THE HOP-HORNBEAM OR IRONWOOD. I / 



THE HOP-HORNBEAM OR IROXWOOD. 



Osfrya Jlr<^iiiiaiia. 

 By Mary S. Van Hook. 



A tree that borrows most of its good points from its neighbors 

 and yet succeeds in being individual enough to be interesting 

 deserves to be noticed. The branchlets of the hop-hornbeam re- 

 sembles those of the elm, its leaves are very like those of the 

 birch, while the appearance of its fruit, so similar to that of the 

 hop vine, gives the tree its name ; yet the tree has its own peculiar 

 charms and piques immediate further study, when once it is ob- 

 served. 



Graceful and dainty in appearance, seldom over thirty feet 

 high, throughout the year the hop-hornbeam attracts atten- 

 tion by its beauty. In the spring the vivid green of its leaves, and 

 in the autumn their brilliant coloring", make the tree an ornament 

 wherever it grows. Late into the winter many leaves remain, 

 withered it is true, but still a pleasing brown, and with them 

 hang the pistillate aments. the hop-like fruit clusters, like little 

 lanterns on the tree. Each seed, shaped like an apple seed but 

 light colored, is enclosed in a small sac from which it does not 

 escape until spring. On the same tree are the staminate catkins 

 in groups of three, each one, in the winter condition, not more 

 than an inch long, but in the spring stretching out to twice that 

 length. 



The wood of the hornbeam is its most characteristic feature. 

 Close grained and very hard, it almost defies destruction and is 

 indeed like iron. The ancients employed it in making chariot 

 wheels, and it is now used for the handles of small tools and 

 weapons. In the young trees the bark, smooth and reddish 

 brown in color and marked with short white lines, suggests that 

 of young cherry trees but later on it becomes rough and grey 

 more like that of the elm. 



A near relative to the hop-hornbeam is Osfrya Carpi ints, the 

 bluebeech-hornbeam. Its leaves resemble those of the beech, 

 and the trunk is often blue or slate color, whence the name. Tlie 



