NOTHOFAGUS
- Nothofagus, Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. i. 307 (1850); Oerstedt, Vidensk. Selsk. Skrift. V. ix. 331 (1873); Solereder, System. Werth Holzstructur, 253 (1885); Krasser, Ann. K.-K. Naturhist. Hofmuseums, Wien, xi. 149 (1896).
- Calucechinus and Calusparassus, Hombron et Jacquinot, Voy. Pôle. Sud. Atlas, tt. 6–8 (1853).
- Lophozonia, Turczaninow, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. xxxi. 396 (1858).
- Fagus, section Nothofagus, Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. iii. 410 (1880).
This genus comprises the beeches inhabiting extra-tropical South America, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and was formerly considered to be a section of the genus Fagus, which, however, as now limited, includes only the species of the northern hemisphere. The two genera are distinguished as follows :—
Nothofagus.—Trees or shrubs, with deciduous or evergreen foliage.’ Flowers moncecious or rarely dicecious, either solitary or in groups of threes. Fruit : involucre, two-, three- or four-valved, usually bearing externally transverse entire, toothed or lobed lamellæ, with or without gland-tipped processes; or in rare cases the valves are smooth and without appendages ; nuts, solitary or three in each involucre. Fagus.—Trees with deciduous foliage. Flowers moncecious; the staminate numerous in globose heads, the pistillate in pairs. Fruit: involucre, covered externally with bristly, deltoid or foliaceous processes; nuts, two in each involucre.
About seventeen’ distinct species of Nothofagus are known, constituting three natural sections, based on the characters of the foliage :—
I. Leaves deciduous, soft in texture, folded in bud along the lateral nerves, crenate or serrate in margin.
1. Nothofagus antarctica, Oerstedt. Large tree, S. America. Introduced into cultivation. Leaves ovate, ¾ to 1 inch long; lateral nerves three to five pairs ; margin slightly lobed, unequally crenate, with three to five teeth between the ends of each adjacent pair of nerves.
2. Nothofagus Montagnei,? Reiche. Shrub or low tree. Chonos Archipelago. Not introduced. A little-known species, of which I have seen no specimen; leaves 3 inch long, firmer in texture and more conspicuously veined above than those of the preceding species, from which it is also distinguished by the yellow-coloured pubescence on the branchlets.
1 Bunbury, in Bot. Fragments, 322 (1883), writes an interesting article on the different types of foliage which are met with in this genus.
2 N. alpina, Reiche (Fagus alpina, Poeppig et Endlicher), is a doubtful species.
3 Calucechinus Montagnei, Hombron et Jacquinot, loc. cit. t. 7 (1853). Fagus Montagnei, Philippi, Linnæa, xxix. 45 (1857).
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