BEECH, a well-known tree, the Fagus sylvatιca. For the cultivation and properties of it see Arboriculture, vol. ii. p. 317. The name beech is from the Anglo-Saxon boc, bece, or beoce (Ger. Buche, Swedish, bok), words meaning at once a book and a beech-tree. The connection 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 bôkô, letter, bôkôs, 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 beechtree, was formerly known in England as buck; and the county of Buckingham is so named from its fame as a beechgrowing country. Buckwheat {Buclιeιveizen) derives its name from the similarity of its angular seeds to beech-mast. The generic name Fagus is derived from φάγω, to eat; but the φηγός of Theophrastus was probably the sweet chestnut (cesculus) 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 per cent, of a non-drying oil, suitable for illumination, and said to be used in some parts of France and ...

BEECHEY, Frederick William, a distinguished naval officer and navigator, son of Sir William Beechey, R.A., was born in London, in 1796. In 1806, at the age of ten, he entered the navy, and was for several years engaged in active service during the wars with France and America. In 1818 he served under Franklin in Buchan’s Arctic expedition, of which at a later period he published a narrative; and in the following year he accompanied Parry in the “Hecla.” In 1821 he took part in the survey of the Mediterranean coast, under the direction of Captain, afterwards Admiral, Smyth. He and his brother, H. W. Beechey, made an overland survey of the north coast of Africa, of which a full and valuable account was published in 1827. In 1825 he was appointed to the “Blossom,” which was intended to explore Behring’s Straits in concert with Franklin and Parry. He passed Behring’s Straits and penetrated as far as lat. 71° 23' 31" N., and long. 156° 2Γ 30" W., reaching a point only 146 miles west of that reached by Franklin’s expedition from the Mackenzie River. The whole voyage lasted more than three years; and in the course of it Beechey discovered several islands in the Pacific, and an excellent harbour near Cape Prince of Wales. A full narrative of his voyage was published in 1825-28. From 1835 to 1847 Captain Beechey was employed on the coast survey of South America and Ireland. He was then appointed by Government to preside over the Marine Department of the Board of Trade. In 1854 he was made rear-admiral, and in the following year wae elected president of the Geographical Society. He died on the 29th Nov. 1856....