174 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



FAMILY III. THE HORNBEAM FAMILY. CARPINACEJE. 



This family is nearly allied to the oak family, from which it 

 is distinguished by having its female flowers arranged in a loose 

 terminal anient, which becomes an open, pendulous, compound 

 fruit resembling a hop. The male flowers are on long, cylin- 

 drical, tassel-like aments, formed of simple, imbricate scales, 

 with twelve or more stamens attached to the base of the scales. 



It contains small trees, found in the temperate zone of both 

 hemispheres, remarkable for the solidity, strength and tough- 

 ness of their wood; with annual, alternate, simple, entire leaves. 

 The buds are covered with imbricate scales, investing and sep- 

 arating the plaited leaves. 



It comprehends two genera of trees found here : The Horn- 

 beam, with its naked nut concealed in the axil of a leaf-like 

 bract ; and 



The Hop-Hornbeam, whose nut is covered by a hairy, in- 

 flated, membranous sack. 



III. 1. THE HORNBEAM. CARPINUS. L. 



Small trees, with a smooth, fluted or irregular trunk, and al- 

 ternate, entire leaves. The female flowers are in loose aments, 

 made of small, scale-like, changed leaves, in pairs. These, 

 enlarged, contain the fruit, which is a small, ribbed, bony nut 

 in the angle of a changed, halbert-shaped, or three-lobed leaf. 

 There are about six species, one of which only is found in New 

 England. 



The American Hornbeam. C. Americana. Michaux. 



Figured in Michaux ; Sylva, Plate 108. 



The hornbeam is a small tree, easily distinguished by its 

 trunk, which is marked with longitudinal, irregular ridges, 

 resembling those on the horns of animals of the deer kind. 

 From its great resemblance to the European species, it received 

 at once from the earliest settlers this good old English descrip- 



