SWEET-GALE FAMILY. 305 



Var. Americana, American Chestnut : large tree in hilly woods, 

 from Canada to Florida, distinguishable from the European only by leaves acute 

 at the base, and nuts sweeter and smaller. 



C. p^mila, Chinquapin. Sandy dry soil chiefly S. & E. : shrub or 

 small tree ; with lance-oblong leaves whitish downy beneath, and very sweet 

 nut solitary in the involucre, therefore terete. 



3. FAGUS, BEECH. ( Classical Latin name, from the Greek, alluding to 

 the nuts being good to eat.) Flowers appearing with the (straight-veinod 

 and serrate) leaves, in spring. 



P. ferruginea, American Beech. Forest tree, commoner N., with fine- 

 grained wood, close and smooth light gray bark, and light horizontal spray ; 

 the leaves oblong-ovate and taper-pointed, distinctly toothed, thin, their silky 

 hairs early deciduous, the very straight veins all ending in the salient teeth. 



F. syiv^tica, European Beech, occasionally planted as a shade-tree, is 

 distinguished by broader and shorter, firmer, more hairy, and wavy-toothed 

 leaves, some of the main veins tending to the sinuses. 



4. C6RYLXJS, hazel-nut, filbert. (Classical Latin name.) 

 Shrubs, with flowers in early spring, preceding the rounded-heart-shaped, 

 doubly-serrate, at first downy leaves. Edible nuts ripe in autumn. 



C. Avellkna, European H. or Filbert. Occasionally planted : 6° -10° 

 high, with bristly shoots, and smoothish deeply-cleft involucre about the length 

 of the (1' long) oval nut. 



C Americana, American H. Thickets : 4°-6° high, with more downy 

 shoots, leaves, and involucre, the latter open down to the smaller globular nut 

 in the form of a pair of broad cut-toothed leafy bracts. 



C. rostr^ta. Beaked H, Thickets and banks, mostly N. : 2° -5° high, 

 with more ovate and scarcely heart-shaped leaves, the densely bristly involucre 

 prolonged in a narrow curved tube much beyond the ovoid nut. 



5. OSTRYA, HOP-HORNBEAM. (The classical name.) Slender trees, 

 with very hard wood : flowers appearing with the (Birch-like) leaves, in 

 spring. 



O. Virginica, American H., Iron-wood or Lever-wood. Rich woods : 

 tree 30° - .'50° high, with brownish rough bark, and oblong-ovate taper pointed 

 sharply doubly serrate leaves downy beneath, the sacs of the fruit bristly at base. 



6. CARPINUS, HORNBEAM, IRON-WOOD. (Ancient Latin name.) 

 Low trees or tall shrubs, with furrowed trunks and very hard wood, the close 

 gray bark and small leaves resembling those of the Beech ; flowers with the 

 leaves, in spring. 



C. Americana, American H., also called Blue or Water Beech. 



Banks of streams ; 10° -20° high ; witl\ ovate-oblong pointed doubly serrate 

 leaves, becoming smooth, and halberd-3-lobed bracts of the involucre. 



107. MYRICACE^, SWEET-GALE FAMILY. 



Shrubs, with resinous-dotted often fragrant simple leaves, and 

 moiicBcious or dioecious flowers, both kinds in short scaly catkins or 

 heads, and destitute of any proper calyx, the 1-seeded fruit a fleshy 

 little drupe or at length dry nut, commonly coated with wax. 



1. MYRICA. Flowers mostly dioecious, the catkins from lateral scaly buds: each 



flower under a scale-like bract and with a pair of bractlets; the sterile of 

 2-8 stamens ; the fertile of an ovary bearing 2 slender stigmas and suiTound- 

 cd by a few little scales. 



2. COMI'TONIA Flowers mostly monoecious, the sterile in cylindrical catkins; 



the fertile in globular bur-like heads. Ovary surrounded by long awl-shaped 

 scales winch persist around the smooth little nut. 



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