SUPPLEMENT. 



THE FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 



By Charles Louts Pollard. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Order Fag ales. 



This order is of great importance from the standpoint of economic 

 botany and forestry, containing, as it does, a hirge number of the most 

 valuable timber trees of the world. It consists of two families, both 

 characterized liy the alternate simple leaves with pronounced venation; 

 by the monoecious flowers, born in aments as in the willows; and by 

 the fruit, which is a one-seeded nut. The flowers have a calyx, but no 

 corolla. 



Family Betulaceae. Birch Family. Contains six genera and 

 about 75 species, chiefly of northern distribution. They are distin- 

 guished from the related family Fagaceae by the aments, which are 

 mostly shorter and thicker, and by the absence of a cup-shaped invo- 

 lucre (like that of an acorn) around the fruit. Betula, the birch, is 

 undoubtedly the most important genus of this family. Birch wood is 

 hard and durable, and being susceptible of a high polish, is frequently 

 used in the manufacture of various articles of furniture and in house- 

 building. The bark of the paper birch is well known for its property 

 of peeling ofi^ in thin layers, and it is in demand for drawings and 

 paintings. It seems to have reached the acme of utility however in 

 the hands of the Indians, and is so sti'ongly associated with Indian 

 stories and legends that we can scarcely conceive of one of Cooper's 

 dusky heroes without the accompaniment of his birch bark canoe and 

 his tepee. Figure 63 shows an Indian encampment on the shores of 

 a Minnesota lake; the tepees and canoes are of l)ircli, and there is a 

 birch forest in the I)ackground. B'-tnhi includes about 35 species, 

 some of which penetrate even to the Arctic circle. ('(iri/Jnx, the hazel, 



