HORNBEAM 115 



France and elsewhere on the Continent : the nuts when 

 crushed are still very acceptable to oxen and poultry. 

 An attempt, about a century ago, was unsuccessfully made 

 to introduce the manufacture of this oil into England, 

 and in the reign of George I. a patent was issued for 

 the making of butter from beech-nuts. They have also 

 been roasted as a substitute for coffee. 



HORNBEAM (Carpinus Betulus) 



On hard clay soils we may often find a tree, the 

 Hornbeam, having foliage somewhat like that of the beech, 

 more elongated and having serrate edges, but having a similar 

 regularity, sharpness, and parallelism of line in the veining. 

 Its timber is particularly hard and tough, close-grained, 

 and white in colour. It is freely used in turnery, the 

 making of pulleys, and the like, and appears from time 

 immemorial to have been fashioned into ox-yokes, hence 

 its name Carpinas, this being derived from the Celtic 

 words car and pin, meaning wood and head. Another old 

 name for the tree is the Yoke-elm. Hornbeam, some would 

 tell us, is the beam or yoke used with horned cattle, while 

 others would have it that the wood is so hard and dense 

 that beams cut from it are really more like horn than 

 timber. This latter explanation does not strike one as 

 being very satisfactory — nor indeed does the former — but 

 it is entitled to such little support as another of its old 

 names, hardbeam, can afford. 



The flowering arrangements are of the monoecious type, 

 the male catkins being cylindrical, and some one and a half 

 inches long ; the flowers, of some five to twelve stamens 



