190 CUPULIFER^. [part i. 



together. The male flowers are furnished with 

 three lobed bracts or scales, each containing 

 three flowers, each flower having a calyx of 

 four scales united at the base, and bearing four 

 stamens. The female flowers are in close ovate 

 catkins, produced in clusters of four or five 

 together, instead of being cylindrical and soli- 

 tary, as in the Birch ; the scales of the catkins, 

 though three-lobed, are only two-flowered, and 

 the flowers have two long stigmas like those of 

 the Birch. The ovary has two cells and two 

 ovules, but it only produces one seed. The 

 ripe fruit is a nut without wings, attached at 

 the base to the scale of the cone-like catkin, 

 the scales of the catkin becoming rigid, and 

 opening, like those of the Scotch Pine, as the 

 seed ripens. There are several species of Alder, 

 some of which bear considerable resemblance 

 to the American species of Birch; but they are 

 easily distinguished by the female catkins of 

 the Birch being always solitary, while those of 

 the Alder are produced in clusters, and by the 

 capsules of the Alder being without wings. 



CUPULIFERyE— THE CUP-BEARING TREES. 



This order includes six genera of very im- 

 portant trees ; all of which have their ripe fruit 

 shrouded in a cup-like involucre, which they 



