419 
CUPT7LIFER.2E. (OAK FAMILY.) 
much prolonged above the globular-ovoid nut into a narrow tubular 
beaky densely clothed with bristles. — Banks of streams, &c., common 
northward. Shrub 2°-5° high, with slender smooth branches. 
5. CARPItfUS, L. Hornbeam. Iron-wood. 
Sterile flowers in drooping cylindrical catkins, consisting of 
about 12 stamens in the axil of a simple and entire scale-like 
bract, destitute of a proper calyx : filaments very short: anthers 
1-celled, bearded at the apex. Fertile flowers several, spiked in 
a sort of loose terminal catkin, with small deciduous bracts, each 
subtending a pair of flowers, consisting of a 2-celled 2-ovuled 
ovary terminated by 2 thread-like stigmas. Nut small, ovoid, rib¬ 
bed, stalked, each with a simple, 1-sided, enlarged, open and leaf¬ 
like involucre. — Trees with a smooth gray bark, and slender 
buds like the Beech, and foliage resembling the Beech or Birch, 
appearing later than the flowers. (The ancient Latin name.) 
1- C. Americana, Michx. (American Hornbeam. Blue, 
or Water Beech.) Leaves ovate-oblong, pointed, sharply doubly 
serrate, nearly smooth ; involucre 3-lobed, somewhat halbert-shaped, 
sparingly cut-toothed on one side. — Along streams, common. — Tree 
10°- 2(P high, with an irregular ridged trunk, and very hard whitish 
wood ; called, indiscriminately with the Hop-Hornbeam, Iron-wood. 
6* OSTBYA, Micheli. Hop-Hornbeam. Iron-wood. 
Sterile flowers nearly as in Carpinus ; filaments irregularly 
somewhat united. Fertile flowers numerous in a short terminal 
catkin, with small deciduous bracts ; each inclosed in a membra¬ 
nous sac-like involucre which enlarges and forms a bladdery closed 
bag in fruit, these imbricated to form a sort of strobile appearing 
like that of the Hop. Ovary 2-celled, 2-ovuled, crowned with the 
entire and bearded border of the calyx, forming a small and seed¬ 
like smooth nut. — Slender trees with brownish finely furrowed 
bark, and foliage, &e., nearly as in the last genus. Flowers ap¬ 
pearing with the leaves. (The classical name, thought to be de¬ 
rived from oo-Tpeov , an oyster-shell , in allusion either to the fruit, 
where the resemblance is not apparent, or to the hardness of the 
wood.) 
Virginica, Willd. (American Hop-Hornbeam. Le¬ 
ver-wood.) Leaves oblong-ovate, pointed, very sharply doubly ser¬ 
rate, somewhat downy; buds acute; involucral sacs bristly-hairy at 
