FAGACEAE. 33* 



Pistillate flowers with a 4-8-lobed urn-shaped or oblong perianth, adnate 

 to the 3-7-celled ovary; ovules 1-2 in each cavity, only i in each ovary 

 ripening, pfendulous, anatropous ; styles as many as the cavities of the 

 ovary, linear. Fruit a i -seeded nut, with a coriaceous or somewhat bony 

 exocarp. Testa thin. Endosperm none ; cotyledons large, fleshy, often 

 rugose ; radicle short. About 5 genera and 375 species, of very wide geo- 

 graphic distribution. 



Staminate flowers capitate ; nut sharply triangular. i. Fagus. 



Staminate flowers in slender aments ; nut rounded or plano-convex. 



Pistillate flowers 2-5 in each involucre ; involucre becoming globose and very prickly 

 in fruit, enclosing the nuts. 2. Castanea. 



Pistillate flower t in each involucre ; involucre of numerous scales forming a cup in 

 fruit and subtending the acorn. 3. Quercus. 



i. FAGUS L. 



Trees, with smooth light gray bark, and serrate straight-veined leaves. Flowers 

 appearing with the leaves, the Staminate in slender-peduncled pendulous heads, the 

 pistillate about 2 together in short-peduncled subulate-bracted involucres in the 

 upper axils. Staminate flowers yellowish-green, subtended by deciduous bracts, 

 consisting of a campanulate 4-8-lobed calyx, and 8 16 stamens with filiform fila- 

 ments. Pistillate flowers with a 6-lobed perianth adnate to a 3-celled ovary; 

 ovules 2 in each cavity, usually I only of each ovary maturing; styles 3, filiform. 

 Nut coriaceous, sharply 3-angled, enclosed in the 4-valved bur. [Name from the 

 Greek, to eat, referring to the esculent nuts.] About 4 species, natives of the north- 

 ern hemisphere, only the following native in N. Am. 



x. Fagus Americana Sweet. AMERICAN BEECH. (I. F. f. 1225.) A large 

 forest tree, the lower branches spreading. Leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, firm, 

 acuminate, 5-12 cm. long, densely silky when young, glabrous or nearly so when 

 mature, green on both sides, not shining; petioles 412 mm. long; heads of stain- 

 mate flowers 12-18 mm. in diameter, hanging on long peduncles; bur 1-2 cm. high, 

 densely tomentose, its soft pricklets recurved or spreading; nut brown; seed sweet. 

 In rich soil, N. S. to Ont. and Wis., Fla. and Tex. April-May. Nut ripe Sept- 

 Oct. 



2. CASTANEA Adans. 



Trees or shrubs, with serrate straight- veined leaves, their teeth sharply acumi- 

 nate. Flowers appearing after the leaves, the Staminate in narrowly cylindric 

 interrupted axillary yellowish aments, several in the axil of each bract, the bracts 

 fugacious, the pistillate in prickly involucres at the bases of the staminate aments 

 or in separate axils. Staminate flowers 2-bracteolate, consisting of a mostly 6-lobed 

 campanulate perianth and numerous stamens, sometimes also with an abortive 

 ovary; filaments filiform, long-exserted. Pistillate flowers 2-5 (commonly 3) in 

 each involucre, consisting of an urn-shaped 6-lobed perianth adnate to the mostly 

 6-celled ovary, and usually with 4-12 abortive stamens; ovules 2 in each cavity, I 

 ovule only of each ovary usually maturing; styles as many as the cavities of the 

 ovary, slender, exserted; stigmas minute. Pistillate involucre enlarging and becom- 

 ing a globose mostly 4-valved very prickly bur in fruit, enclosing i-several nuts. 

 Nut rounded or plano-convex, I -seeded, the shell coriaceous. Seed large, sweet. 

 Style mostly persistent. [Name Greek, from a city in Thessaly.] Four or five 

 species, natives of the northern hemisphere. Besides the following, another occurs 

 in the southeastern United States. 



Leaves green on both sides ; nuts usually 2-5 in each involucre ; large tree. 



1. C. dent at a. 

 Leaves densely white-tomentose beneath ; nut usually solitary ; shrub or small tree. 



2. C. pumila. 



I. Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh. AMERICAN CHESTNUT. (I. F. f. 

 1226.) A large tree, with gray bark rough in longitudinal plates. Leaves oblong- 

 lanceolate, glabrous, firm, acuminate, coarsely serrate, with very sharp-pointed 

 ascending teeth, rather dark green above, lighter beneath. 1-3 dm. long, petioles 

 stout, 1-2.5 cm l n g; staminate aments erect, numerous, 1.5-3 dm. l n g? 8-10 mm, 



