BETULACE.E. (biRCH FAMILY.) 451 



ovate, acuminate, imbricated, stamiiiiferous at the base, hairy, the lower ones 

 empty ; stamens 5-10, free: anthers 2-celled, introrse. Fertile anient few- 

 many-flowered, narrowly cylindrical, sliort, in fruit elongated; bracts ovate, 

 approximate, at length scattered, the lower ones empty. Ovary ovoid, nearly 

 smooth, with the base surrounded by a cup of 4 minute ovate toothed scales. 

 Ovule solitary, amphitropous. Stigma solitary, thick, elongated, channelled. 

 Drupe oblong, obtuse, narrowed at the base : epicarp thick, coriaceous, smooth : 

 endocarp crustaceous. i^lbumen none. . Embryo large, filling the cell. Coty- 

 ledons oval, compressed. Kadicle superior. — A stout shrub, 2° - 6° high, with 

 soft wood and smooth light brown bark, without resinous dots. Branches 

 short and thick, hoary-pubescent when young. Leaves oblong or obovate- 

 oblong (4' -6' long), acute at each end, entire, smooth and shining above, 

 hoary-tomentose beneath, straight-veined, on long spreading or recurved hoary 

 petioles, deciduous. Stipules none. Aments develojjed before the leaves, 

 from the axils of the preceding year, the sterile ones 1'- 1^' long, the fertile 

 6" -8" long. Drupe V long, green, slightly curved. 



1. L. Floridana, Chapm. — Salt or brackish marshes, Apalachicola, 

 Florida. Feb. - jNIarch. 



Order 131. BETULACE.E. (Birch Family.) 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate simple straight-veined leaves, de- 

 ciduous stipules, and monoecious amentaceous flowers, placed 2 - 3 to- 

 gether in the axil of a 3-lobed bract. Stamens 4 : filaments distinct. 

 Ovary 2-celled, with a single suspended anatropous ovule in each cell. 

 Stigmas 2, elongated. Fruit a winged or angled 1-celled 1-seeded nut, 

 forming, with the imbricated persistent bracts, a cone-like spike. 



1. BETULA, Tourn. Birch. 



Sterile aments drooping. Bracts 3-flowered, 2-bracteolate, peltate. Calyx 

 scale-like. Stamens short : anthers 1-celled. Fertile aments oblong or cvlin- 

 drical. Bracts 3-flowered. Calyx none. Stigmas filiform. Xut broadly 

 winged. Cotyledons oblong. — Trees or shrubs, with the outer bark often 

 .separable into thin papery slieets. Leaves petioled, serrate. Fruiting bracts 

 membranaceous. 



1. B. nigra, L. (Red Birch.) Leaves rhombic-ovate, acute, doubly 

 serrate, smooth above, hoary-tomentose beneath, like the short petioles and 

 branchlets, becoming rusty or smoothish ; sterile aments long and drooping ; 

 the fertile ones oblong, short-peduncled, with the woolly bracts cleft into three 

 linear-oblong nearly equal lobes. (B. rubra, i1/(cA,r.) — Banks of rivers. 

 March — A middle-sized tree, with reddish brown bark, and long spreading 

 branches. 



2. B. lutea, iNTichx. (Yellow Birch.) Leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, 

 acuminate, unef|nally and doubly serrate, pubescent, like the branchlets, when 

 young, at length smooth on both sides, on short pubescent petioles ; fruiting 

 aments oval-oblong ; lobes of the bracts nearly equal, slightly spreading and 



