Bobby Cook, age 11  of Boise, Idaho, for his question:

Where does the beech tree grow?

The true beech tree is a native of many temperate climates, In North America it is native to forests of the eastern Appalachians and southern and central Canada. The beech is a hardwood tree of great beauty. Some say it is the most graceful tree of the forests. Its trunk is smooth and silvery and its dainty leaves are round and papery.

The beech tree bears little three‑cornered nuts of glossy dark brown. Two or three of three of these nuts are wrapped in a downy blanket and packed into a burr. The burrs ripen and break open in the fall. A beech tree, of course, can grow from one of these little brown nuts and the tree may live to be 400 years old.