Beech was formerly used only for fuel, but in the last few decades it has been cut and used for many purposes, and the supply is fast diminishing. The beauty of this tree both in summer and winter, sunshine or storm makes it one of the most desirable for shade tree planting, but I have failed to find where it has been successfully used. It is one of the few trees that does not take to domestication. When the original forest is reduced to a remnant of beech, as a rule, the remaining beech will soon begin to die at the top. It is difficult to transplant. When planted the hole should be filled with earth obtained from under a living tree, in order to introduce the mycorrhiza that is necessary to the growth of the tree. =2. CASTÀNEA.= The Chestnut. =Castanea dentàta= (Marshall) Borkhausen. Chestnut. Plate 39. Large trees with deeply fissured bark, smooth on young trees; young twigs more or less hairy, soon becoming glabrous and a reddish-brown; leaves lanceolate, average blades 13-22 cm. long, taper-pointed, wedge-shape or obtuse at the base, coarsely serrate, teeth usually incurved, at maturity glabrous on both sides; flowers appear after the leaves in the latter part of June or early in July, the staminate catkins from the axils of the leaves of the year's growth, 1.5-3 dm. long, pistillate flowers in heads on short stalks in the axils of the leaves, usually on the branch beyond the greater part of the staminate catkins; fruit a globular spiny bur 5-7 cm. in diameter which contains the nuts; nuts usually 1-3, rarely 5, flattened on one side, edible; wood light, soft, not strong, checks and warps on seasoning, yellowish-brown, durable in contact with the ground. [Illustration: Plate 39. CASTANEA DENTATA (Marshall) Borkhausen. Chestnut. (× 1/2.)] =Distribution.=--Maine, southern Ontario, Michigan, south to Delaware and in the mountains to Alabama, and west to Arkansas. In Indiana it is found locally in the south central counties. The most northern station where I have seen trees that are native to a certainty is in Morgan County a short distance north of Martinsville. There are a few trees on the south bank of White River in Mound Park about 2 miles east of Anderson. This site was formerly an Indian village, and the trees may have been introduced here. The late A. C. Benedict formerly of the State Geological Survey, told me he saw a colony in 1878 in Fayette County on the farm of Dr. B. Ball, about 3 miles west of Connersville on the east side of Little Williams Creek. The trees were at least 6 dm. in diameter. The western line of distribution would be a line drawn from Martinsville to a point a few miles west of Shoals and south to Tell City.