c^ 



200 



POPULAR FLORA. 



4. CiiERTtY or Sweet B. Tree, Avitli he.irt-ovnte and pointed leave?, downy on the veins beneath 

 and a close bark, bronze-colored on the twigs, which are spicy-tasted, like the foliage of Check- 

 erberry. Common N. . B. Itnlu. 



87. SWEET-GALE FAMILY. Order MYRICACE^. 



Shrubs (generally low), with fragrant alternate leaves; and with catkins much as in the 

 Birch family, but short and with only one naked blossom under each scale ; the ovary 

 forming a little nut or dry drupe. 



Flowers moncecious: fertile catkins round and bur-like: fruit a smooth little nut. Leaves 



lance-linear, pinnatifid. Fern-like, whence the common name, ( Comjjtdnia) Sweet-Fern. 

 Flowers dioecious: scales of the fertile catkins falling oft*, and leaving only the small 

 round tVuits, Avhich are incrusted Avith wax, and so appear like drupes. Leaves 

 entire or seiTate, {^fl/l■^ca). 



One species in wet grounds, N.. with wedge-lanceolate pale leaves, (M. Gale) Sweet-Gale. 



One on the sea-coast with lance-oblong, shining leaves, and waxy fruit, {M. cerifera) Baybekuv. 



88. WILLOW FAMILY. Order SALICACEtE. 



Dioecious trees or slirubs, with both 

 kinds of blossoms in catkins (often 

 earlier than the foliage) ; the flowers 

 naked (without any calyx or corolla), 

 one sort of two or more stamens 

 under a scaly bract ; the other of a 

 one-celled pistil with two styles or 

 stigmas, making a many-seeded pod : 

 the seeds bearing a \on<r tuft of down. 



CD O 



Leaves alternate and simple : wood 

 soft and light : bark bitter. — The 

 Willows are of very many species, 

 and are much too difficult for tlie 

 beginner. 



494. Shoot and catkin of sterile flowers of the Com- 

 moa Wiiiie Willow. 495. A scale separated, wiili us 

 tiower, consisting' of tuo stamens and a little gl.xnd, 

 magnified. 4S6. Shoot and fertile catkin of the s^iine. 

 497 A pistillate fiower with us scale and gland, mag- 

 nified. 



Scales of the catkins entire: stamens 2 to 6: stigmas short: leaves narrow, 

 Scales of the catkins cut-lobed: stamens 8 to 40: stigmas long: leaves broad, 

 buds covered with a resinous varnish, 



(Sallx) Willow. 

 Scaly leaf- 



{Pojnilus) PoPLAit. 



Jt'kr 



