two or three three-sided rich chestnutbrown fruits, each containing a single sced. It is readily propagated by its seeds. It is a handsome tree in every stage of its growth, but is more injurious to plants under its drip than other trees, so that shade-bearing trees, as holly, yew and thuja, suffer. Its leaves, however, enrich the soil. The beech has a remarkable power of holding the ground where the soil is congenial, and the deep shade prevents the growth of other trees. It is often and most usefully mixed with oak and Scotch fir. It was formerly much used in mill-work and turnery; but its The timber is not remarkable for either strength or durability. principal use at present is in the manufacture of chairs, bedsteads and a variety of minor articles. It makes excellent fuel and charcoal. The copper-beech is a variety with copper-coloured leaves, due to the presence of a red colouring-matter in the sap There is also a weeping or pendulous-branched variety; and several varieties with more or less cut leaves, are known in cultivation. The genus Fagus is widely spread in temperate regions, and contains in addition to our native beech, about 15 other species A variety (F. sylvatica var. Sicboldi) is a native of Japan, where it is one of the finest and most abundant of the deciduous-leaved forest trees. Fagus americana is one of the most beautiful and widely-distributed trees of the forests of eastern North America. It was confounded by carly European travellers with F. sylvatica, from which it is distinguished by its paler bark and lighter green, more sharply-toothed leaves. Several species are found in Australia and New Zealand, and in the forests of southern Chile and Patagonia. The dense forests which cover the shore of the Straits of Magellan and the mountain-slopes of Tierra del Fuego consist largely of two beeches-one evergreen, Fugus beluloides, and one with deciduous leaves, F. antardica. BEECHER, CHARLES EMERSON (1856-1904), Amencan palaeontologist, was born at Dunkirk, New York, on the ot October 1856. He graduated at the university of Michigan in 1878, and then became assistant to James Hall in the store museum at Albany. Ten years later he was appointed to the charge of the invertebrate fossils in the Peabody Museum, New Haven, under O. C. Marsh, whom he succeeded in 1899 as curater. Meanwhile in 1889 he received the degree of Ph.D. from Yale University for his memoir on the Brackiospongidur, a remarkable |