428 BETULACF-.E. (lUHCII FAMILY.) . 



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

 endocarp crastaceous. Albumen none. Embryo large, tilling the cell Coty- 

 ledons oval, compressed. Badiclc superior. — A stout shrub, 2°- fi° high, with 

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

 and thick, hoary-pubescent when young. Leaves oblong or obovatc-ohlong (4'- 

 C long), acute at each end, entire, smooth and shining above, hoary-tomentosc 

 beneath, straight-veined, on long spreading or recurved hoary petioles, decidu- 

 ous. Stipules none. Aments developed before the leaves, from the axils of the 

 preceding year, the sterile ones 1'- H' long, the fertile 6"- 8" long. Drupe i' 

 long, green, slightly curved. 



1 . L. Floridana. — Salt or brackish marshes, Apalaehicola, Florida. — 

 Feb. and March. 



Order 130. BETULACEiE. (Birch Family.) 



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

 stipules, and monoecious amentaceous flowers, placed 2- 3 together in the 

 axil of a 3-lobed bract. Stamens 4 : filaments distinct. Ovary 2-celled, 

 with a single suspended anatropnus ovule in each cell. Stigmas 2, elon- 

 gated. Fruit a winged or angled l-celled 1-seeded nut, forming, with the 

 imbricated persistent bracts, a cone-like spike. 



1. BETULA, Tourn. Birccn. 



Sterile aments drooping. Bracts 3-flowcred, 2-bractcolatc, peltate. Calyx 

 scale-like. Stamens short : anthers I-celled. Fertile aments oblong or cylin- 

 drical. Bracts 3-flowered. Calyx none. Stigmas filiform. Nut broadly winged. 

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

 thin papery sheets. Leaves petioled, serrate. Fruiting bracts membranaceous. 



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



serrate, Bi th above, hoary-tomentosc 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, Michx.) — Banks of rivers, Florida, 

 and northward. March. — A middlc-si/.ed tree, with reddish-brow n bark, ami 



long spreading branches. 



2. B. OXCelsa, Ait. (Yellow Birch.) Leaves ovate or oblong-ovato, 

 acuminate, unequally 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, Blightly spreading and 



hairy, acute. (B. Int. a, Michx.)— Mountains of North Carolina, and north- 

 ward. March and April. — A tree 40° -GO high, with yellowish bark. 1 

 2'-. 'J' long. 

 .'5. B. lenta, L. (Chsbbi Braes.) Branchlets Bmooth; haves ovate or 



ol.loiiL'-ovatc, acute, cordate, finely and doubly serrate, silky wlicn \ouug, at 



