186 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
Of this group we have described six species belong- 
ing to the Amentifere. 
THE OAK GROUP. 
The order Amentiferz includes the majority of the 
British Trees except Ash, Elm, Lime, and the minor 
treesandshrubs. It embraces the Bog Myrtle, Birch, 
Alder, Hornbeam, Oak, Sweet Chestnut, Beech, 
Willow, Poplar. 
The Conifers Juniper, Yew, Pine, are excluded as 
being Gymnosperms, though in Bentham and Hooker’s 
‘System,’ which is superseded by Engler and Prantl 
on the Continent, they are wedged in between Mono- 
cotyledons and Dicotyledons, between Ceratophyllum 
and Elodea. 
The Amentiferze are characterised by having the 
flowers in catkins. 
The value of timber in the past was much greater 
than it is to-day, as formerly it was used for ship-build- 
ing and for fuel, whereas to-day steel has replaced the 
former need of wood in the one case, and coal or other 
substances in the other, or other methods of heating. 
The Willow Group has catkins with a two-valved 
capsule. In Myrica the fruit is a drupe. In the 
Birch Group the fruit is thin and flattened, and 
contains one or two seeds, whilst in Cupuliferz the 
female flowers are in spikes, the male in catkins, and 
the fruit a cupule. 
They are trees or shrubs, deciduous, with the tree 
habit in its variations. 
