Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
In an attempt to shed some light on the origin of the material in the envelopes of Be stars, surface gravities were determined for 30 objects by comparing their observed profiles of Hγ and Hδ with those computed from the Princeton model atmospheres and the VCS theory of hydrogen line broadening. The program stars are predominately well-known Be stars and display a wide range of envelope spectra and v sin i. The mean and range in log g for the Be stars appear to be identical to that obtained from a similar analysis on non-Be stars. No correlation was found between log g and Hα emission strength or the strength and/or presence of emission of Fe II, O I λ 7774 Å, or the infrared Ca ii triplet. The suggestion made by Schild (1973) and Schild et al. (1974) that the extreme Be stars are in the post main sequence phase of rapid core contraction is weakened by the fact that there are several members of the class which have log g ≥ 3.8. All shell stars considered in the program appear to have low values of log g (≤3.5). Some possible explanations for this occurrence are discussed.