470 MYRICACE^. (sweet-gale FAMILY.) 



scales which coalesce with its base. — Wet borders of ponds, Newf . to N. Eug 

 and aloug the Great Lakes to Minn., south in the mountains to Va. 



2. M. cerifera, L. (Bayberry. Wax-]\Iyrtle.) Leaves oblong-lan- 

 ceolate, narrowed at the base, entire or wavy-tootlied toward the apex, shining 

 and resinous-dotted both sides, somewhat preceding the flowers, fragrant ; sterile 

 catkins scattered, oblong ; scales wedge-shaped at the base ; nuts scattered and 

 naked, bonv, and incrusted with white wax. — Sand}^ soil near the coast, from 

 Nova Scotia to Fla. and Ala. ; also on L. Erie. Shrub 3-8° high, but some- 

 times a tree 35° high ; fruit sometimes persistent for 2 or 3 years. 



* * Frequently monoecious ; fertile catkins globular : ovary surrounded by 8 long 



linear-aivl-shaped persistent scales ; nut ovoid-oblong ; leaves pinnatijid with 

 many rounded lobes. 



3. M. asplenifblia, Endl. Shrub 1 - 2° high, with sweet scented fern- 

 like linear-lanceolate leaves ; stipules half heart-shaped ; scales of the sterile 

 catkins kidney -heart-shaped, pointed. (Comptonia asplenifolia, Ait.) — Sterile 

 hills, N. Eng. to N. C, west to Minn, and Ind. Known as Sweet Fern. 



Order 103. CUPULIFER^^E. (Oak Family.) 



Moncecious trees or shrubs, with alternate simple straight-veined leaves, 

 deciduous stipules, the sterile Jlowers in catkins {or capitate-clustered in 

 the Beech), the fertile solitary, clustered, spiked, or in scaly catkins, the 

 1-celled and 1-seeded nut with or without an involucre. Ovary more or 

 less 2 - 7-celle(l, with 1 or 2 pendulous anatropous ovules in each cell ; 

 but all the cells and ovules except one disappearing in the fruit. Seed 

 with no albumen, filled with the embryo. 



Tribe I. BETULE^. Flowers in scaly catkins, -2 or 3 to each bract. Sterile catkins 

 pendulous. Stamens 2-4, and calyx usually 2- 4-parted. Fertile flowers with no caljTC, 

 and no involucre to the compressed and often winged small nut. Ovary 2-celled, 2-ovuled. 



1. Betula. Stamens 2, bitid. Fertile scales thin, 3-lobed, deciduous with the nuts. 



2. Alniis. Stamens 4. Fertile scales thick, entire, persisting after the nuts have fallen. 



Tribe II. CORYLE^^E. Sterile catkins pendulous, with no calyx ; stamens 3 or more 

 to each bract and more or less adnate to it, the filaments often forked (anthers 1-celled). 

 Fertile flowers in a short anient or head, 2 to each bract, and each with one or mors 

 bractlets which form a foliaceous involucre to the nut. Ovary 2-celled. 2-ovuled. 

 * Bract of staminate flower furnished with a pair of bractlets inside ; fertile flowers few 



3. Coryliis. Involuci'e leafy-coriaceous, enclosing the large bony nut. 



* * Bract of staminate flower simple ; fertile flowers in short catkins ; nut small, achene-like 



4. Ostrya. Each ovary and nut included in a bladdery and closed bag. 

 5 Cai'pinus. Each nut subtended by an enlarged leafy bractlet. 



Tribe III. QUEKCINE.^. Sterile flowers with 4-7-lobed calj'x and stamens mdefi- 

 nite (3-20). Fertile flowers 1 or few, enclosed in a cupule consisting of consolidated 

 bracts, which becomes indurated (scaly or prickly) and surrounds or encloses the nut. 



* Sterile flowers in slender catkins. 



6. Quercus. Cupule 1-flowered, scaly and entire ; nut hard and terete. 



7. Castanea. Cupule 2-4-flowered, forming a prickly hard bur, 2-4-valved when ripe. 



* * Sterile flowers in a small liead. 



8. Fagiis. Cupule 2-flo\vered, 4-valved, containing 2 sharply triangular nuts. 



